NetSeminar @ Stanford

May 22, 2014

Christos Kolias Orange Silicon Valley

Bundling NFV and SDN for Open Networking

NFV

Abstraction of network functions from dedicated hardware

SDN

Abstraction of the control plane from the data plane

BRAS

Firewall DPI

CDN

Tester/QoE

monitor

WAN

Acceleration Message Router

Radio/Fixed Access

Network Nodes

Carrier Grade NAT

PE Router SGSN/GGSN

Classical Network Model:

Hardware Appliances

Network Functions are based on specialized hardware

One physical node per role. Physical install per site

Static. Hard to scale up & out

Inefficient: sized for peak loads or cannot handle spikes

Session Border Controller

standard IT infrastructure

The New Network Model:

Virtual Appliances

Orchestration & Automation

Network Functions are SW-based

Multiple roles over same HW. Remote operation

Dynamic. Extremely easy to scale

Scalable number of VMs

NFV Concept & Vision

4

Fields of Application (examples)

• Mobile networks:

HLR/HSS, MME, SGSN, GGSN/PDN-GW, eNodeB, vEPC

• NGN signalling: SBCs, IMS

• Switching elements: BNG, CG-NAT, routers

• Home environment: home router, set top box, picocell

• Application-level

optimization: CDNs, Cache Servers, Load Balancers,

Application Accelerators

• Security functions Firewalls, virus scanners, intrusion

detection systems, spam protection

• Tunnelling gateway

elements: IPSec/SSL VPN gateways

• Converged and network-

wide functions: AAA servers, policy control and charging

platforms

• Traffic analysis/forensics: DPI, QoE measurement

• Traffic Monitoring: Service Assurance, SLA monitoring, Test

and Diagnostics

5

ETSI NFV Group

• Global operators-initiated Industry Specification Group (ISG) under the

auspices of ETSI

‒ >200 members

‒ 28 Tier-1 carriers (and mobile operators) & service providers, cable industry

• Open membership

‒ ETSI members sign the “Member Agreement”

‒ Non-ETSI members sign the “Participant Agreement”

• Operates by consensus (formal voting only when required)

• Deliverables: requirements specifications, architectural framework, PoCs,

standards liaisons

• Face-to-face meetings quarterly. Currently four (4) WGs, two (2) expert

groups (EGs), 4 root-level work items (WIs)

‒ WG1: Infrastructure Architecture

‒ WG2: Management and Orchestration

‒ WG3: Software Architecture

‒ WG4: Reliability & Availability

• Network Operators Council (NOC): technical advisory body

• Technical Steering Committee (TSC): WG Chairs + EG Leaders, TMs, PMs,

Rapporteurs

‒ EG1: Security

‒ EG2: Performance &

Portability, PoCs

6

EVA principle: elasticity, velocity, agility

‒ Flexibility to easily, rapidly, dynamically provision and instantiate new services in various locations (i.e. no need for new equipment install)

‒ Increased speed of time-to-market by minimising the typical network operator cycle of innovation. More service differentiation & customization. Great for BC/DR situations

‒ Improved operational efficiency by taking advantage of a homogeneous (physical) network platform

Reduced equipment costs through equipment consolidation, leveraging the economies of scale

Reduced operational costs: reduced power, reduced space, improved network monitoring

Software-oriented innovation (including Open Source) to rapidly prototype and test new services

IT-oriented skillset and talent (readily available in global geography, flexible)

NFV: a Value Proposition

7

Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure-as-a-Service (NFVIaaS)

‒ Network functions go to the cloud

Virtual Network Function-as-a -Service (VNFaaS)

‒ Ubiquitous, delocalized network functions (eg., vCPE)

Virtual Network Platform-as-a -Service (VNPaaS)

‒ Applying multi-tenancy at the VNF level

VNF Forwarding Graphs ‒ Building E2E services by

composition

An E2E View: Architectural Use Cases

NVFIaaS Example

8

Mobile core network and IMS ‒ Elastic, scalable, more resilient EPC

‒ Specially suitable for a phased approach

Mobile base stations ‒ Evolved Cloud-RAN

‒ Enabler for SON

Home environment ‒ L2 visibility to the home network

‒ Smooth introduction of residential services

CDNs ‒ Better adaptability to traffic surges

‒ New collaborative service models

Fixed access network ‒ Offload computational intensive

optimization

‒ Enable on-demand access services

An E2E View: Service-Oriented Use Cases

9

Computing Hardware

Storage Hardware

Network Hardware

Hardware resources

Virtualisation Layer

Virtualised

Infrastructure

Manager(s)

