The 7th NMRG meeting will discuss how the existing/proposed data definition languages SMIv2, SPPI and SMIng can be merged into a single data definition language to be used at least with SNMP and COPS, but perhaps also with DIAMETER and other protocols which separate data definitions from the protocol itself.

This meeting is intended to dive into the technical details. For this to be possible, I expect that participants are well prepared and are willing to work effectively towards the stated goal of the meeting. In particular, I expect participants to be familiar with the following documents:

• SMIv2 as defined in RFC 2578-2580
• SMIng as defined in <draft-irtf-nmrg-sming-02.txt>
• SPPI as defined in <draft-ietf-rap-sppi-01.txt>
• NIM requirements as described in <draft-durham-nim-req-01.txt>

Participants should also understand the SNMP and COPS-PR protocols. Knowledge in other related areas (e.g. DIAMETER, other data definition languages, mappings between data definition languages) is of course helpful and welcome. The agenda of the meeting is as follows:

1. Assemble a list of features that a new joint data definition language proposal may have.
2. Go through the list of features and discuss the options to realize them. Identify the implications wrt. existing data type definitions (MIBs and PIBs) and existing protocols (SNMP, COPS, ...).
3. Once we understand the tradeoffs involved, we should come to a conclusion of the common language feature set that is needed and implementable at this point in time.
4. Based on the discussion in step 2, we should be able to come up with a concrete proposal for the language itself.

The meeting will take place in Schloß Kleinheubach (Germany) on September 6-8 2000. We are going to use a meeting room provided by T-Nova, which is the research organization of the Deutsche Telekom. The meeting will start at 10:00 am on Wednesday. (It may be possible that I will arrive a few minutes later - depending on how fast a Taxi gets Frank and me from a train station to Schloß Kleinheubach.) The address of the meeting place is:

Tagungshotel Schloß Kleinheubach
Schloßpark 1
63924 Kleinheubach
Germany

Tel. +49 9371 401-0
Fax. +49 9371 401 107

I have reserved a few rooms in the hotel so we can actually stay the night in the castle. The rates are very reasonable - about 100 DM which amounts to roughly US $ 50 these days. Please contact the hotel and tell them when you will arrive and how long you are going to stay. If you experience any problems with the room reservation or you have any other question, you can as well contact Uli Grün from T-Nova who did a great job of organizing this nice meeting place for us.

Below is a map which explains how you reach Kleinheubach from Frankfurt airport by car. The meeting place is directly located at the street B 469. So from the airport, just take highway <3>. Leave at the exist "Stockstadt" and take the B 469 south until you reach Kleinheubach. The whole trip should not take more than an hour (and I think you will enjoy it).

And here is an impression how the meeting place actually looks like: