NFVBasics Implementation Challenges and Benefits

E-guide
NFV Basics:
Implementation,
Challenges and
Benefits
E-guide
In this e-guide In this e-guide:

Network functions virtualization (NFV) allows service
Section 1: The ins and outs of
NFV p.2
providers and operators to abstract network services, such as
firewalling and load balancing, into software that runs on basic
Section 2: NFV roadblocks servers.
p.16
For operators and service providers, the holy grail of an NFV
implementation is the ability to dynamically provision network
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41
components, services and applications in a matter of minutes
Section 4: How SDN and NFV
rather than the weeks or months it takes to do so now.
work together p.53
Mobile operators and service providers are embracing NFV
more quickly than anyone had expected, and experts are
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73
betting that the new technology will eventually make its way
Getting more PRO+ essential
into the enterprise. However, business and technical
content challenges still loom in NFV.
In this Essential Guide, we explore NFV implementation basics
and the potential benefits. We also break down current issues
with NFV, as well as vendor approaches to the new
technology.
Page 1 of 117
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In this e-guide
Section 1: The ins and outs of NFV
NFV: How does it work?
NFV p.2
NFV virtualizes network services and applications that once ran on hardware
Section 2: NFV roadblocks appliances. In fact, network functions virtualization could replace many
p.16 network devices with more flexible software running on bare metal servers,
enabling a new kind of service chaining. Learn the basics of how NFV works,
and how it could make its way into the enterprise.

work together p.53

content
Page 2 of 117
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In this e-guide
What do we need from NFV
Section 1: The ins and outs of orchestration?
NFV p.2
Tom Nolle, President
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Orchestration in network functions virtualization (NFV) is so critical that
p.16 ETSI's NFV specification group has coined the term "MANO" for
management and orchestration, and now the phrase has entered the
networking lexicon.
Yet for all the work to develop "MANO," there's a surprising lack of
Section 4: How SDN and NFV consistency in how "orchestration" is defined by vendors. What's more,
work together p.53 there's a major disconnect between the formal notion of orchestration for
NFV and what operators actually need to meet their virtualization goals. That
disconnect must be addressed or it will threaten NFV deployment.
Getting more PRO+ essential What network operators need from NFV
content
orchestration
The term orchestration in IT networking describes the process of
automating the deployment and connection of multiple IT/network elements
or software components. In that context, orchestration creates a kind of
recipe for a service or application that, when followed, creates and sustains
the expected experience for users.
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That can quicken the pace of deployment and reduce operating costs, both
In this e-guide of which increase return on infrastructure and profits.
Now orchestration must match the same goals for NFV in operator
networks. While capital expense management was initially the driving force
NFV p.2
behind NFV, operators have now evolved to focusing on improvements in
service agility and velocity, as well as control of opex.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks
p.16 The problem this poses for NFV is that the ETSI Industry Specification
Groups (ISG) work is focused on the hosting of virtual functions, which in
most cases makes up only a small part of service insertion. A business VPN
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 with a thousand sites might consume a few instances of a virtual firewall, for
example, but will have much larger needs when it comes to enabling
Section 4: How SDN and NFV automated service insertion.
work together p.53
It is this shift in goals that has created a disconnect between what
standards groups say about NFV orchestration and what operators need.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 Resolving this can come only from somehow taking orchestration and
management to a higher level.
content
Are NFV managers the answer?
NFV includes the concept of "infrastructure" or "virtual function" managers
who link the orchestration and management functions to hardware of many
types. These managers or handlers may also be responsible for
orchestrating a combination of NFV and non-NFV service elements.
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All that's needed is a manager that takes into consideration every

In this e-guide infrastructure element that must be controlled, and a model that represents
the role of each of these elements in a service. In this situation, the NFV
orchestration must either be able to control every element in the network, or
it must be capable of subordinating to a higher-level orchestration strategy
NFV p.2
for end-to-end service control.

p.16
Why we need open-standards NFV orchestration
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 If not properly directed, this kind of orchestration expansion could generate
multiple and incompatible proprietary solutions as vendors struggle to
protect sales and differentiate their own approaches.
work together p.53 The risk of "walled-garden NFV" and orchestration has led many operators
to seek open standards and even open-source software. As all of this takes
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 shape, a more standardized approach to expanding NFV orchestration is
needed. That appears to require two things --an open approach to service
modeling and an open mechanism for managing services built from legacy or
Getting more PRO+ essential NFV-supported features.
content
Taken alone, NFV orchestration could be handled using something like the
OpenStack Nova/Neutron APIs. The challenge is in modeling complex
services that aren't fully based on cloud-hosted components, and for that
there are no specific standards evolving. The most promising approach is
the Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Services (TOSCA),
which is under development in the open standards development
organization OASIS.
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As the name suggests, this is also intended as a cloud specification, but

