How NFV deployments are driven by open source projects
By Sagar Nangare.
There is growing demand for efficient networks with low latency and high bandwidth to support innovations such as autonomous cars, connected devices, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, and real-time analytics.
To satisfy this demand, communication service providers and telecom operators are adopting new telecom architectures enabled with software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). These systems provide faster networks, centralized control, and faster deployment of new services as network function devices turn into software packages called virtual network functions (VNFs) to reduce capital and operating expenditures. With NFV and SDN, many service providers are shifting toward multi-featured 5G networks, which are ideal for the latest technology demands.
NFV technology is the key for service providers, as it is crucial to providing reliable and efficient networks.
NFV MANO
(management and orchestration) is the major component of NFV architecture; it forms the backbone to control and dynamically orchestrate NFV infrastructure based on varying requirements.
Functions of the MANO layer depend on three components: the NFV orchestrator (NFVO), VNF manager (VNFM), and virtualized infrastructure (VIM). Each of these components is dedicated to specified tasks, but they work together to manage and control operations within the NFV environment.
VIM
is dedicated to control and manage computing, storage, and network resources in the NFV infrastructure (NFVi). VIM provides operational insights such as alerts, logs, service assurance, policy enforcement, and metrics to monitor NFVi.
VNF manager (VNFM)
is dedicated to complete VNF lifecycle management, controlled by the VNF orchestrator, which provides instructions for VIM. VNFM provides VNF-focused functions like instantiation, scaling, upgrading/updating, and termination. It also helps to add new services and transmission of instructions and states of other MANO components.
NFV orchestrator (NFVO)
is a vital part of MANO, coordinating resources and VNFs. NFVO ensures that VNFs get sufficient NFVi resources (compute, storage, and network) for changing requirements. NFVO also provides capabilities like coordination, release, authorization, and engagement with NFVi resources. NFVO functions may vary with specific NFV architectures for certain use cases. NFVO also connects various VNFs to provide service orchestration.
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Why is MANO important, and how it is useful?
Advancing MANO is a key focus for many NFV vendors and service providers. VNFs and NFVi are the static building blocks of NFV environment as VNFs are upgraded or replaced and infrastructure resources remain. But MANO is the key to optimize the NFV ecosystem.
Cloud-native application development is a new industry trend. It allows companies to utilize more resources by adopting containers, protect infrastructure resources during consumption spikes, reduce time to market, and stay organized. A cloud-native approach also enables companies to implement continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) of applications or services. Service providers are adopting a cloud-native approach to NFV operations, using software as a core part of the infrastructure (VNFs replace network service devices). MANO manages the how VNFs are consumed and processed within the NFV infrastructure (containers, microservice-based, and virtual machines). MANO can be integrated with a container orchestration engine like Kubernetes to extend the dynamic orchestration and management of containers in an NFV infrastructure.
MANO helps with monitoring and service assurance of NFVi. Service providers can continuously analyze the performance of VNFs in NFVi based on logs generated at the VIM component. It also helps with fault management and performance monitoring of VNFs and assigned hardware resources.
In the future, machine learning capabilities will be implemented in MANO, enabling systems to learn historical logs and data generated at VIM and instantiate action based on the results. As an example, a service provider can get a forecast for extra resources or identify malfunctions, security threats, or errors, and suggest actions to address these conditions.
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