The Role of Intent-Based Networking in ICT Supply Chains

TL;DR

This paper explores how Intent-Based Networking (IBN) can be applied to manage complex ICT supply chains, proposing a new architecture that translates supply chain specifications into network policies using AI methods.

Contribution

It introduces a general architecture for integrating IBN with ICT supply chains, including intent translation and AI-driven policy enforcement, which is a novel approach.

Findings

Comparison of IBN architectural components

Proposed architecture for intent translation in supply chains

Example of access control implementation

Abstract

The evolution towards Industry 4.0 is driving the need for innovative solutions in the area of network management, considering the complex, dynamic and heterogeneous nature of ICT supply chains. To this end, Intent-Based networking (IBN) which is already proven to evolve how network management is driven today, can be implemented as a solution to facilitate the management of large ICT supply chains. In this paper, we first present a comparison of the main architectural components of typical IBN systems and, then, we study the key engineering requirements when integrating IBN with ICT supply chain network systems while considering AI methods. We also propose a general architecture design that enables intent translation of ICT supply chain specifications into lower level policies, to finally show an example of how the access control is performed in a modeled ICT supply chain system.