In this e-guide TOSCA models appear to be flexible enough to describe the kind of
complex services that would contain NFV elements.
NFV p.2
NFV orchestration must be paired with service
Section 2: NFV roadblocks management
p.16
To make the most of automated orchestration, this should be linked with
service and element management in some way. Complex services,
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 particularly those like NFV that host elements on virtual resources, require
the virtual device the user sees be a construct of orchestration. Those
Section 4: How SDN and NFV virtual devices must be represented by a parallel construct of a management
work together p.53 view. A virtual branch access device might be a firewall, NAT, DNS and
DHCP component, each hosted on a virtual machine and connected via
SDN. While the user shouldn't be able to distinguish between the elements,
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 the network operations center has to be able to decompose the virtual
device into its real components to solve problems.
One logical way to do this is to apply some of the principles of the IETF's
content
Infrastructure to Application Exposure (i2aex) specification, which collects
and centralizes all "real" management data into a repository and delivers
derived management views.
Applications can then either directly query the repository (using SQL, for
example) or use an SNMP or management "proxy" that will expose
repository variables through an appropriate management interface standard.
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This approach also limits the risk of many virtual functions overwhelming
In this e-guide shared devices with management requests, or having those functions make
changes to shared resources that would impact other users. NFV
orchestration must include secure multi-tenant management.
NFV p.2
Ultimately, management and orchestration of NFV must be more than
managing and arranging the new hosted-function model that NFV has
Section 2: NFV roadblocks created. The model has to be able to handle the entire service, end to end,
p.16 or provider goals for improving service velocity/agility and operational
efficiency cannot be met.
Do NFV orchestration tools exist?

work together p.53 To date, operators say that only a small number of vendors have even
indicated such an approach is on their roadmap. Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 HP claim they have a full solution, but none are yet offered in full form,
according to research surveys that I've conducted.
Getting more PRO+ essential Without a management/orchestration model that meets their goals, NFV
content buyers may realize that NFV deployments are likely to under-realize their full
potential. This may leave operators scrambling to address their service
agility and operations issues in some other way.
Next article
Page 7 of 117
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In this e-guide
Network functions virtualization primer:
Section 1: The ins and outs of Software devices take over
NFV p.2
David Jacobs
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Network functions virtualization (NFV) allows engineers to replace traditional
p.16 network devices with software that lives on commodity servers. This
software performs the network functions previously provided by dedicated
hardware.
This combination of server and software can replace a wide range of
Section 4: How SDN and NFV network devices, from switches and routers to firewalls and VPN gateways.
work together p.53 These new software devices may run on physical servers, virtual machines
controlled by hypervisors or a combination of the two.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 NFV was initiated by a group of network service providers, including ATT,
BT, Deutsche Telecom and Verizon, and was first presented at the SDN and
Getting more PRO+ essential OpenFlow World Congress in October 2012. The technology takes
content
advantage of developments in virtualization technology and hardware
optimizations built into the latest generation of processor chips and network
interfaces to reduce or eliminate the need for traditional, dedicated network
devices.
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While software-based routers and switches have been available for many
In this e-guide years, moving network functions to servers in high throughput networks was
not possible with previous generations of processors and network
interfaces. For example, a PC loaded with router software was limited by the
fact that all packet processing was performed in the machine's CPU, with no
NFV p.2
hardware assist built into the interface card or onto the PC motherboard.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Now, processors and network adapters provide greatly increased
p.16 throughput and processing capability because they've been optimized to
support virtualization. Newer processors contain multiple cores to spread
the load across multiple virtual machines (VMs) and applications.
Additionally, adapters include hardware features that support multiple 10
GbE interfaces, while offloading tasks previously done on the processor. Per
Section 4: How SDN and NFV core packet queues and adapters in virtual networks support offload
work together p.53 functions from the virtual switch. Meanwhile, network controller chips
include support for features, including link-level encryption, IPsec, TCP
packet partitioning and checksum calculation.
Getting more PRO+ essential NFV reduces costs and improves resource usage
content
Carriers and service providers began working on NFV to better use
resources in complicated networks in order to reduce cost and complexity.
Though carriers and service providers have led NFV efforts, the technology
helps any enterprise with a vast network and a wide diversity of functions.
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Very large networks have massive inventory of different device types,

In this e-guide including PE or CE routers, firewalls, session border controllers, VPN
gateways and a variety of other device types. These devices are constantly
being developed and acquired, so equipment rapidly becomes obsolete and
must be replaced. What's more, lots of this equipment spends plenty of time
NFV p.2
unused. For example, if a small network change requires fewer firewalls but
more VPN gateways, these already purchased firewalls would lay idle. With
Section 2: NFV roadblocks network functions virtualization, a server that is a firewall today can be a
p.16 VPN gateway tomorrow with just a shift in software.

