NETCONF: Configuration Management in High Assurance Environments

This paper considers the traditional approaches to network management and their associated limitations. It presents an overview of the recently defined NETCONF internet standard and the use of NETCONF for the central management of network devices and security applications.

It discusses the general NETCONF concept and, as an example of how NETCONF may be applied in a high assurance environment, it considers how it relates to Nexor’s high assurance products. In particular, it presents how NETCONF can address the limitations of the command line interface approach by explaining how it would function within a secure device such as an evaluated guard.