1. 67th IETF meeting netconf WG
Experience of implementing NETCONF over SOAP (draft-iijima-netconf-soap-implementation-01)
Monday, November 6, 2006
Tomoyuki Iijima, Kunihiko Toumura, Hideki Okita
(Hitachi Central Research Lab)
Yoshifumi Atarashi, Hiroyasu Kimura
(Alaxala Networks)
Let me introduce the informational I-D titled “Experience of implementing NETCONF over SOAP”.

2. Develop a network management system based on NETCONF over SOAP
Objective
Develop a network management system based on NETCONF over SOAP
Provide guideline of implementing NETCONF over SOAP as an informational I-D
First of all, this draft’ objective is twofold.
One is to develop a network management system based on NETCONF over SOAP.
And the other is to provide guideline of implementing NETCONF over SOAP as an informational I-D.

3. Advantage of using SOAP
Inside the framework of Web Service, peripheral technologies around SOAP/HTTP are well developed
Development tools related to XML (Web Service) are abundant, such as Eclipse
It’s easy to deal with specification changes
XML
Security
(XML encryption,
XML signature,
WS-Security,,,)
Reliable
Message
(WS-Reliability)
Transaction
(WS-Transaction,,,)
Search
(UDDI)
Language
(WSDL)
API
(JAXM,
JAXRPC,
.NET,,,)
First, let me describe why we chose SOAP as a transport protocol of NETCONF.
Inside the framework of Web Service, peripheral technologies around SOAP/HTTP are well developed like this.
And Development tools related to XML (Web Service) are abundant, such as Eclipse.
So it makes it easier to deal with specification changes.
Fundamental Messaging
(SOAP, SOAP with Attachment,,,)
Transport Protocol
(HTTP, HTTPS, HTTPR, SMTP, MQ,,,)

4. Advantage of WSDL WSDL is the key technology of Web Service
Generated automatically from API using middleware such as Apache Axis, .NET or IBM WSDK (WebSphere SDK)
“Java2wsdl” command of Apache Axis
“ASP.NET Web service” of Visual Studio
WSDL generated in one environment (ex. Java) is used under another environment (ex. .NET, P-Languages (PHP, Perl, Python, …), Ruby)
Generates API automatically using middleware such as Apache Axis, .NET or IBM WSDK (WebSphere SDK)
“wsdl2java” command of Apache Axis
“Add Web Reference” of Visual Studio
Unnecessary to write the part of SOAP RPC by ourselves
Developer’s workload is dramatically reduced
Also, WSDL is the key technology of Web Service.
The reasons is as follows.
First, WSDL is generated automatically from API using middleware such as Apache Axis, .NET and IBM WebSphere SDK.
Therefore, WSDL generated in one environment is used under another environment as well.
Second, WSDL generates API automatically using middleware such as Apache Axis, .NET and IBM WebSphere SDK.
Therefore, it’s unnecessary to write SOAP RPC by ourselves and developer’s workload is dramatically reduced.

5. Architecture of NETCONF over SOAP
NMS
We used Apache Axis as a SOAP client implementation
We developed network configuration API using Java
VLAN, Filter, …
Java seemed to be the easiest since it is matured
We developed SOAP server implementation using C
We developed NETCONF daemon using C
NETCONF device exhibits its configuration I/F
Methods by WSDL file
editconfig(), getconfig(), get(), lock(), …
Datamodels by XSD file
interface, vlan, ip, ...
NMS Application
Network configuration API
(Java class file)
SOAP client implementation
(Apache Axis, .NET,,,)
Java2WSDL
WSDL2Java
Rpc-request
/SOAP
Rpc-reply
/SOAP
Taking those into consideration, we developed a network management system with this architecture.
We used Apache Axis as a SOAP client implementation.
Network configuration API is developed using Java.
SOAP server implementation and NETCONF daemon are developed using C.
And NETCONF device exhibits methods, datamodels in a form of WSDL file, XML schema respectively.
(Those files are imported easily to WSDL2Java of Apache Axis and generate API.)
Network Equipment
SOAP server implementation
NETCONF daemon
.wsdl
.xsd

6. Conclusions
Web Service and WSDL is a decisive factor of our SOAP based implementation
Apache Axis is useful not only as a SOAP middleware but also as a development tool
Unnecessary to write SOAP RPC by ourselves
Both Java class files and WSDL files are automatically generated
In this I-D, we are willing to share the knowledge gained from the development of a SOAP based network management system and keep on writing this informational I-D.
In conclusion, Web Service and WSDL is a decisive factor of our SOAP based implementation.
And Apache Axis is useful not only as a SOAP middleware but also as a development tool
It was unnecessary to write SOAP RPC part by ourselves.
And both Java class files and WSDL files are automatically generated by Apache Axis.
Finally, we are willing to share the knowledge gained from the development of a network management system based on NETCONF over SOAP in this internet draft

7. xsd file
XML schema shown on Eclipse

8. WSDL file
WSDL files shown on Eclipse