Network functions virtualization for flexibility in
Section 4: How SDN and NFV hardware … and ideas
work together p.53
NFV's ability to spin up an additional virtual server or update the software on
a physical server reduces the need to move devices from rack to rack, move
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 cables and recompute power and cooling requirements when the network
grows or is reconfigured. This decreases the possibility of network
Getting more PRO+ essential downtime that generally exists when changes are made in a traditional
content network.
Finally, relying on software for network functions opens the door to a new
level of input and innovation by software developers or third parties as
opposed to depending on innovation from traditional hardware vendors that
can be slow moving.
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New concepts in network software can come from the open software
In this e-guide community, from academia or from minimally funded startups. Newly
developed software can be quickly evaluated since testing does not require
waiting for the next network vendor software update.
NFV p.2

NFV and SDN: Complementary, but not the same
p.16 Software defined networking (SDN) is not a requirement for NFV, but the
two technologies are complementary.
Engineers can implement NFV, choosing to rely on traditional networking
algorithms such as spanning tree or IGRP instead of moving to an SDN
Section 4: How SDN and NFV architecture.
work together p.53
Yet SDN can improve performance and simplify operations in a network
functions virtualization environment.
With SDN engineers decouple the control plane from the physical network,
Getting more PRO+ essential monitoring and directing the entire network from a centralized controller.
content This controller functions on a server and generates directives to each data
plane device. While SDN was originally conceived to control the operation of
network hardware devices, it can just as easily integrate into an NFV
environment, communicating with software-based components on
commodity servers. What's more, these servers and software can be
designed to be OpenFlow-friendly, unlike many existing hardware switches.
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In this e-guide
Challenges in network functions virtualization are
plentiful
NFV p.2
Multiple challenges must be resolved for the NFV concept to be widely
adopted:
p.16 1. A standardized interface must be developed between virtual
appliances and the underlying hardware and hypervisor to make
appliances portable across different operators' or enterprise
networks.
2. Testing is still required to determine the performance penalty that
Section 4: How SDN and NFV occurs due to replacing specialized devices with commodity servers.
work together p.53 (The penalty can be minimized by choosing appropriate software,
according to the proposal's authors.)
3. A migration path must be developed to enable NFV implementations
to coexist with existing management infrastructure and with legacy
network equipment.
Getting more PRO+ essential 4. A standard set of management interfaces must be developed to
content provide a consistent view across NFV components and remaining
hardware-based network components.
5. Automation services must be developed for NFV implementations to
scale.
6. Security, network resiliency and stability cannot be compromised by
the transition to NFV. New security strategies may need to be
developed to work in an NFV environment.
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7. Network operations must be simplified. Today's network complexity is

In this e-guide because of multiple devices and management methods developed
over past generations. NFV must provide simpler, more uniform
management.
8. Network operators must be able to integrate any vendor's server
NFV p.2
hardware, hypervisor, and any appliance.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks As for the future of NFV, several industry initiatives are underway. An
p.16 Industry Specification Group (ISG) has been formed within the auspices of
the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to address
existing challenges. Several computer and network equipment vendors have
joined with the service providers to advance this initiative. Plans also call for
working closely with the Open Networking Foundation as it continues to
Section 4: How SDN and NFV accelerate the adoption of SDN technologies and standards.
work together p.53
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 Next article

content
Page 13 of 117
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In this e-guide
Will network functions virtualization be
Section 1: The ins and outs of used in the enterprise?
NFV p.2
Jason Edelman, Principal Solutions Architect
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Jason Edelman explains whether or not network functions virtualization
p.16 will ever transition into the enterprise, or if it is a service/provider play.
Will network functions virtualization be used in enterprises, or is it just an

operator/service provider play?
Section 4: How SDN and NFV Network functions virtualization (NFV) will no doubt be used in the
work together p.53 enterprise, although it’s gaining traction in the service provider space. NFV
offers a wide range of benefits, even for the enterprises that include
reduced CapEx, linear scale/pricing, smaller fault domains. In addition, it
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 makes applications -- along with their associated policies -- more portable.

A side effect of all of this is an inherently better business continuity
plan. However, NFV for the enterprise will take time. This will require IT
content
teams to become more comfortable embracing software-centric L4-7
services, as well as changes in operational models. An understanding of how
to optimize performance with DPDKs, and potentially even looking at
programmable hardware, will be needed as well.
Another challenge is the time and process it takes to re-architect monolithic

services appliances that were predominantly deployed for north-south
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traffic. This could be done in a way where there may be many more
In this e-guide appliances, but each supporting smaller workloads and be optimized for
east/west traffic.
NFV p.2
Next article
p.16

work together p.53

content
Page 15 of 117
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In this e-guide
Challenges and issues with NFV
NFV p.2
It's clear what NFV can offer in terms of benefits, but challenges also exist.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Some network experts argue a new network management model is needed
p.16 for NFV and its implied orchestration. Operators will also face issues with
NFV implementation, as well as with finding funding for the new technology.

work together p.53

content
Page 16 of 117
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In this e-guide
Network Functions Virtualization
Section 1: The ins and outs of demands new network management
models
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Tom Nolle, President

