SDN/MPLS  2014  

Overview of NFV Architectural Framework, Requirements, and Use

Cases

Andrew G. Malis, Huawei Technologies Email: Andrew.Malis@huawei.com

www.isocore.com/SDN-MPLS

SDN/MPLS  2014  

NFV Vision

Classical Network Appliance Approach

BRAS

Firewall DPI

CDN

Tester/QoE monitor

WAN Acceleration Message

Router

Radio/Fixed Access Network Nodes

Carrier Grade NAT

Session Border Controller

PE Router SGSN/GGSN

•  Fragmented non-commodity hardware. •  Hardware obsolescence cycle accelerating. •  Physical install per appliance per site. •  Hardware development large barrier to entry for new.

vendors, constraining innovation & competition.

NFV Approach

Open server HW with scalable # of VMs

High volume standard storage

Orchestrated, automatic & remote install

Com

petitive &

Innovative E

cosystem

Independent Software Vendors

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group

•  Provides a forum for the industry to collaborate, to converge terminology and requirements, agree common approaches, and validate recommendations

•  226 companies including 37 service providers @ July 2014 meeting in Santa Clara, CA •  Key objectives to agree common approaches to solving the technical challenges for

NFV. For example: •  Achieving high performance with portability between different hardware vendors (and

hypervisors) •  Achieving co-existence with purpose-built hardware based network platforms while

enabling an efficient migration path to fully virtualised network platforms •  Managing and orchestrating many virtual network appliances while ensuring security

from attack and misconfiguration •  Achieving scale through automation •  Integrating multiple virtual appliances from different vendors (“mix & match”) without

incurring significant integration costs, and while avoiding lock-in •  Re-use existing standards and not to produce new ones unless absolutely necessary •  Produce a set of requirements/specifications, quick turnaround (24 month timeline) •  Develop and publicly demonstrate Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) to encourage

implementation, interoperability and growth of an open ecosystem

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

Six Publicly Published Documents as of Sept. 2014

•  Group Specification (GS) NFV 001: NFV Use Cases •  Service models and initial applications for NFV in provider networks

•  GS NFV 002: NFV Architectural Framework •  High-level functional architectural framework and design philosophy of

virtualised network functions and of the supporting infrastructure •  GS NFV 003: Terminology for Main Concepts in NFV

•  Common terms and definitions for conceptual entities within the scope of the ISG NFV, for all documents

•  GS NFV 004: NFV Virtualisation Requirements •  Service Provider requirements for virtualising network functions and

infrastructure resources •  GS NFV-PER 001: NFV Performance & Portability Best Practises

•  Best practises on the minimum requirements that the hardware and hypervisor should have for a "Telco datacentre" suitable for data plane workloads

•  GS NFV-PER 002: NFV Proof of Concepts •  A framework to coordinate and promote public demonstrations of Proofs of

Concept (PoC) illustrating key aspects of NFV (currently 23 in progress)

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

NFV Requirements •  Service Provider requirements for virtualising network

functions and infrastructure resources •  Requirements are in the areas of:

–  Portability –  Interoperability and standards conformance –  Performance –  Management and orchestration –  Security –  Resiliency, network stability, and service continuity –  Operations –  Energy Efficiency –  Migration and co-existence with existing platforms

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

Architectural NFV Use Cases

•  NFV Infrastructure as a Service

•  Network functions go to the cloud

•  Virtual Network Function as a Service

•  Ubiquitous, delocalized network functions

•  Virtual Network Platform as a Service

•  Applying multi-tenancy at the VNF level

•  VNF Forwarding Graphs •  Building E2E services by

composition !

Example of Administrative Domain #2 running VNFs on the NFV Infrastructure provided by Administrative Domain #1

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

Service-Oriented NFV Use Cases

•  Mobile core network and IMS –  Elastic, scalable, more resilient

EPC –  Specially suitable for a phased

approach •  Mobile base stations

–  Evolved Cloud-RAN –  Enabler for SON

•  Home environment –  L2 visibility to the home network –  Smooth introduction of residential

services •  Content Distribution Networks

–  Better adaptability to traffic surges –  New collaborative service models

•  Fixed access network –  Offload computational intensive

optimization –  Enable on-demand access services

!

