INTA: Intent-Based Translation for Network Configuration with LLM Agents

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wei, Yunze, Xie, Xiaohui, Hu, Tianshuo, Zuo, Yiwei, Chen, Xinyi, Chi, Kaiwen, Cui, Yong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Wei, Yunze
Xie, Xiaohui
Hu, Tianshuo
Zuo, Yiwei
Chen, Xinyi
Chi, Kaiwen
Cui, Yong
author_facet Wei, Yunze
Xie, Xiaohui
Hu, Tianshuo
Zuo, Yiwei
Chen, Xinyi
Chi, Kaiwen
Cui, Yong
contents Translating configurations between different network devices is a common yet challenging task in modern network operations. This challenge arises in typical scenarios such as replacing obsolete hardware and adapting configurations to emerging paradigms like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Engineers need to thoroughly understand both source and target configuration models, which requires considerable effort due to the complexity and evolving nature of these specifications. To promote automation in network configuration translation, we propose INTA, an intent-based translation framework that leverages Large Language Model (LLM) agents. The key idea of INTA is to use configuration intent as an intermediate representation for translation. It first employs LLMs to decompose configuration files and extract fine-grained intents for each configuration fragment. These intents are then used to retrieve relevant manuals of the target device. Guided by a syntax checker, INTA incrementally generates target configurations. The translated configurations are further verified and refined for semantic consistency. We implement INTA and evaluate it on real-world configuration datasets from the industry. Our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods in translation accuracy and exhibits strong generalizability. INTA achieves an accuracy of 98.15% in terms of both syntactic and view correctness, and a command recall rate of 84.72% for the target configuration. The semantic consistency report of the translated configuration further demonstrates its practical value in real-world network operations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_08760
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle INTA: Intent-Based Translation for Network Configuration with LLM Agents
Wei, Yunze
Xie, Xiaohui
Hu, Tianshuo
Zuo, Yiwei
Chen, Xinyi
Chi, Kaiwen
Cui, Yong
Networking and Internet Architecture
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Software Engineering
Translating configurations between different network devices is a common yet challenging task in modern network operations. This challenge arises in typical scenarios such as replacing obsolete hardware and adapting configurations to emerging paradigms like Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Engineers need to thoroughly understand both source and target configuration models, which requires considerable effort due to the complexity and evolving nature of these specifications. To promote automation in network configuration translation, we propose INTA, an intent-based translation framework that leverages Large Language Model (LLM) agents. The key idea of INTA is to use configuration intent as an intermediate representation for translation. It first employs LLMs to decompose configuration files and extract fine-grained intents for each configuration fragment. These intents are then used to retrieve relevant manuals of the target device. Guided by a syntax checker, INTA incrementally generates target configurations. The translated configurations are further verified and refined for semantic consistency. We implement INTA and evaluate it on real-world configuration datasets from the industry. Our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods in translation accuracy and exhibits strong generalizability. INTA achieves an accuracy of 98.15% in terms of both syntactic and view correctness, and a command recall rate of 84.72% for the target configuration. The semantic consistency report of the translated configuration further demonstrates its practical value in real-world network operations.
title INTA: Intent-Based Translation for Network Configuration with LLM Agents
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.08760