Smart network repository based on Neo4j native graph database

To address the increasing complexity of network management and the limitations of data repositories in handling the various network operational data, this paper proposes a novel repository design that uniformly represents network operational data while allowing for a multiple abstractions access to the information. This smart repository simplifies network management functions by enabling network verification directly within the repository. The data is organized in a knowledge graph compatible with any general-purpose graph database, offering a comprehensive and extensible network repository. Performance evaluations confirm the feasibility of the proposed design. The repository's ability to natively support 'what-if' scenario evaluation is demonstrated by verifying Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) route policies and analyzing forwarding behavior with virtual Traceroute.