p.16
When a cadre of giant global network operators started the initiative known
as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) in late 2012, their stated goal was
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 to leverage virtualization technology to consolidate network equipment
types onto industry-standard servers, switches and storage.
Clearly this was aimed at reducing the capital cost of purpose-built network
work together p.53
equipment. But only a year later, the focus widened. These same operators
believed the benefit of NFV would lie in improving the efficiency of
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 operations, even enabling service agility.
That was a profound shift that meant NFV's success would depend on its
Getting more PRO+ essential operational effectiveness and this would require a shift in network
content management model away from one that is device-driven and toward one
that would take into account orchestration across both legacy network
components and virtual resources.
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In this e-guide
Why virtual network functions can't be managed as
traditional network devices
NFV p.2
The challenge for NFV is that a new operations model must provide
efficiency across an entire service. This means management models must
Section 2: NFV roadblocks reach beyond hosting virtual functions on servers as specific devices.
p.16
What the ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group (ISG) process appears to
aim for is the creation of a network management model for NFV that "plugs
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 into" current network management system and OSS/BSS systems by
offering element management interfaces to NFV processes and elements.
In effect, this means that a virtual network function, or a complex of such
work together p.53
functions that emulates the behavior of a physical appliance (like a firewall),
would be a virtual form of that physical device and be managed in the same
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 way.
While this approach would address the stated goal of exploiting

virtualization, it also suggests that overall service deployment and
content
management practices would change little as NFV is deployed. That makes
it difficult to secure major changes in operating efficiency or service agility.
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In this e-guide
How to change the network management model for
NFV
NFV p.2
There are two ways this could change -- one by creating a smarter higher
layer above NFV, and the other by making an NFV virtual device into
Section 2: NFV roadblocks something very different from the real device on which it was based.
p.16
The connections between virtual network functions inside an NFV virtual
device could already involve legacy network components and certainly
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 would involve multiple virtual function components, virtual machines or
containers for hosting, etc. That means that every NFV virtual device is really
Section 4: How SDN and NFV a system of cooperating elements whose collective functionality has to be
work together p.53 reflected through the management information base that represents the
virtual device to any management system or OSS/BSS element.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 If the scope of a virtual device is very small -- limited to emulating a single
real appliance -- then current systems and practices would change little
when NFV is deployed. If, however, the virtual device was expanded to
include more legacy network components, it's possible to visualize an NFV
content
"device" that represents a complete end-to-end service, including both
virtual and legacy elements. In that case, how NFV services were deployed
and managed inside the virtual device boundary would determine how agile
and operationally efficient the service was.
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The problem with this approach is that we already have NMS, OSS, and BSS
In this e-guide systems for legacy networks and for the legacy components of future
networks. If NFV defines an umbrella operations model, how does that
model embrace service components that have no NFV components?
NFV p.2

A network management model for integrated NFV
p.16 An alternate approach preserves these past practices by creating a new
operations model that sits above the ETSI NFV processes. This model would
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 define services as a collection of virtual elements some of which might be
implemented through NFV processes and some through normal legacy-
network provisioning and management. Efficiencies in service agility and
operations efficiency would be created by this new operations model and
work together p.53
could be applied even to services with no NFV components at all.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 It should be clear that what's being considered here is less what needs to be
done operationally than where the new operations model would reside.
What's being described in either the "inside" or "on-top-of-NFV" situations is
Getting more PRO+ essential a two-level process of orchestration and management that contrasts with
content the single-level practices that dominate today. The NFV operations model
consists of a functional layer where logical components of services are
assembled into retail offerings regardless of how they are implemented, and
a second structural layer where the logical components are actually
deployed by committing network, software and server resources.
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This model fits both the evolving NFV specifications and cloud computing's
In this e-guide own notion of "DevOps" provisioning quite well, since both could fit in the
structural layer. However, there are no functional-layer models currently
accepted, and many would argue that none are under consideration. Two
issues deter such a model: jurisdiction and management.
NFV p.2

p.16
Who is responsible for building a management
model beyond OSS/BSS?
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 Something that lies between OSS/BSS systems and networks could
logically be called either an extension to OSS/BSS or an extension to the
Section 4: How SDN and NFV network.
work together p.53
The TM Forum (TMF) is the accepted OSS/BSS standards group and so
would be a logical candidate to pursue functional management models. The
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 problem is that functional operations models look a lot like building service
logic and the TMF is a management body.
On the network side, there's no shortage of possible sources for a model,
content
ranging from the NFV ISG and cloud groups like OpenStack, to the IETF, the
International Telecommunications Union, 3GPP and even the Open
Networking Foundation. A network-side operations model might end up
being five such models, which would then demand a higher-level model to
accommodate them all.
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The most likely paths to a resolution of NFV's operations challenges are the
In this e-guide TMF at the OSS/BSS level or a union of the NFV ISG and the ONF on the
network side. Those two bodies have already agreed on cooperating, but
the focus of their cooperation is well below the functional level and it leaves
management out of the picture completely.
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Next article

p.16

work together p.53

content
Page 22 of 117
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In this e-guide
Overcoming network functions
Section 1: The ins and outs of virtualization implementation challenges
NFV p.2
Tom Nolle, CIMI Corporation
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Network functions virtualization (NFV) technology aims to host network
p.16 functions on standardized servers rather than custom devices. While
vendors and carrier network operators are eager to launch trials, the
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) specification
process is scheduled to run until January 2015, so early NFV implementation
will have to be based on broader principles that will have to be adopted as
Section 4: How SDN and NFV more details emerge.
work together p.53
To achieve NFV implementation in the shorter term, vendors will have to
make four key decisions: on implementing a cloud-hosted model, choosing
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 network-optimized platforms, structuring services and resources based on
TM Forum principles to facilitate operations integration, and adopting an
Getting more PRO+ essential agile and loosely coupled data/process architecture.
content
Finding common management framework for NFV:

Go OpenStack?
In theory, NFV could be hosted on anything from dedicated physical servers
to virtual servers in the cloud.
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But in practice, accommodating that wide a range of implementation choices

In this e-guide is difficult without a consistent management framework that covers all the
options.
The answer to that problem may be in placing virtual functions in the cloud
NFV p.2
and using OpenStack as the cloud software platform. OpenStack has wide
industry support, and it has a network-as-a-service framework. Neutron
Section 2: NFV roadblocks (formerly called Quantum) has plug-ins that support most of the popular
p.16 SDN technologies and even some proprietary network management
systems (NMSs). However, Neutron is evolving to meet cloud computing
needs rather than the broader needs of network operators, and it's likely
that early implementations of NFV will have to extend Neutron for carrier
networks to cover things like traditional point-to-point connections that don't
Section 4: How SDN and NFV exist in the cloud. In this case, Neutron would have to be augmented by
work together p.53 developers -- or bypassed for the models it doesn't support.

Optimizing commercial servers for NFV
implementation
content
The success of NFV and hosting virtual functions will hinge on whether
these functions can be made available and perform as needed.
The expressed goal of the ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group (ISG) is to
do this on commercial servers, but these will have to be network-optimized
through both hardware and software. This optimization is particularly
necessary in the case of the data-path connection from network interfaces
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to virtual machines. After all, network devices vary depending on the traffic
In this e-guide they're expected to handle and the reliability they're expected to deliver. The
same scenario holds true for NFV hosts -- so the same optimization will be
necessary.
NFV p.2

Finding an NFV management model: Look to the
p.16 TM Forum
The third issue in implementing NFV is the management process. This has to
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 be based on a data model to describe services and resources. Even before
NFV came along, the TM Forum (TMF) provided a suitable, perhaps even
Section 4: How SDN and NFV ideal, data model, (SID) GB922. While it's likely this model will have to be
work together p.53 extended to support virtual functions and cloud resources, the extensions
are minimal, and GB922 offers a rich model for describing both services that
include virtual functions and the resources on which those functions are
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 hosted.
The TMF model greatly facilitates the structuring and management of both
resources and services, and NFV's own virtual-function management
content
conception will likely be fit into the larger TMF model in any case.
In addition, the TMF model can be easily adapted to represent not only
services newly composed from virtual functions, but also services
provisioned traditionally, and even those a partner supplies.
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By having a common architecture to represent all kinds of services, the

In this e-guide model allows operators to manage the transition to NFV when many
traditional network devices will remain in use.
NFV p.2
NFV implementation demands untraditional data
Section 2: NFV roadblocks models
p.16
Management integration and service modeling are only examples of the
largest and final NFV implementation decision, the data model. NFV touches
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 the existing network OSS/BSS, as well as NMSs, the cloud management
systems and the management of virtual functions themselves. It will have to
Section 4: How SDN and NFV accommodate all of the devices used to host NFV and all the surrounding
work together p.53 network equipment.
Virtualization, machine images of virtual functions, virtual-network SDN

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 connectivity and traffic patterns will all have to be considered in identifying
the best places to host functions and the best ways of connecting them. The
optimization task is significant, but the real challenge is simply expressing
the policies to guide deployment and accumulating the management data
content
needed. For that, NFV implementation demands thinking outside the box of
traditional data models.
Modern data-driven process models separate data storage from

data/information models, and they use a semantic layer to describe
interpretation and relationships.
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These can easily accommodate collector interfaces to gather telemetry

In this e-guide from devices and functions, as well as distribution interfaces to visualize the
data in the form a management system needs. The IETF has already
proposed using a data repository to accumulate resource information for
distribution to virtual functions or management processes in its
NFV p.2
Infrastructure to Application Exposure (i2aex) architecture. This semantic
modeling approach also makes it easy to adapt a prestandard
Section 2: NFV roadblocks implementation to interfaces yet to be specified by the NFV ISG.
p.16
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 In NFV implementation, do we need off-the-shelf

cloud apps?
work together p.53 Beyond these basic implementation points, there's also the basic question of
where virtual functions actually come from.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 If virtual functions have to be custom-developed to run in an NFV
implementation, there could be a potential delay in function availability. After
all, developers have to commit to the new environment, which could result in
multiple platforms with different requirement sets. The ability to host any
content
cloud-ready application or network component in NFV would solve the
function availability problem, but off-the-shelf cloud application or network
feature components couldn't take advantage of any special management,
availability or performance tools that might be built into the NFV
specification. The right answer is likely to support both off-the-shelf apps
and customized apps with NFV-optimized behavior. The market can then
choose what's most important.
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There will almost certainly be many NFV implementations before

In this e-guide specifications emerge. In fact, the ISG's work isn't intended to describe or
limit the implementation process and vendors, and NFV users will place
different values on different features and capabilities. As the
implementations roll out, we'll get our first concrete look at what NFV can
NFV p.2
do, and from that we'll be able to tell just how much of a revolution it will be.

p.16 Next article

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
NFV applications emerge from ISVs, but
Section 1: The ins and outs of challenges loom
NFV p.2
Lee Doyle, Principal Analyst
Section 2: NFV roadblocks The ISV community has the potential to drive network functions virtualization
p.16 (NFV) adoption, bringing IT's dynamic innovation to the staid telecom
environment. But with limited resources, it'll be a challenge to build sales
channels and create market awareness for NFV applications.

