Each successful NFV must have an NFVI supporting it.

Each successful NFV must have an NFVI supporting it.

NFV's biggest advantage is its virtualization network function, which can fundamentally change the delivery methods of services and applications. However, behind these features, there must be a network function virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) that supports it, and this technology is not yet clearly defined.

Many vendors claim that they can provide NFVI, but there is a big difference between their products, which makes it difficult for network managers to make investment decisions. The good news is that the nfv isg (network function virtualization Standard Workgroup) of the European Telecommunications Standardization Association (ETSI) has listed several key elements to make the NFVI environment available.

Initial NFVI version

Theoretically, NFVI is a group of resources used to host and connect virtual functions. Specifically, NFVI is a cloud data center that includes servers, hypervisor, operating systems, virtual machines, virtual switches, and network resources.

Some people think that the term NFVI also includes physical switches and routers that connect users to VNF. However, according to this reasoning, it seems that every resource in the data center or connected to the data center can be considered as NFVI. If so, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Huawei, and many other vendors can consider that they can provide NFVI. However, we must stick to our needs before the results are clearer.

Two platforms support NFVI. One is the NFV orchestrator and the other is the virtual infrastructure manager (VIM ). When creating an NFV service, the NFV orchestrator calls a series of VIM. On the contrary, it also calls necessary resources from the underlying infrastructure. This is similar to the application that OpenStack uses to host applications.

What can NFVI virtual infrastructure manager implement?

In the NFVI model of ETSI, VIM representing infrastructure resources must be available. Internally, the question is what VIM can do and how the infrastructure interacts with them.

According to ETSI, NFVI must be "secure" and "available" and have properties that support SLA. This means that VIM will publish its functions and allow Orchestrator to specify what is needed. If VIM cannot process Orchestrator requests, it may directly look for other appropriate VIM. The details of this process are not yet determined, so the vendor only claims that they can provide NFVI, but cannot provide the specific functions that most services need to meet.

What does NFV need instead of OpenStack, but its own orchestrator?

In NFVI, the orchestration tool actually creates the NFV service. VIM cannot do anything without the orchestration function. Vendors that provide their own orchestrations can use NFV to participate in and verify their own NFVI products. What is confusing here is whether tools such as OpenStack or DevOps have the functions of the orchestrator.

Based on the etsi nfv standard, the orchestration tool can implement functions that cannot be implemented by cloud tools such as OpenStack. For example, the orchestrator can access and use VNF and server-related information.

In fact, you may say that OpenStack is part of VIM, or even part of NFVI itself, but the NFVI Orchestrator is generally more like software focusing on NFV than cloud. At present, less than half of the vendors that claim to be able to provide NFVI have their own orchestrations. Most vendors rely on customers to find the integrated orchestrator themselves.

Role of OPNFV in NFVI Development

With VIM and the orchestration tool, the open source platform (OPNFV) of the open source project NFV can play a role first. To correctly define VIM-related interfaces, OPNFV must define what NFVI is going to release and what the requirement for the orchestration tool to use resource hosting is. We know the roles and requirements of VIM and the orchestrator under normal conditions. Therefore, participating in OPNFV may be a key test for vendors that claim to have NFVI features.

NFVI and infrastructure manager Growth

The main issue with NFVI is still the network itself. Some operators in the network function virtualization Standard Workgroup have extended the VIM concept to the infrastructure manager, including not only deploying and connecting to VNF, but also the "parameter configuration" of traditional network devices ". In general, for SDN, especially OpenFlow or OpenDaylight, their problems related to NFVI are also open. Most operators have been verifying the concept of NFV in order to prove the unique technical principles of NFV, rather than the end-to-end service applications of NFV and traditional network elements. How these elements are processed will determine whether NFVI will be like a cloud data center or an overall infrastructure in the future.