ETSI GR NFV 003 V1.6.

1 (2021-03)

GROUP REPORT

Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV);

Terminology for Main Concepts in NFV

Disclaimer

The present document has been produced and approved by the Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) ETSI Industry
Specification Group (ISG) and represents the views of those members who participated in this ISG.
It does not necessarily represent the views of the entire ETSI membership.
 2 ETSI GR NFV 003 V1.6.1 (2021-03)

Reference
RGR/NFV-003ed161

Keywords
NFV, terminology

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 3 ETSI GR NFV 003 V1.6.1 (2021-03)

Contents
Intellectual Property Rights ................................................................................................................................5
Foreword.............................................................................................................................................................5
Modal verbs terminology....................................................................................................................................5
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................5
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................5
1 Scope ........................................................................................................................................................6
2 References ................................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Normative references ......................................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Informative references ........................................................................................................................................ 6
3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations .......................................................................................7
3.1 Terms.................................................................................................................................................................. 7
0-9 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7
A to B ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7
C ...................................................................................................................................................................... 7
D ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
E ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
F ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
G ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
H ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
I ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
J to K ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
L ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
M ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9
N .................................................................................................................................................................... 10
O .................................................................................................................................................................... 12
P .................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Q .................................................................................................................................................................... 13
R .................................................................................................................................................................... 13
S .................................................................................................................................................................... 13
T .................................................................................................................................................................... 14
U .................................................................................................................................................................... 15
V .................................................................................................................................................................... 15
W to Z .................................................................................................................................................................... 17
3.2 Symbols ............................................................................................................................................................ 17
3.3 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................... 17
0-9 .................................................................................................................................................................... 17
A .................................................................................................................................................................... 17
B .................................................................................................................................................................... 17
C .................................................................................................................................................................... 17
D .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
E .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
F .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
G .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
H .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
I .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
J .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
K .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
L .................................................................................................................................................................... 18
M .................................................................................................................................................................... 19
N .................................................................................................................................................................... 19
O .................................................................................................................................................................... 19
P .................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Q .................................................................................................................................................................... 19
R .................................................................................................................................................................... 20

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S .................................................................................................................................................................... 20
T .................................................................................................................................................................... 20
U .................................................................................................................................................................... 20
V .................................................................................................................................................................... 20
W .................................................................................................................................................................... 21
X .................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Z .................................................................................................................................................................... 21

Annex A: Bibliography ..........................................................................................................................22

Annex B: Change History .....................................................................................................................23
History ..............................................................................................................................................................24

ETSI
 5 ETSI GR NFV 003 V1.6.1 (2021-03)

Intellectual Property Rights

Essential patents

IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).

Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.

Trademarks

The present document may include trademarks and/or tradenames which are asserted and/or registered by their owners.
ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of products, services or organizations associated with those trademarks.

Foreword
This Group Report (GR) has been produced by ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) Network Functions
Virtualisation (NFV).

Modal verbs terminology

In the present document "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and "cannot" are to be
interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of provisions).

"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.

Executive summary
The present document collects selected terms and abbreviations from different NFV specifications and reports in order
to provide a common reference and facilitate shared understanding.

Introduction
ETSI NFV has produced a number of specifications and reports over the years since its creation. According to ETSI
Drafting Rules, each of these specifications and reports contains its own terms and abbreviations clause. The present
document was created to host terms and abbreviations that are thought to be common to multiple NFV deliverables to
constitute a single source and facilitate common references.

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1 Scope
The present document provides terms and abbreviations for NFV in order to achieve a "common language" across all
the ISG NFV deliverables.

2 References

2.1 Normative references

Normative references are not applicable in the present document.

2.2 Informative references

References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.

The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.

[i.1] ETSI Directives: Annex 1: "Definitions in relation to the member categories of ETSI".

[i.2] ETSI TR 121 905: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; 5G; Vocabulary for 3GPP Specifications
(3GPP TR 21.905)".

[i.3] IETF RFC 2330: "Framework for IP Performance Metrics".

[i.4] IETF RFC 6390: "Guidelines for Considering New Performance Metric Development".

[i.5] ISO/IEC 15939:2007: "Systems and software engineering - Measurement process".

[i.6] NIST Special Publication 500-307: "Cloud Computing Service Metrics Description".

NOTE: Available at http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/upload/RATAX-CloudServiceMetricsDescription-DRAFT-

20141111.pdf.

[i.7] Recommendation ITU-T Y.3500: "Information technology - Cloud computing - Overview and
vocabulary".