Who are the NFV ISVs?
work together p.53
The NFV ISV community comprises a group of approximately 50 companies
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 ranging from startups to established software suppliers. The category
excludes leading network equipment suppliers (e.g., Cisco, Ericsson and
Huawei, which derive the vast majority of their product revenue from
Getting more PRO+ essential equipment), as well as leading IT suppliers, such as HP, IBM, Dell and Oracle.
content
Wide breadth of NFV applications

The NFV ISV community provides applications that span a wide range of the
providers in the telecom infrastructure landscape, including:
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• Routing and broadband remote access server, or BRAS -- e.g.,

In this e-guide Brocade and Adara
• Virtual CPE (home and business) -- e.g., Active Broadband and
Netsocket
• Orchestration, management and monitoring -- e.g., Overture and
NFV p.2
Nakina
• Evolved packet core (mobile core) -- e.g., Affirmed and Connectem
Section 2: NFV roadblocks • Deep packet inspection, or DPI -- e.g., Saisei and Procera
p.16 • IMS or VoIP -- e.g., Mavenir and Metaswitch
• Session Border Control, or SBC -- e.g., Edgewater
• SDN -- e.g., Pica8, Big Switch, Cumulus
• Security -- e.g., Catbird and vAmour
• WAN optimization -- e.g., Vello Cloud, SilverPeak, Viptela and Pertino
Section 4: How SDN and NFV • Application Delivery Control (ADC) -- e.g., Embrane
work together p.53
These applications are delivered as Virtual Network Functions, or VNFs --
often as part of a broader NFV solution.
Getting more PRO+ essential Challenges for NFV ISVs

content
NFV ISVs face a number of vexing challenges as they bring their products to
market. The first challenge, of course, is to develop an innovative, virtualized
product that meets the reliability and scalability requirements of the telecom
industry. In addition to the technical challenges, ISVs also must develop a
succinct value proposition (elevator pitch) directed at large telcos,
explaining why they should introduce a new, unproven product into their
highly complex network operations.
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In a recent survey of 40 NFV ISVs, Doyle Research found their top

In this e-guide challenges include:
• Creating market awareness

• Building effective sales channels
NFV p.2
• Ability to scale with qualified people
• Finding the financial resources to invest in long-term growth
p.16
A marketing message that can be heard in a sea of

hype
Section 4: How SDN and NFV The surge in interest in NFV by the tier one telecom service providers has
work together p.53 led to a rapid increase in the number and volume of marketing messages
around NFV products and solutions. The challenge for NFV ISVs is to break
out of the market noise and make potential customers aware of their unique
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 solutions. These efforts are often hampered by limited marketing resources
and people as the ISVs focus their resources on technical efforts.
content
NFV channels tackle lengthy sales cycles
NFV is a complex and highly technical sale to network operators. The sales
cycle can be one or two years long, especially if it involves starting in the
labs, moving to proofs of concept and then to limited deployments. NFV
ISVs generally hire a few direct sales folks to develop "lighthouse" accounts,
but must rely on partners and the channel to sell to a broader audience.
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A number of large IT and network suppliers, including Intel, Alcatel-Lucent

In this e-guide and HP, have created their own ISV ecosystems designed to help smaller
ISVs get their products to market.
NFV p.2
How to handle the challenge of a small staff
Most NFV ISVs have limited technical and support resources, sometimes
p.16 with only a few dozen people on staff. For those lucky enough to land a tier
one customer (or two), those resources can easily be consumed during a
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 six-month trial or proof-of-concept engagement. NFV ISVs need partners to
help them scale their technical integration and global support resources.

work together p.53
Finding the financial resources to push through trial
periods
The investment community remains strongly supportive of NFV and SDN
Getting more PRO+ essential startups. The challenge for NFV ISVs is to maintain the required financial
content resources for long enough to sustain them through a period of limited
revenue as customers trial their products (generally for free). The NFV
market is quite small now but is expected to grow strongly during 2015 and
2016 as customers move to limited, then broader production deployment.
Page 32 of 117
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In this e-guide
Conclusions
Section 1: The ins and outs of ISVs are critical in delivering NFV technology to the traditionally slow-moving
NFV p.2 telecom industry. A large number of network software suppliers are
delivering initial NFV applications across a wide variety of use cases. In
addition to developing technically excellent products, these ISVs will need to
clearly articulate the use case and benefits of their products, attract the
p.16
right sales partners, and work to scale their technical resources as they gain
new customers. The development of the NFV market will be relatively slow in
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 the near term, and investors and IT partners will need to take a long-term
view to nurture the tremendous value of this community.
work together p.53
Next article

