From NSI Demonstrations to Production Services: The NSI-CONTEST Conformance Test Suite

Bartosz Belter
TrackTrack 1 -- Lecture Hall X on the First Floor
DescriptionThe Network Service Interface (NSI) by OGF is emerging as the standard inter-domain interface for BoD.  The NSI Connection Service version 2.0 is being released by OGF NSI-WG bringing new features and significant updates to the previous version of the protocol. As the standard is being released, it is immediately followed by implementations provided by major contributors to the NSI protocol definition, like NordUnet, PSNC, AIST, etc.  
The latest demonstration of NSI took place at SC12 conference during which the GLIF Automated GOLE Pilot Project demonstrated the NSI architecture for global interdomain provisioning. However, it has emerged as extremely critical for NSI to step up from demonstrations, and work on a reference implementation that could ease the NSI adoption in production RENs.
A new open call project within GN3plus – NSI-CONTEST – is working on the development of a NSI CSv2.0 Reference Implementation and Conformance Test Suite. The NSI-CONTEST architecture is based on a modular architecture that comprises two major building blocks:
• A NSI Reference Implementation, i.e. the stack that implements the full NSI-CS v2.0 protocol state machine
• The CTS Service, i.e. the core component that implements the logic of the testing suite that controls and launches test patterns and scenarios.  
The system implemented and delivered through NSI-CONTEST is conceived by design to run both as a standalone NSI testing platform, and as a NSI network testing service, openly accessible by the research community.  
The first reference implementation by NSI-CONTEST is expected in Q32014 and a full CTS functionality by Q12015.  
The availability of a stable reference implementation and test suite can surely help to expand the NSI adoption to larger user communities and can facilitate the NSI and BoD support in a wider range of network provisioning systems.

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