Service Classificaon for vCPE Soluons: Enabling Service Funcon Chaining and New VAS By integrang service classificaon, vendors can create vCPE soluons that support Service Funcon Chaining and a host of new value-added services. Qosmos ixEngine ® , the market leading classificaon and metadata engine, is a key enabler in developing a robust service classificaon funcon for vCPE. The Challenge Operators wish to vary the composion of network funcons to offer tailored vCPE services – or, more accurately, want their customers to be able to customize their own vCPE services via a portal. In this context, the introducon of Service Funcon Chaining (SFC) where mulple Virtual Network Funcons (VNFs) are stched together to create a variety of service combinaons, has become central to any vCPE strategy. With tradional CPE soluons, operators used IP and Ethernet headers to steer flows to the desired networking funcons. However, to enable SFC with an opmal use of bandwidth and compung resources, vCPE soluons need embedded service classificaon based on Layer 7 informaon. This is key in understanding which applicaon is generang which flow on the network and applying the right Service Chain. The Soluon Qosmos ixEngine provides classificaon and metadata extracon, up to Layer 7, based on real-me applicaon and subscriber informaon. It is readily available for integraon with vCPE soluons. This informaon can be used to create efficient Service Funcon Chains or stand-alone value-added soluons such as next generaon firewalling, content filtering or self-serve reporng. Layer 7 visibility can be deployed in vSwitch, service funcons or VNFs, to perform traffic classificaon and metadata extracon. For future proofing, Qosmos ixEngine can also be configured using reference implementaons such as OpenDaylight SFC. Qosmos ixEngine is a DPI-based applicaon classificaon and metadata extracon engine High recognion rate: ability to idenfy all layers from Layer 2 to 7 in the OSI model Over 3000 protocols classified and connuously updated, 5000 applicaon metadata extracted Idenfies protocols and applicaons based on flow paern matching, session correlaon, heuriscs and stascal analysis Users can develop their own signature plugins Modular architecture (flow management, regular expression engine, hp parsing, etc.) Portable architecture (x86, Cavium) Benefits Opmizes resources for service chaining and data-center-based services Opmizes services delivered to premises based on subscriber and applicaon informaon Supports reference implementaons such as OpenDaylight and OpenStack Creates strong differenaon with other vCPE soluons Key Facts Applicaon Use Case
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Service Classification for vCPE Solutions: Enabling Service Function Chaining and New VAS
By integrating service classification, vendors can create vCPE solutions that support Service Function Chaining and a host of new value-added services. Qosmos ixEngine®, the market leading classification and metadata engine, is a key enabler in developing a robust service classification function for vCPE.
The Challenge
Operators wish to vary the composition of network functions to offer tailored vCPE services – or, more accurately, want their customers to be able to customize their own vCPE services via a portal. In this context, the introduction of Service Function Chaining (SFC) where multiple Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) are stitched together to create a variety of service combinations, has become central to any vCPE strategy. With traditional CPE solutions, operators used IP and Ethernet headers to steer flows to the desired networking functions. However, to enable SFC with an optimal use of bandwidth and computing resources, vCPE solutions need embedded service classification based on Layer 7 information. This is key in understanding which application is generating which flow on the network and applying the right Service Chain.
The Solution
Qosmos ixEngine provides classification and metadata extraction, up to Layer 7, based on real-time application and subscriber information. It is readily available for integration with vCPE solutions. This information can be used to create efficient Service Function Chains or stand-alone value-added solutions such as next generation firewalling, content filtering or self-serve reporting. Layer 7 visibility can be deployed in vSwitch, service functions or VNFs, to perform traffic classification and metadata extraction. For future proofing, Qosmos ixEngine can also be configured using reference implementations such as OpenDaylight SFC.
Qosmos ixEngine is a DPI-based application classification and metadata extraction engine
High recognition rate: ability to identify all layers from Layer 2 to 7 in the OSI model
Over 3000 protocols classified and continuously updated, 5000 application metadata extracted
Identifies protocols and applications based on flow pattern matching, session correlation, heuristics and statistical analysis
Optimizes resources for service chaining and data-center-based services
Optimizes services delivered to premises based on subscriber and application information
Supports reference implementations such as OpenDaylight and OpenStack
Creates strong differentiation with other vCPE solutions
Key Facts
Application Use Case
Service classification for vCPE solutions based on
Qosmos ixEngine®
Comprehensive Network Intelligence
Qosmos ixEngine provides the broadest range of protocol and application recognition on the market, based on over a hundred man-years of expertise in the telecom, enterprise and security markets:
Ability to identify nearly all protocols and applications behind IP flows, on mobile and wireline networks, in any geography
Fast addition of custom plugins to meet requirements for decoding local, proprietary or legacy protocols
Tools for users to develop customized signature plugins
Advanced Analysis
Qosmos ixEngine can be integrated inside a service classifier VNF to provide full network application visibility. The resulting service classification function is used to optimize services delivered to premises, based on real-time application and subscriber information.
Full application decoding: classification, metadata extraction, content extraction, reconstruction of communications (e.g. Instant Messaging)
High accuracy rate: advanced techniques like double checking and CRC checking ensure 100% accuracy with no false positives
Full protocol behavior analysis: for example full http decoding to handle http proxying
Support of complex networking behavior such as GTP encapsulation, VXLAN and tunnels (GRE, L2TP, etc.)
Leverages hardware acceleration
Architecture & Integration Scheme
Qosmos provides the easiest path to L2-L7 flow analysis for embedded software developers. This reduces development cycles, costs and risks, and lets developers focus on building complete solutions, relying on Qosmos for its domain expertise in protocol, application and metadata extraction:
Integration with Open Virtual Switch version 2.4 or higher
Qosmos works with leading switch vendors and the open source community to extend support for additional switches
Different configuration options enable developers to optimize integration. Qosmos ixEngine is modular and can work, for example, with an external regular expression engine
Independent core decoding framework and protocol plugin library enable fast protocol updates while preserving software stability. The protocol plugins are hot-swappable
Switchable IP and TCP flow reassembly process for packet reordering
Traffic offloading mechanism
Supported Environments
Open Virtual Switch 2.4 or higher
Cavium LiquidIO virtual switch
Reference architecture for L7-based Service Chaining built on Qosmos ixEngine
Enea develops the software foundation for the connected society. We provide solutions for mobile traffic optimization, subscriber data management, network virtualization, traffic classification, embedded operating systems, and professional services. More than 3 billion people around the globe already rely on our technologies in their daily lives. Enea’s leading DPI-based, IP traffic classification and network intelligence software is embedded by vendors and integrators into their solutions sold to telcos, cloud service providers and enterprises. For more information on Enea’s Qosmos DPI technology and products: www.qosmos.com