[i.8] ETSI GS NFV-MAN 001: "Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Management and
Orchestration".

[i.9] Void.

[i.10] Void.

[i.11] NIST Special Publication 800-146: "Cloud Computing Synopsis and Recommendations", 2012.

NOTE: Available at https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/legacy/sp/nistspecialpublication800-146.pdf.

[i.12] ETSI GS NFV-REL 001: "Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Resiliency Requirements".

ETSI
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3 Definition of terms, symbols and abbreviations

3.1 Terms
0-9
Void.

A to B
administrative domain: collection of systems and networks operated by a single organization or administrative
authority

NOTE: The components which make up the domain are assumed to interoperate with a significant degree of
mutual trust among them based on a stable trust relationship, while a transient, specific trust relationship
is established for interoperating with components in other domains.

affinity of virtualised network resources: persistent policy that forces Virtual Links (VLs) to share the same
connectivity (virtual or physical)

NOTE 1: "Persistent" is used here and in the following terms to indicate that the affinity remains in effect until a
change is requested by the consumer.

NOTE 2: This may be stipulated to ensure the same transmission characteristics (such as delay) for VLs.

alarm: information about a specific condition requiring attention

NOTE: An alarm does or does not represent an error.

alarm notification: message used to report an alarm

allocate virtualised resource: operation that creates an instance of a virtualised resource, involving the assignment of
NFVI resources

NOTE 1: Virtualised resources can include virtualised compute resources, virtualised network resources or
virtualised storage resources.

NOTE 2: Throughout the present document the term "instantiated virtualised resource" is used to describe an
instance of a virtualised resource.

anti-affinity of virtualised network resources: persistent policy that forces Virtual Links (VLs) to not share any
connectivity (virtual or physical)

NOTE: This may be stipulated to ensure that VLs do not fail at the same time.

area affinity: policy that qualifies an affinity (or anti-affinity) policy with respect to location restrictions

NOTE: Affinity and anti-affinity can be used to support availability, survivability and performance needs with
respect to virtualised resources.

EXAMPLE: The anti-affinity policy of having virtualised compute resources on different compute nodes can be
further restricted by mandating to locate the compute nodes on different shelves, racks, bays, sites,
geographic areas or similar restriction.

C
Composite Network Service (CNS): network service containing at least one network service

compute domain: domain within the NFVI that includes servers and storage

compute node: abstract definition of a server

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consumable virtualised resource: virtualised resource that can be requested for reservation and/or allocation

NOTE: Virtualised resources comprise compute, network and storage resources

EXAMPLE: A volume or object based virtual storage.

consumer: role played by a functional block or function that consumes certain functions exposed by another functional
block or function

consumer VNF: VNF that consumes services

container image registry: function that stores container images and makes them available to other functions

container infrastructure service: service that provides runtime environment for one or more container virtualisation
technologies

NOTE: Container infrastructure service can run on top of a bare metal or hypervisor-based virtualisation.

container infrastructure service instance: instance providing runtime execution environment for container

container infrastructure service management: function that manages one or more container infrastructure services

NOTE: The container infrastructure service management provides mechanisms for lifecycle management of the
managed container infrastructure object, which are hosting application components as services or
functions.

containerized workload: VNF or VNF component designed to be deployed and managed on Container Infrastructure
Service (CIS) instances

D
deployment flavour: specific deployment configuration that describes a specific deployment (of a Network Service or
VNF) supporting specific KPIs (such as capacity and performance)

E
error: discrepancy between a computed, observed, or measured value or condition and a true, specified, or theoretically
correct value or condition

NOTE 1: Error is a consequence of a fault.

NOTE 2: See ETSI GS NFV-REL 001 [i.12].

F
failure: deviation of the service from fulfilling its functionality

NOTE: Adapted from ETSI GS NFV-REL 001 [i.12].

fault: adjudged or hypothesized cause of an error

NOTE: See ETSI GS NFV-REL 001 [i.12].

field replaceable unit: unit of hardware resources designed for easy replacement during the operational life of a
network element

G
Void.

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H
hypervisor: software which partitions the underlying physical resources of a compute node, creates Virtual Machines,
and isolates them from each other

NOTE: The hypervisor is software running either directly on top of the hardware (bare metal hypervisor) or
running on top of a hosting operating system (hosted hypervisor). The abstraction of resources comprises
all those entities inside a computer/server which are accessible, like processor, memory/storage, NICs.

