IEEE 802.3 Hub MIB (hubmib) Charter Chair(s): Keith McCloghrie, kzm@hls.com Donna McMaster, mcmaster@synoptics.com Mailing Lists: General Discussion: hubmib@synoptics.com To Subscribe: hubmib-request@synoptics.com Archive: sweetwater.synoptics.com Description of Working Group: This Working Group will produce a document describing MIB objects for use in managing Ethernet-like hubs. A hub is defined as a multiport repeater that conforms to Section 9, ``Repeater Unit for 10 Mb/s Baseband Networks'' in the IEEE 802.3/ISO 8802-3 CSMA/CD standard (2nd edition, Sept. 1990). These Hub MIB objects may be used to manage non-standard repeater-like devices, but defining objects to describe vendor-specific properties of non-standard repeater-like devices are outside the scope of this Working Group. The MIB object definitions produced will be for use by SNMP and will be consistent with other SNMP objects, conventions, and definitions. In order to minimize the instrumentation burden on managed agents, the MIB definitions produced by the Working Group will, wherever feasible, be semantically consistent with the managed objects defined in the IEEE draft standard P802.3K, ``Layer Management for Hub Devices.'' The Working Group will base its work on the draft that is the output of the July 1991 IEEE 802 plenary meeting. The Working Group will take special cognizance of Appendix B of that specification that sketches a possible realization of the relevant managed objects in the SNMP idiom. Consistent with the IETF policy regarding the treatment of MIB definitions produced by other standards bodies, the Working Group may choose to consider only a subset of those objects in the IEEE specification and is under no obligation to consider (even for ``Optional'' status) all objects defined in the IEEE specification. Moreover, when justified by special operational needs of the community, the Working Group may choose to define additional MIB objects that are not present in the IEEE specification. Although the definitions produced by the Working Group should 1 be architecturally consistent with MIB-II and related MIBs wherever possible, the Charter of the Working Group does not extend to perturbing the conceptual models implicit in MIB-II or related MIBs in order to accommodate 802.3 Hubs. In particular, to the extent that the notion of a ``port'' in an 802.3 Hub is not consistent with the notion of a network ``interface'' as articulated in MIB-II, it shall modelled independently by objects defined in the Working Group. Because the structure of 802.3 Hub implementations varies widely, the Working Group shall take special care that its definitions reflect a generic and consistent architectural model of Hub management rather than the structure of particular Hub implementations. The IEEE Hub Mgmt draft allows an implementor to separate the ports in a hub into groups, if desired. (For example, a vendor might choose to represent field-replaceable units as groups of ports so that the port numbering would match a modular hardware implementation.) Because the Working Group Charter does not extend to consideration of fault- tolerant, highly-available systems in general, its treatment of these groups of ports in an 802.3 Hub (if any) shall be specific to Hub management and without impact upon other portions of the MIB. Goals and Milestones: Done Distribute first draft of documents and discuss via E-mail. Done Working group meeting as part of IETF to review documents. Sep 1991 Distribute updated documents for more E-mail discussion. Nov 1991 Review all documents at IETF meeting. Hopefully recommend advancement with specified editing changes. Jan 1992 Documents available with specified changes incorporated. 2