INTRODUCTION TO NFV
In late 2012, over twenty of the world's largest telecommunications service providers formed an Industry Specification Group (ISG) within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to define Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). Since then, the NFV initiative has generated a great deal of interest, involving more than 28 network operators and over 150 technology providers from across the telecommunications industry.
The NFV initiative is intended to address the operational challenges and high costs of managing the closed and proprietary appliances presently deployed throughout telecom networks. By virtualizing and consolidating network functions traditionally implemented in dedicated hardware, using cloud technologies, network operators expect to achieve greater agility and accelerate new service deployments while driving down both operational (OpEx) and capital costs (CapEx).
NFV and SDN
NFV aims to reduce equipment costs and decrease time to market while attaining scalability, elasticity, and a strong ecosystem. The Open Networking Foundation is pursuing similar goals through OpenFlow-enabled SDN. Much like NFV, SDN accelerates innovation by breaking the bond between proprietary hardware and control/application software. Both architectures are optimized for the dynamic cloud environment at carrier scale.
Both NFV and SDN seek to leverage automation and virtualization to achieve greater agility while reducing both OpEx and CapEx. Whereas NFV is intended to optimize the deployment of network functions (such as firewalls, DNS, load balancers, etc.), OpenFlow-based SDN is focused on optimizing the underlying networks. ONF is undertaking SDN standardization. The ETSI NFV ISG is not a standards body, but rather will produce requirements that network operators can adapt for their individual environments. Both bodies are driven by a strong end-user culture.
Deployment of NFV requires large-scale dynamic network connectivity both in the physical and virtual layers to interconnect virtual network function endpoints. As shown in Figure, there are many complementary industry efforts focused on establishing a vibrant and open NFV ecosystem.
REFERENCES
1. Network Functions Virtualisation: An Introduction, Benefits, Enablers, Challenges & Call for Action, ETSI, October 2012, http://portal.etsi.org/NFV/NFV_White_Paper.pdf
2. Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV): Network Operator Perspectives on Industry Progress, ETSI, October 2013, http://portal.etsi.org/NFV/NFV_White_Paper2.pdf
3. Open Network Foundation https://www.opennetworking.org