I
infrastructure domain: administrative domain that provides virtualised infrastructure resources such as compute,
network, and storage or a composition of those resources via a service abstraction to another Administrative Domain,
and is responsible for the management and orchestration of those resources

NOTE: This term is from ETSI GS NFV-MAN 001 [i.8].

infrastructure network domain: domain within the NFVI that includes all networking that interconnects
compute/storage infrastructure resource

NOTE: It pre-exists the realization of VNFs.

infrastructure resource: resource provided by the infrastructure that can be used by virtualisation containers

NOTE: Infrastructure resource can either be a virtualised compute, storage, or network resource.

infrastructure resource group: logical resource collection grouping virtual resource instances assigned to a tenant
along with software images

J to K
Void.

L
lifecycle management: set of functions required to manage the instantiation, maintenance and termination of a VNF or
NS

M
managed container infrastructure object: object managed and exposed by the container infrastructure service
management, representing the desired and actual state of a containerized workload, including its requested and allocated
infrastructure resources and applicable policies

managed container infrastructure object package: aggregate of declarative descriptor and configuration files for
multiple managed container infrastructure objects

measurement: set of operations having the object of determining a measured value or measurement result

NOTE: The actual instance or execution of operations leading to a Measured Value. (Based on the term
"Measurement" in ISO/IEC 15939 [i.5], as cited in NIST Special Publication 500-307 [i.6]).

metric: quantity produced in an assessment of performance and/or reliability of the network, which has an intended
utility and is carefully specified to convey the exact meaning of a measured value

NOTE: This definition of term is consistent with that of Performance Metric in IETF RFC 2330 [i.3] and IETF
RFC 6390 [i.4].

EXAMPLE: Packet transfer performance or reliability of a network.

multi-site network service: network service whose constituent Network Functions/NSs are deployed in more than one
site

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multi-tenancy: feature where physical, virtual or service resources are allocated in such a way that multiple tenants and
their computations and data are isolated from and inaccessible by each another

NOTE: This definition of term has been specialized from the term "multi-tenancy" as defined in
Recommendation ITU-T Y.3500 [i.7].

N
namespace: logical grouping for a particular set of identifiers, resources, policies and authorizations

namespace quota: upper limit on specific types of resources that can be used by one or more Managed Container
Infrastructure Objects within the scope of a namespace

Nested Network Service (NNS): network service that is part of a composite network service

NOTE: A Composite Network Service is a Network Service containing at least one Network Service.

network controller: functional block that centralizes some or all of the control and management functionality of a
network domain and optionally provides an abstract view of its domain to other functional blocks via well-defined
interfaces

network forwarding path: ordered list of connection points forming a chain of NFs, along with policies associated to
the list

Network Function (NF): functional block within a network infrastructure that has well-defined external interfaces and
well-defined functional behaviour

Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV): principle of separating network functions from the hardware they run on by
using virtualisation techniques

Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI): totality of all hardware and software components that
build up the environment in which VNFs are deployed

NOTE: The NFV-Infrastructure can span across several locations, e.g. places where data centres are operated.
The network providing connectivity between these locations is regarded to be part of the
NFV-Infrastructure.

Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI) component: NFVI hardware resources that are not field
replaceable, but are distinguishable as COTS components at manufacturing time

Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure Node (NFVI-Node): physical device(s) deployed and managed as
a single entity, providing the NFVI Functions required to support the execution environment for VNFs

Network Function Virtualisation Infrastructure Point of Presence (NFVI-PoP): N-PoP where a Network Function
is or could be deployed as Virtual Network Function (VNF)

Network Functions Virtualisation Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO): functions collectively provided
by NFVO, VNFM, and VIM

Network Functions Virtualisation Management and Orchestration Architectural Framework (NFV-MANO

Architectural Framework): collection of all functional blocks (including those in NFV-MANO category as well as
others that interwork with NFV-MANO), data repositories used by these functional blocks, and reference points and
interfaces through which these functional blocks exchange information for the purpose of managing and orchestrating
NFV

Network Functions Virtualisation Orchestrator (NFVO): functional block that manages the Network Service (NS)
lifecycle and coordinates the management of NS lifecycle, VNF lifecycle (supported by the VNFM) and NFVI
resources (supported by the VIM) to ensure an optimized allocation of the necessary resources and connectivity

Network Interface Controller (NIC): device in a compute node that provides a physical interface with the
infrastructure network

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network operator: operator of an electronics communications network or part thereof

NOTE: An association or organization of such network operators also falls within this category (as defined in
ETSI Directives [i.1]).

