Network Processing Forum to release first service API

[Thomas Narten <narten@us.ibm.com>]

I assume that this is completely in sync and complimentary to the
forces work?

Network Processing Forum to release first service API
By Loring Wirbel, EE Times
Apr 30, 2003 (8:14 AM)
URL: http://www.commsdesign.com/story/OEG20030430S0019 

LAS VEGAS ? The Network Processing Forum was scheduled to announce on Wednesday (April 
30) the first of its services Application Programming Interfaces at the 
Networld+Interop conference, specifying standard software interfaces for 
implementing Internet Protocol Version 4 services. 

The API will be followed by services such as IPv6, Multi-Protocol Label 
Switching, DiffServ (Differentiated Services) and multicast traffic. 

Philippe Damon, chief software engineer for network processing at IBM 
Corp., said that Forum has offered basic operations APIs in the past, 
including one that defines interfaces. But the breadth of a standard 
software framework could only be realized when it offered services and 
functional APIs. 

In the latter category are lower-level APIs related to specific hardware 
architectures, such as classification and traffic-management APIs. 

The API unveiled at today's summit is formally known as the IPv4 Unicast 
Forwarding Service API Implementation Agreement. It defines the I/O 
parameters, return-code specifications and usage notes for IPv4. 

The group allows flexibility in implementation of routing tables. One mode, the 
unified mode, uses a single-table interface for lower cost router and 
switch designs. The discrete mode allows disaggregated tables, for special 
functions like next-hop routing