VNF

Manager(s)

VNF

OSS/BSS

NFVI

VNF

VNF

Execution reference points Main NFV reference points Other reference points

Virtual Computing

Virtual Storage

Virtual Network

EMS

EMS

EMS

Service, VNF and Infrastructure Description

Or-Vi

Or-Vnfm

Vi-Vnfm

Os-Ma

Se-Ma

Ve-Vnfm

Nf-Vi

Vn-Nf

Vl-Ha

Orchestrator N

FV M

AN

AG

EMEN

T & O

RC

HESTR

ATIO

N

VNFs

The E2E Reference Architecture

10

• FG: logical description of interconnecting VNFs and traffic flow between

them

• VNFs have metadata associated with them

• Network Service: set of packet flows

VNF FG Example 1: virtual infrastructure

11

VNF FG Example 2: hybrid infrastructure

• Infrastructure comprises of virtual and physical switches

• NSP needs to specify mapping that determines selection &

configuration of physical & virtual switching elements (& ports)

12

VNF FG Example 3: nested VNFs

• Disagreggation of current boxes/architectures (eg., vEPC)

• Better flexibility, can remove performance bottlenecks, scale

• Physical hardware: fixed connections, static equipment

• VNFs: dynamic connections, can change over time (VM

mobility)

• Forwarding plane needs to handle:

– Flow forwarding/switching

– Flow tracking/monitoring

– Bandwidth requirements

• Not just at the single switch/router level but network-wide

• Multi-tenancy and NFV: is there a relationship?

– Use virtual networks to support multi-tenancy

NFV-aware data plane

• Hardware (servers) hosts multiple VNF roles

• Network Service Composition: Firewalls, Load Balancers, VPN

gateways, CDN, IMS, EPC, etc

– Creation of forwarding graphs, in ETSI NFV nomenclature

• A VNF FG defines the sequence of VNFs a packet traverses

– Orchestration of services: allocation & management of resources

• Control plane needs to maintain

– Traffic Steering

– QoS, policy rules

• Handle mix of virtualized and non-virtualized environments

• Need for an NFV Controller?

NFV-aware control plane

• Impact on current applications?

• Adapt existing applications or develop a new class of

applications that take advantage of this new NFV paradigm

• Optimization-oriented: better use of resources

• Perhaps build new Network Functions & Services that take

advantage of a virtualized environment

• What is the role of the Northbound interface (NBI): between the

VNFs and the applications (today it does not exist with the

physical network functions)

• Monetization opportunities (eg, for service providers)

NFV-aware applications

Creates

competitive

supply of

innovative

applications by

third parties

Strategic Networking Paradigms

• NFV and SDN are highly complementary, they are mutually beneficial but not

dependent on each other.

• Software is common denominator

• SDN can significantly enhance NFV

Creates

abstractions to

enable faster

innovation

Software Defined

Networking

Leads to agility, Reduces

CAPEX, OPEX,

Network Functions

Virtualisation

Open Innovation

17

SDN can play a key role in the orchestration of the infrastructure

(physical, virtual)

‒ Provisioning and configuration of VNFs

‒ Allocate and manage resources (e.g., bandwidth)

‒ VM mobility

‒ Automation & programmability

‒ Security & policy control

‒ Unified control & management plane?

Service chaining

‒ Directing traffic flows to VNFs

‒ Traffic flow characterization very important (especially for mobile,

E2E scenarios)

NFV+SDN

18

NFV creates a very dynamic environment

‒ SDN can present an overall logical view, map

Ad-hoc, on-demand, secure virtual tenant networks

Extend M&O to include Network Management

SDN could enable and accelerate the virtualization of the network

and the “cloudification” of the carrier (COs/PoPs become DCs)

Challenges for bundling SDN with NFV

‒ Hybrid virtualized/non virtualized environment

‒ Mixed SDN/non-SDN (legacy) network elements/domiins

‒ SDN across NFV boundaries

‒ NFV across SDN boundaries (this may require some sort of SDN

federation)

SDN can enable, simplify and automate NFV implementation

Cloud, Data Center & Net

Apps/Services/Functions/Utilities

SDN (control, programmability,

management, network virtualization)

APIs

Interfaces, Protocols

Network, Storage

SDN

Computing Hardware

Storage Hardware

Network Hardware

Hardware resources

Virtualisation Layer

NFV Infrastructure (NFVI)