Network Point of Presence (N-PoP): location where a Network Function is implemented as either a Physical Network
Function (PNF) or a Virtual Network Function (VNF)

Network Service (NS): composition of Network Function(s) and/or Network Service(s), defined by its functional and
behavioural specification

NOTE: The Network Service contributes to the behaviour of the higher layer service, which is characterized by at
least performance, dependability, and security specifications. The end-to-end network service behaviour
is the result of the combination of the individual network function behaviours as well as the behaviours of
the network infrastructure composition mechanism.

network service descriptor: template that describes the deployment of a Network Service including service topology
(constituent VNFs and the relationships between them, Virtual Links, VNF Forwarding Graphs) as well as network
service characteristics such as SLAs and any other artefacts necessary for the Network Service on-boarding and
lifecycle management of its instances

network service orchestration: subset of NFV Orchestrator functions that are responsible for network service lifecycle
management

network service provider: type of service provider implementing the network service

network stability: ability of the NFV framework to maintain steadfastness while providing its function and resume its
designated behaviour as soon as possible under difficult conditions, which can be excessive load or other anomalies not
exceeding the design limits

NF forwarding graph: graph of logical links connecting NF nodes for the purpose of describing traffic flow between
these network functions

NF set: collection of NFs with unspecified connectivity between them

NFV framework: totality of all entities, reference points, information models and other constructs defined by the
specifications published by the ETSI ISG NFV

NFV-MANO management service: one or more capabilities offered by an NFV-MANO functional block for the
support of its operations, administration and maintenance

NFV-MANO service: one or more capabilities offered via NFV-MANO functional blocks invoked using a defined
interface

NOTE: This definition of term has been specialized from the term "cloud service" as defined in Recommendation
ITU-T Y.3500 [i.7].

EXAMPLE: The VNFM offers a NFV-MANO service for VNF lifecycle management to the NFVO. The
NFVO offers a NFV-MANO service for Network Service lifecycle management to OSS/BSS
functions and uses the NFV-MANO service provided by the VNFM.

NFV-MANO service interface: interface, associated to an NFV-MANO service, over which operations can be invoked
and/or notifications issued

NFV-MANO service user: natural person, or entity acting on their behalf, associated with an organization that uses
NFV-MANO services

NOTE: This definition of term has been specialized from the term "cloud service user" as defined in
Recommendation ITU-T Y.3500 [i.7].

NFVO-C: NFVO that manages a composite NS instance that has one or more nested NS instances as constituents
which are managed by an NFVO in another administrative domain

NFVO-N: NFVO that manages an NS instance which is used as a nested NS of a composite NS instance managed by
an NFVO in another administrative domain

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NFV-Resource (NFV-Res): resource within the NFVI that can be used by the NS/VNF to allow for their execution

NFV security controller: trusted security management entity that provides secure dynamic delivery of security policies
and services into the NFV system

NFV security services agent: entity responsible for securely receiving the security monitoring policy and
implementing the same

NS healing: procedure that includes all virtualisation related corrective actions to repair a faulty Network Service (NS)
instance including components/functionalities which make up the instance, and have been associated with this fault
situation

NOTE 1: In a virtualised environment network service healing focuses only on the virtualised
components/functionalities. In case of a NS consisting of virtualised and non-virtualised parts a procedure
able to handle both parts is needed. This will be done in connection with components/functionalities that
are located outside the virtualised environment.

NOTE 2: "Virtualisation related corrective actions" refers to action(s) toward virtualised resource(s) and associated
NS instance.

node affinity for virtualised compute resources: persistent policy that forces virtualised compute resources to be on
the same compute node

NOTE 1: "Persistent" is used here and in the following terms to indicate that the affinity remains in effect until a
change is requested by the consumer.

NOTE 2: This is to avoid cases where, for example, virtualised compute resource are initially on the same compute
node but then later moved to separate nodes by the provider without any requested policy change from the
consumer.

node affinity for virtualised storage resources: persistent policy that forces virtualised storage resources to be on the
same storage node

node anti-affinity for virtualised compute resources: persistent policy that forces each virtualised compute resource
to be on different compute nodes

node anti-affinity for virtualised storage resources: persistent policy that forces each virtualised storage resources to
be on different storage nodes

O
OS container: virtualisation container utilizing a shared Operating System (OS) kernel of its host

NOTE: The host providing the shared OS kernel can be a physical compute node or another virtualisation
container.