content
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In this e-guide
SDN and NFV will come to life in the
Section 1: The ins and outs of operator network, eventually
NFV p.2
Rivka Little, NICE Actimize
Section 2: NFV roadblocks SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The Open Networking Summit 2014 this week could
p.16 have been called "The NFV Show."
Telecom operators took the stage, one after the other, detailing plans to
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 migrate away from "brittle" or inflexible legacy networks by implementing a
combination of network functions virtualization (NFV) and SDN. Yet, details
Section 4: How SDN and NFV on the software or hardware tools needed to make this transition are still in
work together p.53 short supply.
AT&T, NTT, Telefonica and Telecom Italia were among the operators that
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 spoke at the Open Networking Summit. Each will use varying strategies to
virtualize key network functions, placing them on commodity servers and
Getting more PRO+ essential then connecting them through a flexible SDN infrastructure that is all
content
managed through a unified orchestration system.
The goal is to provision virtual services and applications in minutes instead

of the months it takes on legacy networks. This will make it more cost-
efficient to run and scale networks, since operators will be able to provision
and de-provision bandwidth on demand based on actual user need. Also, this
kind of granular network function control will eventually let operators offer
optimized, customized content on demand.
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If customers can pay more, they can get better service. That means NFV
In this e-guide and SDN could be linked to revenue generation in addition to network
efficiency.
But that kind of total network transformation is a long way off.
NFV p.2
"This is five to eight years out," said Forrester Research principal analyst
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Andre Kindness. Operators will face challenges in finding tools that let them
p.16 equally manage virtual and physical resources through a common interface,
he said.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 Telecom operators have extremely complex Operation Support Systems
and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) that manage every function,
from business issues like billing, to performance elements, such as quality of
service, and performance of logical and physical resources. As networks
work together p.53
have become more complex and multi-layered, OSS/BSS has become
complicated and even behemoth.
"OSS/BSS is their biggest challenge. These systems will have to tie into this
[new] orchestration infrastructure," said IDC research manager Nav
Chander. "They will [eventually have to] get rid of legacy OSS and
content
consolidate networks" to make them programmable enough to make
dynamic changes.
Operators can and will move incrementally to NFV, starting with specific
groups of network features and functions. Mobile operators are already
virtualizing their Evolved Packet Core (EPC), the technology that handles
subscriber management and authorization.
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Cisco Chief CTO and Chief Architect David Ward explained that EPC
In this e-guide functions are a relatively clean and straightforward lift from the physical
appliance into a virtual instance. Cisco now offers virtualized EPC
technology.
NFV p.2
Other operators are already beginning to dynamically provision virtual
firewalls, load balancing and WAN optimization. "The real opportunity is
Section 2: NFV roadblocks customer-facing services. We can each have our own virtual service
p.16 wherever we go," Chander said.
But to go deep enough to provision bandwidth on demand, with self-service

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 network features and optimized content, operators are seeking new ideas
and tools to scale SDN (or some other form of programmability) across the
Section 4: How SDN and NFV WAN. They're looking for ideas on how to extend orchestration to each layer
work together p.53 of their network and controllers with programmability that can reach down
into the optical transport layer. The challenges are many.
AT&T will take on radical shift

content AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of Networks John Donovan delivered
a concise keynote message: AT&T is embarking on radical change in the
form of SDN and NFV.
The first step will be to dump purpose-built equipment designed for specific
sets of features. Instead, AT&T will virtualize network functions that can be
"instantiated and updated from anywhere and more quickly than they are
today," Donovan said.
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Then, AT&T will build programmable networks that "dynamically reroute

In this e-guide traffic, add capacity, and introduce new features through programmable,
policy-based controllers." Along the way, AT&T will provide open application
programming interfaces, so customers and partners can build their own
apps into the network.
NFV p.2
But Donovan was the first to admit the technology is not in place for this
Section 2: NFV roadblocks transformation, so AT&T will look beyond only incumbent vendors, like Cisco
p.16 and Juniper, in the search for innovative tools. The company has met with
more than 100 vendors -- both startup and incumbent -- as well as
researchers in its quest.
"This allows for non-traditional network players, smaller entrepreneurial
Section 4: How SDN and NFV players, universities and others to participate in our new ecosystem in
work together p.53 addition to the existing players," he said.
AT&T is already focusing on virtualizing its EPC and IP multimedia

