Christos Kolias Orange Silicon Valley

NFV Empowering the User

Linaro Connect USA – LCU14 Burlingame, September 2014

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BRAS

Firewall DPI

CDN

Tester/QoE monitor

WAN Acceleration Message

Router

Radio/Fixed Access

Network Nodes

Carrier Grade NAT

PE Router SGSN/GGSN

The NFV Concept & Vision

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 servers, storage, switches

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

EPC

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Fields of Application

• 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

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EVA principle: elasticity, velocity, agility + scaleability

‒ 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.

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

Reduced equipment costs through equipment consolidation, leveraging the economies of scale. Eco-friendly.

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). Convergence of IT & NetOps.

NFV: a Value Proposition

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ETSI NFV ISG

• Launched November 2012. First plenary January 2013

• 37 Tier-1 global operators/carriers

• > 225 member organizations

• 4 WGs, 2 EGs

• 4 specs published (Oct. ‘13) : architectural framework, virtualization requirements, use cases, terminology

• 24 POCs

• Quarterly face-face meetings, 7 so far, next in Arizona, Nov. 2014

• 15 work items; 2 white papers (authored by operators, not ETSI)

• Tens of individual contributors and hundreds of contributions

• Working on Phase II

• www.etsi.org/nfv

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

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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

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

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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

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physical

switch

vDPI vCDN

vCDN vDPI vLB vFW vADC

vSwitch SDN Controller

Network Functions Forwarding Graph Provides logical description of interconnecting the VNFs and traffic

flow between them (aka Service Chaining)

Nested FGs a possibility

Need for new visualization & monitoring tools

www.etsi.org/nfv-poc

ETSI NFV PoC Zone @ SDN & OpenFlow World Congress (Oct. ‘14)

NFV POCs and ARM

Two PoCs that ARM participates in:

• POC#19: Service Acceleration on NW Functions in Carrier Networks

‒ Showcase an orchestrator that is able to setup multiple functions to be offloaded from the network element avoiding any back and forth traffic delays between the network element and the external COTS servers either before or after completing each network function.

‒ ARM, Avago Technologies, Ericsson, Tieto, Procera, AT&T,

‒ Accepted. Start date: June 1, 2014

• Demonstration of vEPC Applications on AMD 64bit ARM and x86 platforms and Enhanced Resource Management

‒ ARM, AMD, Aricent, Vodafone

‒ Submitted.

POC#19 Proposed PoC

• PoC Goal #1: verify Acceleration of Virtualized NW functions (VNFs) that work on carrier networks utilizing commoditized white box hardware.

• PoC Goal #2: demonstrate VNF disaggregation from a given network element.

• PoC Project Goal #3: demonstrate performance difference when VNFs get disaggregated onto COTS servers vs when the COTS servers get augmented with network function acceleration SoCs.

Axxia is a specific ARM-based SoC from Avago Technologies (LSI) intended to be used for this POC

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

Creates

abstractions to

enable faster

innovation

Software Defined

Networking

Leads to agility, Reduces

CAPEX, OPEX,

Network Functions

Virtualisation

Open Innovation

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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

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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)

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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

‒ Centralized network control. Unified control & management plane?

Service composition (NFV Forwarding Graphs)

‒ Directing traffic flows to VNFs

‒ Traffic flow characterization very important (especially for mobile,

E2E scenarios)

NFV+SDN

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NFV creates a very dynamic environment

‒ SDN can present an overall logical view, map

‒ SDN’s programmability is key aspect (i.e., for automation)

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 in “dovetailing” SDN with NFV

‒ Hybrid virtualized/non virtualized environment

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

‒ SDN across NFV boundaries

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

federation)

NFV and SDN together can create greatest value

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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

Open Daylight

ONOS, ONF

DPDK

ODP (Linaro)

OCP

OpenStack

CloudStack

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Open Platform for NFV (OPN): collaborative (vendor/carrier)

community supported by Linux Foundation for supporting NFV

Scope: NFV Infrastructure and M&O

Goals

‒ Create an open platform for integration, testing and validation

‒ Build new open source components

‒ Use open implementations to drive an open standard and open ecosystem for NFV solutions

‒ Develop code for E2E solutions

Benefits

‒ Faster solutions (time-to-market)

‒ Lower development cost

‒ Feedback to ETSI ISG NFV

Open Platform for NFV

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NFV & ODP

• ODP provides cross-platform support for APIs to the network dataplane

• Supports SoC abstraction (allows APIs to access SoC resources, accelerators, etc)

• Execution in Linux user space

Managed Virtual Network Function Apps

Next-Gen Virtualized Network Software Platforms

Network Operators Get…

Optimum use of network

resources

Increase network agility

Unleash service innovation

Accelerate service “velocity”

Extract business intelligence

Enable dynamic, service-

driven virtual networks

“NaaS”

Better economics

Service Creation

Monitoring

Analysis

Security

Management Layer

Control Plane

Services Layer

Abstraction &

Network

Elements

Forwarding Plane

Physical Layer

Virtualization Layer

API API API

API API API

API API API

API API API

Source: Heavy Reading analyst perspective, drawing upon

various carrier & vendor views- modified for use here

Operators

OEMs

ISVs

SoC

Vendors

Community

Driven

Open

NFV Platforms

Open VSwitch

DPDK

VNF 1 VNF 2 VNF 3 … VNF n

source:ARM

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APIs: important for plug-n-play, especially for open platforms

Google, FB, Microsoft, eg. WebRTC

They can enable plethora of innovative (eg, ad-hoc/customized) services and lead to new business models for the telcos

‒ Monetization opportunities (eg., consumers, enterprise, VNOs, etc)

SPs: From function/service-based to app-based models ‒ Deploy resources (including VNFs on-demand) as an app/user needs them

‒ Example: different mobile apps may require different connectivity mode (4G, WiFi, multiple WiFis, etc)

‒ Example: customer-tailored, brokerage-based services (eg., VoIP calls)

‒ Managed services (the evolution of VPNs)

Integrate (network and business) intelligence: write your own VNF!

The Role of APIs

Smart mobile devices and IoT will precipitate the adoption of APIs for telco Apps

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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)

23 ETSI NFV

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

NFV removes the physical boundaries and constraints in your infrastructure. It breaks the barriers and opens up

unlimited opportunities.

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Orange, a worldwide presence

Orange Silicon Valley (OSV), a wholly owned subsidiary of Orange, is its Silicon Valley presence

Orange is one of the major telcos, in 5 continents, 32 countries, 232 million customers, 6 million business customers

Internet, Fixed, Mobile, IP TV provider

180,000 employees and ~ $ 55 b revenues in 2013

Other assets: Dailymotion, Orange Business Services (OBS)

Orange Fab: a startup accelarator

Orange Silicon Valley

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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

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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 /node is mapped to a VM

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

• Inflexible: high-availability requires duplication

Orange Silicon Valley

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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

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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

Orange Fab Startups

Orange Fab is a three-month accelerator program that supports

U.S.-based start-ups with an existing product which changes the

way people connect and communicate

For more information: orangefab.com @orangefab

In Silicon Valley, France, Poland, Japan

New activity: Orange SV GigaStudio – a gigabit lab for startups to innovate Orange Silicon Valley

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NFV will be profoundly transformative

christos.kolias@orange.com