The NFV Way:

It Ain’t Carrier-Grade
Cloud_

Diego R. Lopez
Telefónica I+D
March 2014
 The NFV Concept

Network functions are fully defined by SW, minimising dependence

on HW constraints

DPI CG-NAT GGSN/ VIRTUAL NETWORK

BRAS SGSN FUNCTION
FUNCTIONS
Firewall PE Router

COMMON HW
CAPACITY
(Servers & Switches)

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 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 to new requirements
from customers and market opportunities
• Automate management and provisioning to the greatest extent possible
• From hardware-based networks to software defined, virtualized ones
• 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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 The NFV Framework

E2E Network Service

End End
Point Network Service Point
Logical Abstractions
VNF VNF

VNF VNF VNF

Logical Links

VNF Instances
SW Instances
VNF VNF VNF VNF
VNF : Virtualized Network Function

NFV Infrastructure

Virtual Resources Virtual Virtual Virtual

Compute Storage Network
Virtualization SW Virtualization Layer
HW Resources Compute Storage Network

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 The NFV Reference Architecture

Os-Ma
OSS/BSS Orchestrator
Se-Ma
Service, VNF and Infrastructure
Description
Or-Vnfm

EMS 1 EMS 2 EMS 3 Ve-Vnfm

VNF
Manager(s)

VNF 1 VNF 2 VNF 3 Or-Vi

Vn-Nf Vi-Vnfm
NFVI
Virtual Virtual Virtual
Computing Storage Network
Nf-Vi Virtualised
Virtualisation Layer Infrastructure
Vl-Ha Manager(s)
Hardware resources
Computing Storage Network
Hardware Hardware Hardware

Execution reference points Other reference points Main NFV reference points

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 It Ain’t Cloud Applied to Carriers

The network differs from the computing environment in

2 key factors…
1
Data plane workloads HIGH PRESSURE ON
(which are huge!) PERFORMANCE

2
Network requires shape GLOBAL NETWORK VIEW IS
(+ E2E interconnection) REQUIRED FOR
MANAGEMENT

…which are big challenges for vanilla cloud computing.

AN ADAPTED VIRTUALISATION ENVIRONMENT IS NEEDED

TO OBTAIN CARRIER-CLASS BEHAVIOUR

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 Cloud Computing vs NFV

CLOUD COMPUTING NFV

1. PERFORMANCE BOUND TO
1. PERFORMANCE BOUND TO CPU
I/O & MEMORY ACCESS

2. AGGREGATED VIEW OF 2. NUMA VIEW

RESOURCES (CPU, memory, etc.) Internal architecture is relevant for guests

3. ENDPOINTS 3. MIDDLEPOINTS
Applications need the OS Data-plane network functions bypass the OS

4. NODE-CENTRIC 4. NETWORK-CENTRIC
Shapeless interconnection The network has a shape

5. MANY AND SMALL VMs 5. FEW AND LARGE VMs

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 Redesigning Network Segments

Distributed Data Plane Centralized Control Plane

LOCAL PoPs REGIONAL DATA CENTRES

Service Domain
CDN v Video SDP v
CSFB NGIN

P-CSCF Security IMS SRVCC M/SMSC

EPC BRAS PE DHCP PCRF

Network
Domain DPI CG-NAT GGSN DNS UDB

HW and SW HW and SW
decoupling decoupling
OS + HyperVisor OS + HyperVisor
Infrastructure COTS HW COTS HW

MPLS/SDN/Optical MPLS/SDN/Optical

Networks PoPs and datacentres intra- and inter-communications will be critical to

guarantee network service elasticity and network plasticity

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 With the Proper Balance between NFV & SDN

NFV
CONTROL CG-NAT POOL
BNG
MGMT
SW-defined network functions
 Separation of HW and SW
 No vertical integration
Pool - HW vendor ≠ SW vendor ≠ Mgmt vendor
admin
 Once network elements are SW-based, HW
Session
mgmt
UPnP can be managed as a pool of resources
IPv4 / NAT
IPv6
NAT
TR-069 DHCP ctrl.

SDN

Interconnecting Virtual Network

Functions (a.k.a. backplane)
 Separation of control and data plane
 Easy orchestration with SW domain

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 High and Predictable Performance is Achievable
80 Gbps per COTS blade
Acceptable performance

x10

GAP
Bare
VM @vPoP
Metal

MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT
EXECUTION

EXECUTION
Bare Bare
Metal Metal
VM VM
@Cloud @Cloud

What defensive What can be achieved

Industry says doing things well(*)
ETSI NFV Work Item “NFV Performance & Portability Best Practises”:
(*)

DGS/NFV-PER001 Current version: v0.0.7 (stable draft – 15/10/2013)

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 NFV Current Targets: Virtual Residential CPE

Shifting network functions deployed in home

Telco Network
environment to the network…
environment

Home environment
STB
Virtual FW
UPnP
CPE
Access Point Switch Módem IPv4/IPv6
TR-069
DHCP NAT

• Simple, stable along the time and cheaper • Service evolution and operation is supported inside
customer premises equipment telco network
• Monetize cloud and video services (virtual set top
• Quick and transparent migration to IPv6 box)
• Monetize security and digital identity features

Live trial today MATURITY LEVEL

Commercial before end 2014 EXPLORE PoC TRIAL DEPLOY

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 NFV Current Targets: Elastic DPI
CENTRALISED INTELLIGENCE
Other data

Deeper Network Big

Data
RELEVANT REAL-TIME
Metadata interface
INFO ANALYSIS
xDRs NFV
Security domain
Copy Alarms
OpenFlow
RAW USER TRAFFIC POLICY
DECISIONS
RAW USER TRAFFIC MITIGATION
OF Controller SDN
OF Switch
domain

• >80 Gbps line rate per server • Flexible data analysis and signature
upgrade
• Stable signatures
• Forensic analysis feasible.

MATURITY LEVEL

EXPLORE PoC TRIAL DEPLOY

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 NFV Current Targets: SW BNG

BNG

• QinQ termination

• LPM Routing

• GRE tunnelling (reference for wholesale services)

• MPLS tunnelling

• 80 Gbps line rate switching per server

MATURITY LEVEL

EXPLORE PoC TRIAL DEPLOY

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 NFV Current Targets: Enhanced Virtual Router

Leverage on open source routing project (Quagga) as rich and widely

tested protocol suite while assuring data plane performance

OPEN-SOURCE CONTROL • Common routing protocols supported and

PLANE extended by open source project.
(Quagga + Linux) • Well-known router command line.

• High-performance line-rate data plane.

OPTIMIZED
DATA PLANE • Running as separate process, does not lead to
(DPDK-based) licensing issues.

MATURITY LEVEL

EXPLORE PoC TRIAL DEPLOY

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 An Evolutionary Approach

• NFV implies a significant change for current

network infrastructures
 No zero-day approach is feasible
 Avoiding disruptions
• Identify relevant use cases
 Emerging services Soft-Node
 Reuse of equipment still in amortization
 Leverage on new planned elements in architecture
• Plan for phased deployments
 Interworking with existing infrastructure
 Not breaking current operational practice
• Take advantage of NFV advantages
 Flexibility DS vCPE
 Extensibility
 Reusability

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