NETWORK FUNCTIONSVIRTUALIZATION

Symposium on Computer Science and EngineeringUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst

May 2, 2015

K. ARVINDhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/karvind

KRITHI60

Plan of the Presentation

• Problem• Solution – Network Functions Virtualization• Standards• Benefits • Enabling Technologies: Virtualization and Cloud• Orchestration• Conclusion

Carrier NetworksVariety of Network Functions

Message Router

Session Border Controller

WAN Accelerator

Deep Packet Inspection

Carrier Grade NATFirewall

Tester/QoE MonitorSGSN/GGSN

Provider Edge Router

BRAS MME

Problem•Variety of network appliances•Proprietary hardware•Expensive•Service deployment slowed down•Space•Power•Rapid obsolescence•Constrain innovation

Ref: ETSI NFV white paper

Solution: NFV•Network Functions Virtualization• Standard high volume hardware

•Servers•Storage•Switches

•Data centers or Customer Premises

Ref: ETSI NFV white paper

Network Functions Virtualization

• Initiated by an international consortium of Tier 1 service providers • European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)• ETSI NFV white paper - November 2012• Goal: Address the problem of expensive, proprietary, and short-lived

systems by:• Decoupling hardware and software• Leveraging standard IT virtualization technology• Using open APIs and an ecosystem of suppliers to build solutions

ETSI NFV ISG

>230 member companies Ref: NFV, An Insider’s Perspective, Marc Cohn, Sept 2013, www.sdxcentral.com

Ref: ETSI NFV ISG Publishes Second Release of Documents, Don Clarke, www.cablelabs.com

Phase 1 Organization Structure

ETSI NFV ISG Specifications

• GS NFV 001 – Use Cases• GS NFV 002 – Architectural Framework• GS NFV 003 – Terminology for Main Concepts• GS NFV 004 – Virtualization Requirements• GS NFV-MAN 001 – Management and Orchestration • GS-NFV-INF – NFV Infrastructure• GS NFV PER 002 – Proofs of Concept • and more: http://www.etsi.org/technologies-clusters/technologies/nfv

NFV Benefits•Cost Savings•Economies of Scale

•COTS hardware produced in high volume•Order of magnitude more servers shipped than routers

•Consolidation•Reduced equipment costs •Reduced power consumption

NFV Benefits

•Increased service velocity•Increased service agility•Increased pace of innovation

NFV Enabling Technologies

• Standard commodity hardware• Virtualization• Cloud Computing

Standard Commodity Hardware

•Industry standard servers (e.g., x86), switches and storage

•High volume – millions•Interchangeable subcomponent market

•Economies of scale

Virtualization

Ref: https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/the-advantages-of-using-virtualization-technology-in-the-enterprise

Cloud Computing

• On-demand network access to computing capabilities

• Shared pool of computing resources

• Rapid elasticity• Metering capability

Ref: The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing, NIST SP 800-145

Ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to computing capabilities

Shared Pool of Computing Resources

Rapid Elasticity

Metering

What do we have so far?

• Virtual Network Appliances => CapEx and OpEx savings• Open Standards => Ecosystem of virtual appliance suppliers• Cloud Infrastructure => On-demand creation of any

number of appliances• What is missing?

• Orchestration

Orchestration

ServiceOrchestrator

Orchestration

• Virtual Network Function Management:• Deploy, instantiate, monitor, scale, fault diagnosis, healing,

terminate

• Service Orchestration:• Create, activate, and manage whole network services that may

consist of an interconnection of VNFs and physical devices

• Resource Orchestration:• Coordinate with Virtual Infrastructure Manager to orchestrate

resource allocation

ETSI NFV Reference Architectural Framework

REF: ETSI GS NFV 002 v1.2.1 NFV Architectural Framework

Ensemble Open Service Architecture™Ensemble OSA™ is the industry’s first open architecture for

software-defined services

Optimizing the Service Delivery Lifecycle

The Ensemble Service Orchestrator is an open, extensible, carrier-class NFV service lifecycle management and orchestration system that coordinates virtual resources and physical network elements to create, activate, and assure services using one or more virtual network functions.

The award-winning ESO is designed to help communication service providers (CSPs) and mobile operators achieve the greatest cost savings and respond quickly and appropriately for optimized revenue generation. ESO helps providers and operators achieve greatest profitability.

http://www.overturenetworks.com/products/network-virtualization/ensemble-service-orchestrator-eso/

NFV Status

• Proof of Concept trials conducted by many service providers • British Telecommunications: vBRAS• Deutsche Telekom: vIMS• Orange Silicon Valley: vEPC• Telefonica: DPI, CGNAT

• Virtualization of Mobile Core Network and IMS seem to be the most popular applications.

• OPNFV – Open Platform for NFV

Carrier Networks are on the cusp of a paradigm shift

Proprietary hardware appliances are being replaced with virtual appliances.

Improved Service Velocity and Agility

Cost Savings

Reduced Environmental Impact

Innovation unshackled

ETSI is developing open specs for NFV

Orchestration is key to service provisioning