ETSI

ETSI GS NFV 001 V1.1.1 (2013-10) 29

In the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which is a session control architecture to support the provisioning of multimedia services over EPC and other IP-based networks, examples of Network Functions include P-CSCF, S-CSCF, etc. HSS and PCRF are other 3GPP™ network functions, which are required in the end-to-end architecture to work in conjunction with the EPC and IMS for providing the service. Similarly, the online and offline charging systems (OCS and OFCS) are systems that capture the charging records as part of the session management.

This use case aims at applying virtualisation to the EPC, the IMS, and these other Network Functions mentioned above. For the complete list of network functions to be Virtualised, see Virtualisation Target section.

Figure 14 presents a possible view of the EPC virtualisation based on NFV.

Figure 14: Virtualisation of EPC

Virtualised Network Functions (VNFs), e.g. S/P-GW, MME, may scale independently according to their specific resource requirements, e.g. there might be a situation where it is necessary to increase user plane resources without affecting the control plane and vice versa. Also, VNFs dealing with the data plane might require a different number of NFV Infrastructure resources than those VNFs dealing with signalling only.

Different scenarios may be enabled where, for example, the entire EPC is Virtualised in a single NFVI-PoP or only some NFs are Virtualised.

In order to achieve operator desired service continuity and service availability, resiliency in both the control plane and data plane needs to be ensured. As virtualisation enables decoupling a NF from the underlying hardware, designing newer resiliency schemes becomes possible by utilizing the portability of the VNF instances in the form of, but not limited to VM relocation, replication etc. Figure 15 shows Virtualised EPC and IMS, where Virtualised S/P-GW and IMS Functions are dealing with PDN connections and IMS session, respectively. When dynamic relocation of those VNF instances is performed due to VM's overload or failure in an automatic or on-demand fashion, the relocation of the managed sessions and/or connections needs to be handled appropriately to achieve operator desired service continuity and service availability.

Network Operation

Virtualization of the EPC

Virtualization of the Residential Gateway and Set Top Box 7

SDN/MPLS  2014  

High-level NFV Framework

Virtual Network Functions (VNFs)

VNF VNF VNF VNF VNF

NFV Management

and Orchestration

NFV Infrastructure (NFVI)

Compute Storage Network

Virtual Compute

Virtual Storage

Virtual Network

Virtualization Layer

Hardware resources

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

NFV Reference Architecture

Computing Hardware

Storage Hardware

Network Hardware

Hardware resources

Virtualisation Layer

Virtualised

Infrastructure Manager(s)

VNF Manager(s)

VNF 2

OSS/BSS

NFVI

VNF 3

VNF 1

Execution reference points Main NFV reference points Other reference points

Virtual Computing

Virtual Storage

Virtual Network

EMS 2

EMS 3

EMS 1

Service, VNF and Infrastructure Description

Or-Vi

Or-Vnfm

Vi-Vnfm

Os-Ma

Se-Ma

Ve-Vnfm

Nf-Vi

Vn-Nf

Vl-Ha

Orchestrator

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

NFV-based Target Service Provider Network

•  The target is a simplified, less expensive service provider network •  Service level functionality should be implemented largely in software •  The network infrastructure consists of low unit cost COTS network elements:

servers, packet optical transport, data center switches and storage •  Leverage low cost per unit to provide bandwidth expansion and increasing range of

services •  Use distributed storage instead of expensive routing and transport to deliver

popular, high volume content •  Use software-based service delivery to be more responsive than hardware-

based approaches to deliver new services and revenue •  Automate management and provisioning to the greatest extent possible

•  Hardware-based networks ! software defined, virtualized networks •  Also leverage SDN for application-aware routing, and separation of packet

forwarding from control to rapidly introduce new services and adapt to changing traffic patterns

•  Network functions, caching, applications, enablers all run in virtualized distributed data centers

