The NETwork CONFiguration (NETCONF) Working Group, is responsible for the development and maintenance of protocols such as NETCONF and RESTCONF for YANG data model-driven management (for the purposes of, for example, configuration, monitoring, telemetry, and zero-touch), their transport mappings and encodings, defining data models necessary to support the protocols, and defining mechanisms supporting the operational deployment of systems using the protocols.

YANG (RFC 7950) is the recommended NETCONF and RESTCONF data modeling language, which introduces advanced language features for configuration management. The NETCONF and RESTCONF protocols transport YANG-modeled data over the wire.

The NETCONF working group should ensure that relevant updates to the NETCONF and RESTCONF protocols are evaluated for consistency and compatibility between the two.

The NETCONF WG is currently responsible for the following standards:

a) The network management protocol NETCONF (RFC 6241). This effort entails periodically updating the NETCONF-related specifications to address new requirements as they arise.

b) The network management protocol RESTCONF (RFC 8040). This effort entails periodically updating the RESTCONF-related specifications to address new requirements as they arise.

c) The transport mappings and encodings used by the data model-driven protocols.

d) The data models and mechanisms related to network management protocols. Specifically, data models enabling the configuration and/or monitoring of the protocols themselves.

e) The data models for subscriptions to data, and protocol bindings for pushing subscribed data to clients, for the purpose of monitoring and telemetry.

f) The mechanisms enabling devices' zero-touch provisioning and the related call home functions.

The NETCONF working group consults with the NETMOD working group to ensure that new requirements are understood and can be met by the YANG data modeling language (RFC 7950) developed within that working group.