Re: Operational feedback on policy redundancy

[Joe via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

I wonder about the nature of such inquiries these days, especially when
there are so many folks compiling this data for use in LLMs and the like.

Perhaps you might elaborate on the usage a bit more and how such a
collection of data (once you refine what it is your looking for) would be
of benefit to the audience your asking participation from, i.e. Publishing
your findings for all to use afterwards.

I agree with Saku, you're not likely to get much input without such.

-Joe


On Sat, Apr 4, 2026 at 4:27 AM Saku Ytti via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>
wrote:

> I'm skeptical of the data. What do you exactly mean?
>
> This list largely deals with stateless IP routers, and I am assuming
> this context.
>
> What are the 'operational intents' you refer to? Are they ACL rules,
> BGP policies? Because in either context, I don't believe 95% to be
> redundant for a moment, so I must be confused and you're talking about
> something entirely different.
>
> You're not going to receive any input, because no one knows what you're
> asking.
>
> On Fri, 3 Apr 2026 at 22:48, manwar--- via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>
> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am a PhD student currently looking at the long-term management of
> network policies and intents. In studying a large-scale production dataset
> from a service provider, I found that over 95% of the operational intents
> were semantically redundant (meaning they were completely shadowed or
> subsumed by broader, older rules).
> > I am trying to understand if this high level of policy bloat matches the
> actual experience of operators in the field:
> > Redundancy: Is cleaning up shadowed or redundant rules a regular part of
> your workflow, or do they just tend to stay in the system for years once
> they're active?
> > Conflicts: How often do you run into cases where multiple goals (which
> all seem fine on their own) accidentally create a conflict when they are
> enforced together over the same traffic?
> > Resolutions: Is there a standard way you "relax" or prioritize these
> goals when you find they are fighting each other?
> > Thank you for any operational insights you can share.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Mubashir Anwar
> > University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
>   ++ytti
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