P
PaaS Service: modular service or a function provided by PaaS to Consumer VNFs

NOTE: A PaaS service can be a VNF common service or a VNF dedicated service.

path: data communications feature of a communication system describing the sequence and identity of system
components visited by packets, where the components of the path may be either logical or physical

NOTE: Examples of physical components include a physical switch or a network interface of a host, and an
example of a logical component is a virtual network switch. Paths can be unidirectional or bi-directional.
Paths can be further characterized as data plane or control plane when serving these classes of traffic, and
as packet payload-agnostic or payload processing (as in the case of transcoding, compression, or
encryption).

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permitted allowance: constraint in terms of resource capacity, used by the NFVO to control resource consumption by
VNFMs in relation with VNF lifecycle operation granting

NOTE: Permitted allowances are maintained by the NFVO and can vary in granularity (VNFM, VNF, group of
VNFs, NS, etc.).

Physical Network Function (PNF): implementation of a NF via a tightly coupled software and hardware system

Physical Network Function Descriptor (PNFD): template that describes the connectivity requirements of connection
point(s) attached to a physical network function

NOTE: It is used by the NFVO to integrate PNF(s) into an NS.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): capability provided to the consumer to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-
created or -acquired applications

NOTE: Cloud Computing Services are typically offered to consumers in one of three service models NIST
SP 800-146 [i.11], page 2-1 - Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) or Software
as a Service (SaaS). In particular for PaaS, the consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud
infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, platform services, but has control
over the deployed applications and possibly over application hosting environment configurations.

Q
quota: upper limit on specific types of resources, usually used to prevent excessive resource consumption in the VIM
by a given consumer

NOTE: Quota is enforced by the VIM.

R
reliability: probability that an item can perform a required function under stated conditions for a given time interval

resiliency: ability of the NFV framework to limit disruption and return to normal or at a minimum acceptable service
delivery level in the face of a fault, failure, or an event that disrupts the normal operation

resource pool: logical grouping of NFVI hardware and software resources

NOTE 1: A resource pool can be solely based on a certain resource type (e.g. compute, storage, networking) or
include a combination of them, and can span zero, one or multiple resource zones.

NOTE 2: An NFVI resource can be part of none, one or more than one resource pool.

resource zone: set of NFVI hardware and software resources logically grouped according to physical isolation and
redundancy capabilities or to certain administrative policies for the NFVI

NOTE: The same resource cannot be part of two different resource zones.

EXAMPLE 1: Physical isolation can be achieved for example using a separate power supply, network equipment
or physical building sites.

EXAMPLE 2: One example of resource zones are the Availability Zones in OpenStack.

S
scaling: ability to dynamically extend/reduce resources granted to the Virtualised Network Function (VNF) as needed

NOTE: This includes scaling up/down and scaling out/in.

scaling out/in: ability to scale by adding/removing resource instances (e.g. VM)

scaling up/down: ability to scale by changing allocated resource, e.g. increase/decrease memory, CPU capacity or
storage size

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service: component of the portfolio of choices offered by service providers to a user, a functionality offered to a user

NOTE 1: As defined in ETSI TR 121 905 [i.2].

NOTE 2: A user can be an end-customer, a network or some intermediate entity.

Service Access Point (SAP): connection point where an NS can be accessed

NOTE: A SAP can either provide access to an NS, e.g. to an end-user, or interconnect different NS.

service consumer: person, device or company consuming a service provided by a service provider

service continuity: continuous delivery of service in conformance with service's functional and behavioural
specification and SLA requirements

NOTE: Service continuity applies to any initiated transaction or session till its full completion even in the event
of intervening exceptions or anomalies, whether scheduled or unscheduled, malicious, intentional or
unintentional.

Service Level Agreement (SLA): negotiated agreements between two or more parties, recording a common
understanding about the service and/or service behaviour (e.g. availability, performance, service continuity,
responsiveness to anomalies, security, serviceability, operation) offered by one party to another, and the measurable
target values characterizing the level of services

NOTE: The scope of the above term does not include business aspects of the SLA.

service provider: company or organization, making use of an electronics communications network or part thereof to
provide a service or services on a commercial basis to third parties

NOTE: As defined in ETSI Directives [i.1].

service resource: logical resource that can be used directly in a network service

NOTE: A service resource can be a NS, VNF, PNF, VNFFG or NFP.

service resource group: logical resource collection that groups a subset of service resource instances assigned to a
tenant

NOTE: A service resource group can include NS, VNF, PNF, VNFFG and NFP.

software rollback: software modification process that reverts the system from the newly deployed software version to
the previously deployed software version

software update: software modification process for bug fixes or enhancements without adding, modifying or removing
functionality, interfaces or protocols

software upgrade: software modification process aimed at adding, modifying or removing functionality, interfaces or
protocols

T
tenant: one or more NFV-MANO service users sharing access to a set of physical, virtual or service resources

NOTE 1: This definition of term has been specialized from the term "tenant" as defined in Recommendation
ITU-T Y.3500 [i.7].