Virtual Computing

Virtual Storage Virtual Network

NFV

MANAGEMENT

&

ORCHESTRATION

Virtual Network Functions (VNFs)

VNF

VNF

VNF

Apps Apps Apps Apps

NFV Apps Apps Apps

APIs

Computing Hardware

Storage Hardware

Network Hardware

Hardware resources

Virtualisation Layer (ODL, NSX, OVX, …)

NFV Infrastructure (NFVI)

Virtual Computing Virtual Storage Virtual Network

SDN-based

MANAGEMENT

&

ORCHESTRATION

Virtual Network Functions (VNFs)

VNF

VNF

VNF

Apps

SDN-based NFV

Interfaces, Protocols SDN Controller

OpenStack

Neutron

20

What should be open?

‒ Open Source (software)

‒ Open Design (hardware)

‒ Open Standards

‒ Open Interfaces, APIs (plugins)

‒ Open SDKs

Open Community (not controlled by single vendor)

Decoupling of software and hardware. Programmable network functions

Benefits

‒ modularization: best of breed, flexibility

‒ customization (mix & match)

‒ reduced costs

‒ easy to upgrade, no vendor lock-in

Open Networking & NFV

Network Operating System

Application / Tools / Services

Hardware (switch/server))

Virtual Switch

API

API API

API

21

Issues:

‒ (harmonious) integration and consistency

‒ for operators: carrier-grade (HA & five 9s, DR/BC, SLAs, reliability)

‒ security, testing & interoperability, certification, licensing, regulation

Creating a sandbox of open source tools would be ideal

Open VNFs

‒ Open-sourced firewalls, load balancers, DPI

Emergence of virtual switches and routers as vital block

elements

Disaggregation of switch hardware/software supports

‒ dynamic/programmable QoS (selective per application/user/virtual

network, etc)

‒ monitoring/analytics tools

‒ run many NOS on same system (group of physical/virtual ports)

22

Mapping to Open Source communities

NFVI NFV M&O

Hardware Resources

Computing Hardware

Storage Hardware

Network Hardware

Virtualization Layer

Virtual Compute Virtual Storage Virtual Network

VNF VNF VNF

EMS EMS EMS

OSS / BSS

Service, VNF &

Infrastructure

Description

Virtualized Infrastructure

Manager

Orchestrator

VNF Managers

VNF

OpenStack

CloudStack

KVM

XEN, LXC

new for generic VNFs

Openstack

Cloudstack

?

Open Daylight

ONOS, ONF

DPDK

ODP (Linaro)

OCP

23

Openstack: Management & Orchestration platform for

‒ Virtualized Infrastructure (Neutron)

‒ VNFs

Create cloud-based, multi-tenant networks for NFV (XaaS)

Resource manager & scheduler

Could become an open solution for service chaining

NaaS

‒ Sliver of network (connectivity) + resources (compute, storage) + apps

‒ VNOs (Virtual Network Operators)

‒ Bandwidth-on-demand (to tenants, users)

‒ New business models (auction/brokering, ephemeral clouds)

Extend OpenStack to include monitoring & analytics tools for NFV

Richness of APIs

OpenStack for NFV

24 ETSI NFV

XaaS for Network Services

NFVI Provider

IaaS NaaS NaaS SaaS

NFVIaaS

Hosting Service Provider VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF Tenants

NSP

VNF VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF

VNF Forwarding Graph

Admin

User

Admin

User VNFaaS

User

PaaS PaaS

VNPaaS

25

Service Chaining & Service Insertion algorithms & protocols. Optimization mechanisms

NFV Orchestration algorithms

NFV Controllers. SDN Controllers for NFV

Abstractions for carrier-grade networks & services (imperative/declarative programming languages)

Traffic steering/dispatching

‒ Pure virtualized environment

‒ Hybrid (virtualized/non-virtualized) environment

Performance studies, e.g.,

‒ Resources requirements ‒ Latency & locality in software implementation ‒ Optimization techniques ‒ System bottlenecks

Cost (Benefit) Analysis studies

NFV Research & Call-for-action

26

Security of NFVI

BC/DR: fault-tolerance, resilience, redundancy

Consolidation of VNFs & Multipurpose VNFs

Nested VNFs algorithms

NFV system configuration patterns

Complexity of NFV systems

Energy Efficient NFV architectures

Service Assurance

‒ Tests & diagnostics (eg, fault isolation, fault-correlation

‒ Predictive analytics (e.g., fault prediction)

New VNFs

More on : portal.etsi.org/nfv

NFV Federation

E2E Architecture

27

Service Chaining & Service Insertion

Policies determine the chain order (eg. OF rules): define your own chain!

