Information Model - DEN-ng

Directory Enabled Networks - next generation

• Models Products, Services and Resources and their Relationships
• Uses classification Theory, Patterns and Roles, for example
  - Capabilities (normalised funcationality; device/vendor-independent)
  - Constraints (restrictions on what functionality can be used) and
  - Context (environment in which objects operate and rules apply)
• Uses State Machines to orchestrate Behaviour of Managed Resources
  - Models Lifecycle of Managed Resources (State)
  - Orchestractes Behaviour using context-aware Policies

Benefits

- common Terminology for representing Management Information,
- unified Information both within and between Enterprises,
- bridge between Constituencies, such as Business and Network workers, and
- maintaned Definitions that are understandable by all constituencies.

Abstractions provided by DEN-ng

- Entities vs. the Roles that they take on
- Reusing Patterns independent of Domain (i.e. Product, Service, Resource)
- Capabilities to abstract functionality vs. an individual function or a set of functions
- Physical Resource vs. Logical Resource
- Customer Facing Services vs. Resource Facing Services
- Structural Representation of a Policy Rule vs. Content Definition of a PolicyRule

Fundamental Patterns

Composite-Atomic Pattern builds Hierarchies using Atomic and Composite Subclasses, analogous to File System Structures
Role Pattern separates Concerns by differentiating Characteristics and Behaviour of an Entity, and Functionality that an Entity can assume and allowing for additional roles without structural changes to the model