MIB transition

["David B Harrington" <dbharrington@comcast.net>]

Hi,

My feeling is that the existing MIB modules do not need to be
tranferred to IEEE 802.1, at least not yet. 

The way 802.1 works, as far as I am aware, is to modify standards in
two ways. 

First, they add new functionality, such as 802.1Q and 802.1P and
802.1w and 802.1s, which are add-ons to the base standard. This work
is usually done in a manner that is backwards compatible with the
original standard. The Bridge WG developed the 802.1P and 802.1Q and
RSTP MIB modules with almost no effect on the BRIDGE-MIB, because they
were effectively appendices to the BRIDGE-MIB associated with an 802.1
add-on.

Second, they do maintenance of existing standards. They recently
updated their 802.1D and 802.1Q standards, for example. Generally,
maintenance is also done in a backwards-compatible manner, and usually
doesn't require any changes to the IETF MIB modules because they
didn't modify the underlying technology that our MIB modules modeled.

In recent Bridge WG updates, we did hit one point where a change was
required; 802.1 expanded the range of a managed object and we needed
to figure out how to do this following SMI rules, since the MIB module
had defined a range upper limit. To solve the problem, we created a
new object and a new compliance clause. Had this been done by 802.1,
they could have created an new object under their own arc and written
the compliance clause to match.

I am of the impression that the base 802.1 technology for which the
IETF has developed MIB modules are not likely to be changed in a
manner that will require revisions to the IETF standards.

Therefore, I think it makes sense to "freeze" the existing IETF MIB
modules while the 802.1 WG writes supplemental MIB modules.

I do not want to migrate the work to 802.1 with the assumption that
they WILL modify the existing MIB modules. The 802.1 WG has few people
knowledgeable in MIB design. Their first attempt, the 802.1X MIB
wouldn't even compile. They are currently working on a MIB for MSTP,
and the editor of the document wants to define replacement objects for
all the objects defined in the current IETF Bridge WG standards, just
so they can be defined in "his" MIB module. 

I would like to ensure the IETF, with our formal MIB Doctor review
process,  has approval rights over any 802.1 work that would **change
existing IETF standards**, at least until the 802.1 WG gets more
MIB-savvy. We don't need approval rights over any 802.1 supplements to
our standards.

In the Bridge WG, we didn't address all changes that have been
incorporated into 802.1D-2004. Does anybody know of specific changes
to 802.1D-2004 or the 802.1Q-REV or other 802.1 work that will REQUIRE
a technical change to the existing IETF standards-track MIB modules?

David Harrington
dbharrington@comcast.net