Title: LS on O-RAN – IETF YANG Module Versioning
Submission Date: 2022-07-20
URL of the IETF Web page: https://datatracker.ietf.org/liaison/1785/
Please reply by 2022-09-30
From: Jiajin Gao <[email protected]>
To: Jürgen Schönwälder <[email protected]>,Thomas Nadeau 
<[email protected]>
Cc: Robert Wilton <[email protected]>,Lou Berger <[email protected]>,Joel 
Jaeggli <[email protected]>,Kent Watsen <[email protected]>,Warren Kumari 
<[email protected]>,Network Modeling Discussion List <[email protected]>
Response Contacts: [email protected]
Technical Contacts: 
Purpose: For action

Body: 1. Overall Description:
The O-RAN Alliance is committed to evolving radio access networks, making them 
more open and smarter than previous generations. The key principles of the 
O-RAN Alliance include: 
-       Lead the industry towards open, interoperable interfaces, RAN 
virtualization, AI/ML and big data enabled RAN intelligence.
-       Specify APIs and interfaces, driving standards to adopt them as 
appropriate, and exploring open source where appropriate.
-       Maximize the use of common-off-the-shelf hardware and merchant silicon 
and minimizing proprietary hardware.     

The O-RAN Alliance (O-RAN) is developing specifications and software to enable 
a more competitive and vibrant Radio Access Network ecosystem with faster 
innovation. As part of this effort, O-RAN is developing OAM interfaces that 
expose data models written in the YANG modelling language. O-RAN has developed 
YANG modules and plans to have frequent releases of these YANG modules 
(multiple times a year). 

O-RAN needs a robust module versioning system for YANG modules. As O-RAN 
modules are updated frequently and the modules are still evolving, it is 
foreseen that there will be several changes to the modules in the future, 
including non-backwards compatible changes. O-RAN is looking for a method to 
mark the non-backward compatible changes. 

A mechanism to allow importing YANG modules by semantic version is furthermore 
needed to manage dependencies between O-RAN YANG modules, as well as toward 
YANG modules defined by other standardization groups (for example, IETF or 
3GPP).

Similar needs have already been discussed in IETF; this discussion can be found 
in draft-ietf-netmod-yang-versioning-reqs. 

ORAN would like to use a ratified IETF-provided solution for YANG module 
versioning. Using draft IETF specifications would not be possible due to 
possible changes that might come before the RFC is officially approved. 

For the above reasons, O-RAN WG10 would like to notify the IETF NETMOD working 
group that it has an urgent need for a final ratified version of the drafts:

•       draft-ietf-netmod-yang-module-versioning
•       draft-ietf-netmod-yang-semver
Note that O-RAN may be forced to produce its own solution if these two 
requested IETF drafts do not progress.

It is understood that the above drafts are currently discussed in IETF together 
with three other drafts, namely draft-ietf-netmod-yang-packages, 
draft-ietf-netmod-yang-ver-selection and 
draft-ietf-netmod-yang-schema-comparison. However, O-RAN would like to 
emphasize that the two documents listed above are needed urgently, independent 
of the latter three documents. 

2. Actions:
To: IETF NETMOD working group
ACTION: O-RAN would like to ask when the two IETF drafts 
draft-ietf-netmod-yang-module-versioning and draft-ietf-netmod-yang-semver will 
be approved, independent of the status of any other drafts, and at the same 
time emphasize the urgent need for this approval.

3. Date of Next O-RAN Meetings:
       O-RAN WG10 have regular weekly meetings where all contributions are 
considered.
O-RAN Alliance Face-to-Face Meeting     October 17-21, 2022     Madrid, Spain
Attachments:

    S2022004 - LS on O-RAN - IETF YANG Module Versioning.docx
    
https://www.ietf.org/lib/dt/documents/LIAISON/liaison-2022-07-20-o-ran-wg10-netmod-ls-on-o-ran-ietf-yang-module-versioning-attachment-1.docx


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