Intent-based networking. Automated network. Self-management

In my opening blog post this year I wrote about the many issues the market seemed to indicate would be important in 2018. Obviously, I mentioned SD-WAN technology, 5G and Big Data, and I also talked about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a few others. However, there is one area that I did not mention, which is intent-based networking (IBN). Perhaps it may be early to call 2018 the year of intent-based networking, but some important analysts have said that this is one of the next big things to come! So, what exactly is intent-based networking or IBN?