A Comprehensive Analysis of Vendor-Neutral Network Management Strategies

The ongoing advancement of computer networks toward efficient configuration of numerous devices has been driven by innovations in management and control technologies. Considering the limitations of the Command Line Interface (CLI) and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) developed the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF). This protocol provides cross-vendor and interoperable solution for manipulating configuration states and leverages the Yet Another Next Generation (YANG) data models to describe network elements. This paper proposes an educational analysis of the capabilities for device configuration via the NETCONF protocol and YANG data models. The scope of the analysis is to illustrate the flexibility of the NETCONF protocol and the range of network features addressed by vendor-neutral models such as OpenConfig and IETF YANG models within contemporary networking environment.