NOTE 2: The "tenant" concept in NFV should not be confused with the "tenant" (aka "project") concept in
OpenStack. The OpenStack implementation covers a subset of the overall functionalities required by
multi-tenancy in NFV.

tenant domain: domain that provides VNFs, and combinations of VNFs into Network Services, and is responsible for
their management and orchestration, including their functional configuration and maintenance at application level

trust domain: collection of entities that share a set of security policies

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U
user service: component of the portfolio of choices offered by service providers to the end-users/customers/subscribers

V
virtual link: set of connection points along with the connectivity relationship between them and any associated target
performance metrics (e.g. bandwidth, latency, QoS)

NOTE: The virtual link can interconnect two or more entities (e.g. VNF components, VNFs, or PNFs) and it is
supported by one or more Virtual Network (VN) of the NFVI.

Virtual Machine (VM): virtualised computation environment that behaves very much like a physical computer/server

NOTE: A VM has all its ingredients (processor, memory/storage, interfaces/ports) of a physical computer/server
and is generated by a Hypervisor, which partitions the underlying physical resources and allocates them
to VMs. Virtual Machines are capable of hosting a VNF Component (VNFC) instance.

virtual network: virtual network routes information among the network interfaces of VM instances and physical
network interfaces, providing the necessary connectivity

NOTE: The virtual network is bounded by its set of permissible network interfaces.

Virtual Security Function (VSF): security enabling function within the NFV architectural framework

virtualisation container: partition of a compute node that provides an isolated virtualised computation environment

NOTE: Examples of virtualisation container includes virtual machine and OS container.

Virtualisation Deployment Unit (VDU): construct that can be used in an information model, supporting the
description of the deployment and operational behaviour of a VNFC

NOTE: In the presence of a hypervisor, the main characteristic of a VDU is that a single VNF or VNF subset
instance created based on the construct can be mapped to a single VM. A VNF may be modelled using
one or multiple such constructs, as applicable.

Virtualised CPU (vCPU): virtualised CPU created for a VM by a hypervisor

NOTE: In practice, a vCPU can be a time sharing of a real CPU and/or in the case of multi-core CPUs, it can be
an allocation of one or more cores to a VM. It is also possible that the hypervisor emulates a CPU
instruction set such that the vCPU instruction set is different to the native CPU instruction set (emulation
will significantly impact performance).

Virtualised Infrastructure Manager (VIM): functional block that is responsible for controlling and managing the
NFVI compute, storage and network resources, usually within one operator's Infrastructure Domain (e.g. NFVI-PoP)

Virtualised Network Function (VNF): implementation of an NF that can be deployed on a Network Function
Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI)

Virtualised Network Function Component (VNFC): internal component of a VNF providing a VNF Provider a
defined sub-set of that VNF's functionality, with the main characteristic that a single instance of this component
maps 1:1 against a single instance of an atomic deployable unit

NOTE: An instance of an atomic deployable unit is represented by a single VM for hypervisor-based

virtualisation, or represented by one or a set of OS containers for OS virtualisation.

Virtualised Network Function Component (VNFC) instance: instance of a VNFC deployed in a specific atomic
deployable unit instance

NOTE: A VNFC instance has a lifecycle dependency with its parent VNF instance

Virtualised Network Function Descriptor (VNFD): configuration template that describes a VNF in terms of its
deployment and operational behaviour, and is used in the process of VNF on-boarding and managing the lifecycle of a
VNF instance

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Virtualised Network Function Instance (VNF Instance): run-time instantiation of the VNF software, resulting from
completing the instantiation of its components and of the connectivity between them, using the VNF deployment and
operational information captured in the VNFD, as well as additional run-time instance-specific information and
constraints

Virtualised Network Function Manager (VNFM): functional block that is responsible for the lifecycle management
of VNF

Virtualised Network Function Package (VNF Package): archive that includes a VNFD, the software image(s)
associated with the VNF, as well as additional artefacts, e.g. to check the integrity and to prove the validity of the
archive

Virtualised NIC (vNIC): virtualised NIC created for a VM by a hypervisor

virtualised resource migration: process of relocating the virtualised resource from one physical node to another
physical node

NOTE: Examples of physical nodes are compute nodes and storage nodes.

