Toward Building a Semantic Network Inventory for Model-Driven Telemetry

TL;DR

The paper addresses the fragmentation of MDT-related data models across vendors by proposing a semantic network inventory grounded in ETSI CIM and NGSI-LD. It defines two NGSI-LD information models—Platform Domain and Catalog Domain—to unify MDT context from platforms and YANG catalogs, and presents a reference architecture with a Platform Registry, Catalog Connector, and Context Broker. A prototype validates the approach in a multi-vendor environment, showing streamlined discovery of datastores, YANG modules, and MDT protocol details, though NMDA support is still evolving. The work demonstrates a vendor-agnostic, centralized solution for integrating MDT metadata and suggests future extensions to include additional context domains such as network topology and semantic reasoning.

Abstract

Network telemetry based on data models is expected to become the standard mechanism for collecting operational data from network devices efficiently. But the wide variety of standard and proprietary data models along with the different implementations of telemetry protocols offered by network vendors, become a barrier when monitoring heterogeneous network infrastructures. To facilitate the integration and sharing of context information related to model-driven telemetry, this work proposes a semantic network inventory that integrates new information models specifically developed to capture context information in a vendor-agnostic fashion using current standards defined for context management. To automate the integration of this context information within the network inventory, a reference architecture is designed. Finally, a prototype of the solution is implemented and validated through a case study that illustrates how the network inventory can ease the operation of model-driven telemetry in multi-vendor networks.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: NGSI-LD information models for NMDA and non-NMDA platforms.
• Figure 2: NGSI-LD information model for the Catalog Domain.
• Figure 3: Reference architecture of the Network Inventory.
• Figure 4: Network Inventory prototype.
• Figure 5: Workflow diagram of different traditional and inventory-based methods.