Use of metadata, tags as application/flow descriptors.

Use

‒ Tunnels/overlays, eg., VxLAN for creating paths

‒ SDN controller for directing traffic

Virtual networks for multi-tenancy and traffic isolation (virtualizing the virtual appliances…)

vCDN vDPI vLB vFW vADC

vDPI vCDN

physical

switch

vSwitch SDN Controller

28

Programmable Service Chains

‒ Branching

‒ Loops

‒ Parallelism

‒ Nests/recursion

Pipelined Service Chains

Virtual switches are key (in the chain) functional blocks

‒ Statefull/stateless

‒ Redundancy/DR

‒ Performance guarantees (delay, bandwidth)

Languages/structures for describing service chains

‒ Describing forwarding behaviour

‒ Accounting for constraints (e.g., security)

Building service chains for NaaS

29

Load Balancer

WAN

Acceleration

DPI

Switch

Firewall

Load Balancer

WAN

Acceleration

DPI

Switch

Firewall

Load Balancer

WAN

Acceleration

DPI

Switch

Firewall

Infrastructure today

Collection of heterogeneous networks

(with lots of duplication)

30

Physical, fixed boundaries and connections are removed

Connections and traffic are dynamic

L4-L7 SDN

FW

LB

DPI

OSV

SDN CTR

FW

LB

DPI

OSV

SDN CTR

FW

LB

DPI

OSV

SDN CTR

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

VM

M&O

NV

SDN

CTR

EMS

OVS

con

tro

l p

lan

e

Virtualized Network Infrastructure

31

Network Virtualization important building block for NFV

Moving network functions into VMs, that can be scattered, would require setting up virtual networks to ensure traffic isolation and multi-tenancy

‒ Can be inter-DC, as applications (eg., vCDN) can span across DCs

virtual Network Overlays (vNOs) is one solution

‒ Virtual switches/gateways can also here a play a key role in delineating VN boundaries

Build scalable virtual networks

Network Virtualization for E2E connectivity

Network Virtualization for NFV

32

• VNFIaaS: providing E2E services

• Pooled resources across the domains

• Great for mobile infrastructure applications

Cloudification of the Telco Network: Cloud 2.0 and NaaS

34

Orange Silicon Valley

• Virtualizing the EPC goes beyond virtualizing a single function

• Virtualize nodes (MME, SGW, PGW, SecGW), functions (attach/registration, bearer, PCRF, ANDSF, HSS)

• Benefits:

‒ Elasticity, agility, scalability: launch VMs to handle traffic spikes ‒ Remote operations. Eliminates physical distances between nodes ‒ Portability: “EPC in a briefcase”, e.g, deploy next to eNodeB

‒ Easier to integrate other functions such as IMS, vDPI, caching

• Complete decoupling of control & data planes

• Flexible allocation & deployment of resources

• Challenge: delivering carrier-grade performance

vEPC @ OSV

35

EPC Virtualization - verticalized

S1

eNB

MMEVM

HSS VM

PCRF VM

S-GW VM

P-GW VM

Attach

Auth.

Bearer

Context

Mobility

Data

Policy Attach

Auth.

Policy

Bearer

Context

Mobility

Policy

Data

Bearer

Mobility

Context

SGi

Internet

• A physical box is mapped to a VM

• Inefficient: still uses many processes and requires encoding/decoding across interfaces

• Inflexible: high-availability requires duplication

Orange Silicon Valley

36

S1

eNB

Cloud EPC

• Consolidation of multiple physical network infrastructures into one

• Node disaggregation:

‒ obscures boundaries between functional boxes

‒ can lead to less complexity

• Achieves better service scalability, flexibility. Multi-tenancy (eg, MVNOs)

Attach

Auth.

Bearer

Context

Auth.

Data

Policy Policy

Mobility Mobility

Policy Attach

Bearer Bearer

Context Context Data

Management & Orchestration

Orange Silicon Valley

38

SmartEPC: NFV+SDN PoC

• Easier to integrate SDN-based solutions, such as “smart traffic offloading”

‒ Offload traffic based on various & different criteria (e.g., per customer, traffic)

‒ Embed OF agents in VNFs (running on VMs)

• Better management of EPC. Mobile flow characterization

• Does not require vendor to make drastic changes

Orange Silicon Valley

ANDSF

Evolved Packet Core

SDN CTRL

christos.kolias@orange.com