Virtualised Storage (vStorage): virtualised non-volatile storage allocated to a VM

virtual Switch (vSwitch): Ethernet switch implemented as a software application in a compute node that enables
communication between virtualisation containers within the compute node and between virtualisation containers and the
NICs of the compute node

NOTE 1: When the virtualisation container is a VM, the vSwitch interconnects vNICs of VMs with each other and
with the NIC of the compute node.

NOTE 2: In previous versions of the present document the term was referred as "virtualised Switch".

VNF component: See Virtualised Network Function Component (VNFC).

VNFC instance: See Virtualised Network Function Instance (VNF Instance).

VNFC snapshot: replication of a VNFC instance at a specific point in time, capturing its full or partial state (such as
state and content of the disks, memory and devices attached to the VNFC instance plus the infrastructure configuration
of the VNFC instance)

VNFC snapshot package: collection of files representing a VNFC Snapshot which can be physically stored and
transferred

VNF descriptor: See Virtualised Network Function Descriptor (VNFD).

VNF Forwarding Graph (VNFFG): NF forwarding graph where at least one node is a VNF

VNF healing: procedure that includes all virtualisation-related corrective actions to repair a faulty VNF, and/or its
VNFC instances and internal VNF Virtual Link(s)

NOTE: "Virtualisation related corrective actions" refers to the corrective action(s) toward virtualised resources
and associated VNF/VNFC instance(s), and/or internal VNF Virtual Link(s).

VNF instance: See Virtualised Network Function Instance (VNF Instance).

VNF lifecycle operation granting: permission to perform a VNF lifecycle management operation and the resource
management operations necessary to complete it, if any apply

VNF manager: See Virtualised Network Function Manager (VNFM).

VNF package: See Virtualised Network Function Package (VNF Package).

VNF provider: person or company that provides the VNF

NOTE: This includes, but is not limited to vendor, integrator or in-house developer.

VNF Snapshot: replication of a VNF instance at a specific point in time, containing a consistent set of VNFC
snapshots of all VNFC instances associated to the VNF instance, the VNF Descriptor and the VNF runtime information
(including state and settings of Virtual Links and Connection Points associated to this VNF).

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VNF-related resource management in direct mode: mode of operation where the VNFM invokes on the VIM
Virtualised Resources Management operations

NOTE 1: Resource reservation and quota management operations are out of the scope of this mode of operation,
with the exception of query reservations and query quota.

NOTE 2: Virtualised Resources Management operations include allocation, migration, scaling, update, query,
operation and termination of virtualised resources.

VNF-related resource management in indirect mode: mode of operation where the VNFM invokes on the NFVO
Virtualised Resources Management operations and the NFVO in turn invokes them towards the VIM

NOTE 1: Resource reservation and quota management operations are out of the scope of this mode of operation,
with the exception of query reservations and query quota.

NOTE 2: Virtualised Resources Management operations include allocation, migration, scaling, update, query,
operation and termination of virtualised resources.

VNF set: collection of VNFs with unspecified connectivity between them

VNF Snapshot Package: collection of files representing a VNF Snapshot which can be physically stored and
transferred

W to Z
Void.

3.2 Symbols
Void.

3.3 Abbreviations
0-9
5GCN 5G Core Network

A
AAA Authentication, Authorization and Accounting
API Application Programming Interface

B
BGP Border Gateway Protocol
BIOS Basic Input/Output System
BSS Business Support System

C
CIS Container Infrastructure Service
CIR Container Image Registry
CISM Container Infrastructure Service Management
CDN Content Delivery Network
CNS Composite Network Service
COTS Commercial Off The Shelf
CON CONformance
CP Connection Point
CPD CP Descriptor

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 18 ETSI GR NFV 003 V1.6.1 (2021-03)

CPU Central Processing Unit

CRUD Create, Read, Update, and Delete

D
DF Deployment Flavour
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DUT Device Under Test

E
EM (Network) Element Manager

F
FB Functional Block
FCAPS Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security
FM Fault Management
FUT Function Under Test

G
Void.

H
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HTTPS HTTP Secure

I
IFS Interoperable Features Statement
IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem
I/O Input/Output
IOP InterOPerability
IP Internet Protocol
ISF Infrastructure Security Function
ISM Infrastructure Security Manager
IT Information Technology
IUT Implementation Under Test

J
Void.

