[Teas-ns-dt] Figure in the ACTN Applicability section

[Eric Gray <[e-mail]>]

John and I had a discussion with Dhruv about some ambiguity in the relationship between some of the entities in the ACTN architecture and the related concepts in our NS-DT work in the Framework draft.



The upshot is that there is a bit of a slushy relationship between some of the terms that we (the NS design team) have defined (see the definitions draft) and loosely corresponding concepts defined in ACTN.  In particular, there are currently issues with the positioning of the TSC as directly analogous to MDSC, impacting interfaces between these logical components as well.



After a few iterations in discussion, Dhruv, John and I agreed to propose a replacement figure and text as shown immediately below.



       +------------------------------------+

       |             Customer               |  |

       +------------------------------------+

                         A                     |     ACTN

                         |                        Terminology

                         V                     |  and Concepts

       +------------------------------------+

       |      A highter level system        |  |   +-----+

       |(e.g e2e network slice orchestrator)| ===> | CNC |

       +------------------------------------+  |   +-----+

                         A                            A

                         | TSC NBI             |      | CMI

                         V                            V (LxSM)

       +------------------------------------+  |   +-------+

       |      Transport Slice Controller    | ===> | MDSC-H|

       +------------------------------------+  |   +-------+

                         A                            A

                         | TSC SBI (LxNM)      |      |

                         V                            V

       +------------------------------------+  |   +-------+

       |        Network Controller(s)       | ===> |MDSC-L |

       +------------------------------------+  |   +-------+

                                                      A

                Terminology/Concepts           |      | MPI

               Used in this Document                  V

                                               |   +-----+

                                                   | PNC |

                                               |   +-----+





We would also add further clarifying text along the lines of:



The TS-NBI would be at the same level as the customer service models (LxSM), except that it uses a technology agnostic service model where as LxSM does not.



We add hierarchy to the MDSC concept in this figure so that the mapping with LxNM might be easier to see.  But the TSC could also directly interact with multiple domain controllers in which case we have a single MDSC.



If nobody objects, or has additional input they would like to provide, we would like to go ahead and make this change to the Framework draft.



If necessary, we can discuss this at the meeting on Thursday (14 May).



--

Eric