T7.2 Contribution to standards

Lead: NEC

The mPlane consortium includes key personnel with leading roles as technical contributors, specification editors, and working group chairs in the most relevant standardization and regulation bodies, including the IETF and IRTF, 3GPP, ETSI, and ITU. Standardisation is necessarily a key contribution of mPlane, as the interfaces defined within the architecture (see Task 1.4) define a platform to which new and existing measurement and analysis capabilities; we can leverage this to build an Internet-wide measurement plane only if these interfaces are open and standard.

Within the project we will ensure this through leveraging and extending existing standards, as well as contributing extensions and new interfaces back to the relevant standardisation bodies. As most standardisation bodies have a minimum practical lifecycle of two to three years from first consideration of a work item to finished specification, and the acceptance and refinement of standards depends on many factors external to the project, we will focus on a continuous process of (1) identifying standards as a useful basis for mPlane interfaces, (2) identifying developments within the standards organizations impacting the project and adjusting to them, (3) identifying or initiating standards activities to which mPlane results can be contributed, and (4) most importantly, making contributions as appropriate.

We have initially identified a few running working groups within the IETF which are particularly applicable to mPlane: the IP Performance Metrics (IPPM) working group has defined a framework for performance metrics and active performance measurement protocols. The IP Flow Information Export (IPFIX) working group has defined an export protocol and information model for the export and storage of network traffic and traffic-derived data. The IRTF’s Network Management (NMRG) and Network Complexity (NCRG) research groups are also potentially relevant for the project. Key staff within the project are involved and/or monitoring these and other efforts within the IETF.