K
KPI Key Performance Indicator

L
LAN Local Area Network
LCM Life Cycle Management

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M
MAC Medium/Media Access Control
MANO Management and Orchestration
MCIO Managed Container Infrastructure Object
MCIOP Managed Container Infrastructure Object Package
MME Mobility Management Entity
MMI Man-Machine Interface
MPLS Multi-Protocol Label Switching

N
N-PoP Network Point of Presence
NAT Network Address Translation
NETCONF Network Configuration Protocol
NF Network Function
NFP Network Forwarding Path
NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor
NFV Network Functions Virtualisation
NFV-Res NFV Resource
NFVI NFV Infrastructure
NFV-MANO Network Functions Virtualisation Management and Orchestration
NFVI-Node Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure Node
NFVI-PoP Network Function Virtualisation Infrastructure Point of Presence
NFVO Network Functions Virtualisation Orchestrator
NFV-SC NFV Security Controller
NIC Network Interface Controller
NNS Nested Network Service
NS Network Service
NSD Network Service Descriptor
NSM NFV Security Manager

O
OAM Operations, Administration and Management
ONF Open Networking Foundation
OS Operating System
OSPF Open Shortest Path First
OSS Operation Support System

P
PaaS Platform as a Service
PICS Protocol Implementation Conformance Statement
PM Performance Management
PNF Physical Network Function
PNFD Physical Network Function Descriptor
PoP Point of Presence
PSF Physical Security Function

Q
QE Qualified Equipment
QF Qualified Function
QoS Quality of Service

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R
RBAC Role-Based Access Control
RESTCONF Representational State Transfer Configuration Protocol
RPC Remote Procedure Call

S
SAL Service Availability Level
SAP Service Access Point
SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor
SDN Software Defined Networking
SEM Security Element Manager
SFC Service Function Chaining
SIP Session Initiation Protocol
SLA Service Level Agreements
SP Service Provider
SR-IOV Single Root Input/Output Virtualisation
SSA Security Services Agent
SUT System Under Test
SW SoftWare

T
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
TD Test Description
TOSCA Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications
TPM Trusted Platform Module (TCG)
TSS Test Suite Structure

U
UML® Unified Modelling Language

V
VA Virtual Application
vCPU Virtualised CPU
VDU Virtualisation Deployment Unit
VIM Virtualised Infrastructure Manager
VL Virtual Link
VLAN Virtual LAN
VLD Virtual Link Descriptor
VM Virtual Machine
VN Virtual Network
VNF Virtualised Network Function
VNFC Virtualised Network Function Component
VNFCI VNF Component Instance
VNFD Virtualised Network Function Descriptor
VNFFG VNF Forwarding Graph
VNFFGD VNFFG Descriptor
VNFI VNF Instance
VNFM Virtualised Network Function Manager
VNI VXLAN Network Identifier
vNIC Virtualised NIC
VPN Virtual Private Network
VR Virtualised Resource
vRouter virtual Router
VSF Virtual Security Function
vStorage virtualised Storage

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vSwitch virtualised Switch

VXLAN Virtual eXtensible LAN

W
WAN Wide Area Network
WIM WAN Infrastructure Manager

X
XML eXtensible Markup Language
Xpath XML Path Language

Y
YANG Yet Another Next Generation

Z
Void.

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 22 ETSI GR NFV 003 V1.6.1 (2021-03)

Annex A:
Bibliography
ETSI GS NFV-EVE 011: "Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) Release 3; Virtualised Network Function;
Specification of the Classification of Cloud Native VNF Implementations".

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Annex B:
Change History
Date Version Information about changes
March 2020 1.5.2 Early draft
June 2020 1.5.3 Addition of contribution NFVEVE(20)000062r1 with REL changes
Incorporating contributions NFVEVE(20)000122 and NFVEVE(20)000126, with editorial
September 2020 1.5.4
fixes
Incorporating contribution NFVEVE(20)000150 and NFVEVE(21)000003
January 2021 1.5.5
Incorporating NFVEVE(21)000010 and the online change to the vNIC term

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History
Document history
V1.1.1 October 2013 Publication as ETSI GS NFV 003

V1.2.1 December 2014 Publication as ETSI GS NFV 003

V1.3.1 January 2018 Publication as ETSI GS NFV 003

V1.4.1 August 2018 Publication as ETSI GS NFV 003

V1.5.1 January 2020 Publication

V1.6.1 March 2021 Publication

ETSI