Implementation of NETCONF Standard by Major Customers in Croatia

摘要

The traditional way of managing and configuring network devices is by using Command Line Interface (CLI) method with Secure Shell (SSH) protocol and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). CLI has proven to be a very complex and ineffective solution, especially with fast development and more complexity in the computer networking area. To solve these issues, IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) standard organization created in 2006 the NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol) standard. Using the NETCONF standard should enable standardized, simpler, programmatic and more efficient configuration of R/S (router/switch) devices. Today, more than ten years after the creation of the NETCONF standard there is the question about the actual acceptance of the NETCONF protocol in current customers’ networks and about the actual maturity of the NETCONF standard. The scope of this paper is to show the results of the scientific research (qualitative or quantitative) made with major customers (partners and end customers) in Croatia with R/S network devices: in which networks and on which type of devices NETCONF is implemented, what are the reasons for NETCONF (non)implementation, their knowledge about the NETCONF standard, their view of availability of NETCONF training and documentation, etc.