•  IP & transport infrastructure still used as necessary in optical backbone and Internet

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

Additional Documents in Various States of Progress

•  Architectural Framework Revision 2 •  Infrastructure: Overview, Use Cases, Compute Domain,

Hypervisor Domain, Infrastructure Network Domain, Scalability, Interfaces and Abstractions, Portability and Replicability, Test Access, Service Quality Metrics

•  Management: Management and Orchestration •  Reliability: Resiliency Requirements •  Security: Security Problem Statement, Cataloguing

Security Features in Management Software Relevant to NFV, Security and Trust Guidance

•  Software Architecture: Network Function Classification, Network Evolution Towards an NFV-enabled Environment

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

NFV Phase 2

•  NFV was intentionally established as an ETSI Industry Specification Group, with a limited lifetime of 24 months.

•  Original motivation: Generate industry impact as fast as possible. •  Impact within the industry is evident and there is a strong need for

continuity since “the materialization of NFV in the industry” will be a long and continuous journey.

•  Need to ensure that the concepts and ideas worked out by the NFV ISG are implemented and prevent fragmentation of the work •  Also provide direction and focus on the multitude of NFV related

messages, events and conferences •  Discussions have begun on what “NFV Phase 2” would constitute

•  Main Focus of “NFV Phase 2 New Work Items Planning” meeting in late Sept. 2014

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

NFV, SDN, and Open Source

•  NFV and SDN are highly complementary, they are mutually beneficial (software is common denominator) but not dependent on each other

•  Open Source and SDN can significantly enhance NFV

25ETSI NFV

Open Innovation

Creates competitive supply of innovative applications by third parties

Strategic Networking Paradigms: Open Source & SDN

• NFV and SDN are highly complementary, they are mutually beneficial (software is common denominator) but not dependent on each other

• SDN can significantly enhance NFV

Creates abstractions to enable faster innovation

SoftwareDefined

Networking

Leads to agility, Reduces CAPEX, OPEX,

NetworkFunctions

Virtualisation

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

Utilizing Open Source and SDN

•  Speed up implementation of NFV •  Create a carrier grade Open Source Ecosystem •  Focus on Open Community which has wide industry support

•  Try to build upon existing Open Source Foundations •  E2E reference implementation for plug-play of functional

components •  Components may be open source (e.g. OpenStack, CloudStack) •  Components may be proprietary

•  Challenges: •  (Harmonious) integration and consistency •  Carrier-grade (HA & five 9s reliability, SLAs, etc.) •  Security, testing & interoperability, certification, regulation

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SDN/MPLS  2014  

Computing Hardware

Storage Hardware

Network Hardware

Hardware resources

Virtualisation Layer

Virtualised

Infrastructure Manager(s)

VNF Manager(s)

VNF 2

OSS/BSS

NFVI

VNF 3

VNF 1

Execution reference points Main NFV reference points Other reference points

Virtual Computing

Virtual Storage

Virtual Network

EMS 2

EMS 3

EMS 1

Service, VNF and Infrastructure Description

Or-Vi

Or-Vnfm

Vi-Vnfm

Os-Ma

Se-Ma

Ve-Vnfm

Nf-Vi

Vn-Nf

Vl-Ha

Orchestrator

OpenStack CloudStack

KVM XEN DPDK

OpenDataPlane

Focus  

Poten+al  

OpenStack CloudStack

OCP

Open Daylight

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What to Focus on Initially

SDN/MPLS  2014  

Additional Information

•  NFV ISG published documents available on the ETSI Portal: http://www.etsi.org/nfv

•  Joint-operator white paper introducing NFV published October 2012: http://portal.etsi.org/NFV/NFV_White_Paper.pdf

•  Joint-operator progress update white paper published October 2013: http://portal.etsi.org/NFV/NFV_White_Paper2.pdf

•  NFV ISG PoC Information: http://www.etsi.org/nfv-poc

•  NFV Blog: http://www.etsi.org/technologies-clusters/technologies/nfv?tab=3

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