Overview
ISO/IEC TR 29181-3:2013 - "Information technology - Future Network - Problem statement and requirements - Part 3: Switching and routing" defines the problem statement and requirements for switching and routing in Future Networks. The report evaluates how current networks fall short, describes a functional architecture for switching and routing, and specifies requirements for control plane information flows used to find, set up, and tear down routes. It explicitly supports both legacy and new switching technologies to facilitate migration.
Key topics
- Classes of flows: Differentiates synchronous and asynchronous flows and the need to minimize complexity for diverse traffic types.
- Addressing and scalability: Requirements aimed at addressing models that scale and support migration from existing addressing schemes.
- Security and accountability: Privacy, trust, traceability, resilience, corruption protection and accounting for flows.
- Data plane requirements: Functional requirements for carrying data, including service characteristics for asynchronous and synchronous traffic.
- Control plane requirements: Protocol features, message format, encoding/extensibility, acknowledgements, timeouts, and call/route setup and teardown.
- Routing and route finding: Propagation of routing information, message formats and functional requirements for route discovery and rerouting.
- Operational concerns: Net neutrality, mobility, network management, energy efficiency, and migration strategies between legacy and new switching technologies.
- Gap analysis and use cases: Identification of where current Internet protocols do not meet Future Network needs and illustrative use cases (e.g., remote media contribution).
Practical applications
- Network architects and designers: Use the standard to design switching/routing architectures that meet future traffic, QoS and security requirements.
- Protocol and equipment vendors: Inform design of control-plane protocols, encodings, and extensible message formats supportive of migration.
- Telecom operators and service providers: Plan migration strategies that support both legacy and new switching technologies while addressing scalability, mobility and net neutrality concerns.
- Researchers and standards bodies: Reference the gap analysis, functional model and requirements when developing new routing paradigms and Future Network specifications.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC TR 29181-1: Overall aspects of the Future Network
- Parts in the 29181 family relevant to implementation and design: Part 4 (Mobility), Part 6 (Media transport), Part 7 (Service composition)
- Parts under preparation: Part 2 (Naming and addressing), Part 5 (Security)
ISO/IEC TR 29181-3:2013 is a technical report useful for anyone involved in the evolution of network switching and routing, providing a clear set of requirements and an architectural model to guide Future Network design, migration, and deployment.