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 subsystem. Donovan identified hardware vendors Ericsson and Metaswitch
as two established suppliers that are on board with AT&T's plans. He also
identified two smaller vendors, Tail-f Systems and Affirmed Networks. Tail-f
provides network control software that can manage network gear from
content
multiple vendors by interfacing with their existing control planes. Affirmed
Networks develops technology that virtualizes EPC.
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In this e-guide
NTT's toe is in the NFV and SDN pool, but the
operator is ready to dive in
NFV p.2
NTT first took on network virtualization and SDN in 2012 with its Enterprise
Cloud service. The operator implemented OpenFlow SDN both inside the
Section 2: NFV roadblocks cloud data center and in the intra-data center network, bypassing manual
p.16 configuration of routers and switches, and enabling automated provisioning
of cloud resources.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 Now, the company is ready to take SDN and NFV further, and will start by
working toward self-service, automated VPN provisioning.
"We automated configurations of provisioning within the data center, but
work together p.53
existing VPN service is still done by manual operations. What we will focus
on next is the interconnection portion between the data center and the VPN
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 network," said Yukio Ito, NTT senior vice president. "Both networks have
edge devices, and we need a system to configure both devices
simultaneously."
content
NTT is working with technology that will let users configure their network by
entering the information into a portal, which then speaks to a controller that
turns on the VPN. That information is also advertised to an edge router for
distribution in the VPN network, Ito explained.
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Next up, NTT will turn its vision to virtualizing network functions, such as
In this e-guide WAN accelerators and firewalls, so customers no longer have to build them
on-premises, Ito said. These services will be connected through an "SDN
common framework" and controlled through an orchestrator.
NFV p.2
Finally, NTT will go deeper with SDN and NFV beyond Layer 2/3 and into the
optical and transport network, Ito said. But he also made clear that this is a
Section 2: NFV roadblocks deeper challenge.
p.16
"To apply SDN to the whole network, we need to think about how we apply
SDN to wide area network," Ito said. This will require multilayer optimization
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 and multi-grade redundancy, as well as a migration of all management
techniques.
NTT has started by building overlay networks and will move slowly to full
work together p.53
SDN. In the meantime, NTT can simplify the network by using virtual
"network slices" to connect NFVs.
Getting more PRO+ essential Ciena demands operators step up to NFV and SDN,
content but it doesn't offer total solution
Francois Locoh-Donou, senior vice president of Ciena Corp.'s global
products group, scolded operators for not moving quickly enough into
programmability. Then he outlined Ciena's NFV and SDN strategy -- which is
also largely still in development.
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"At Mobile World Congress, there were 70,000 of us that descended on that
In this e-guide city. Prices at hotels went through the roof, prices of car rentals were three
times higher, flights were more expensive … but what about the price of
network service? No change," Locoh-Donou said. "Why is it that when there
is a golden opportunity for network operators to optimize their
NFV p.2
infrastructure, they're not able to do so?"
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Ciena is offering a combination of technology that lets operators gain a
p.16 global view of the network with the ability to collect network usage data in
real time. Then, operators can use this information for flexible provisioning
and resource management. "If we can define network behaviors, we gain a
lot of flexibility; we can evolve services faster," he said.
Section 4: How SDN and NFV Ciena will use OpenDaylight (ODL) controllers that direct flows among
work together p.53 "contention-less optical switches that allow wavelengths to move around the
network." The use of ODL controllers will also mean operators can build
their own applications as needed.
Getting more PRO+ essential Next article

content
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In this e-guide
Section 3: NFV upsides
The benefits of NFV
NFV p.2
Cost efficiency is a main driver of NFV. Learn how increased service agility
Section 2: NFV roadblocks and other benefits could result from an NFV implementation.
p.16

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
Is service agility the payoff in network
Section 1: The ins and outs of functions virtualization?
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) “the technology that allows
p.16 operators to virtualize network functions and run them on less-expensive
off-the-shelf servers” has generated quite the buzz with the promise of cost
savings.
Yet despite initial dreams of tossing out expensive proprietary routers for
Section 4: How SDN and NFV commodity servers, NFV's path to network spending reduction is fuzzy. It
work together p.53 remains unclear whether the technology will ever offer the performance
necessary to replace proprietary routing and other core network functions
in large-scale networks.
However, NFV will enable the virtualization of plenty of other network
Getting more PRO+ essential features, and will lead to a new level of service agility. With that, the
content
technology promises an even more enticing promise than operational cost
savings: It could mean new service revenue.
The idea is that NFV will let operators virtualize network appliances and
services, which can then be dynamically provisioned and integrated into a
larger orchestration context.
Essentially, network services such as firewalling and load balancing will be

provisioned as flexibly as the applications they support.
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Until now, operators have been able to automate applications that live on
In this e-guide virtual servers, but then they would have to manually provision the
supporting network services, sometimes even on a hop-by-hop basis. This
manual process has been counterproductive to automated, orchestrated
application provisioning.
NFV p.2
NFV is still in its early stages, but if the technology eventually enables
Section 2: NFV roadblocks dynamic provisioning of network services, it could become the dominant
p.16 network technology shift of the decade.

Service agility, the holy grail of NFV
Section 4: How SDN and NFV When it comes to NFV, operators love to toss about the term service agility.
work together p.53 That's because currently it can take between two weeks and two months for
operators to provision business services. Worse, if these services require
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 new supporting infrastructure, it can take more than six months of lab work
and then additional time to build the new devices. With NFV, operators hope
to avoid this lengthy deployment because services are created through
Getting more PRO+ essential software integration and can be validated and deployed faster.
content
While NFV could clearly substitute for appliances like firewalls and load-
balancers, or even for internal components of IP Multimedia Subsystem
(IMS), the catch will be in how much of a provisioned service is actually
software-based.
The more legacy equipment involved in provisioning a new service, the less
impact NFV can have on service agility.
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And that will be a common dilemma, since operators won't likely replace
In this e-guide access equipment. They won't, for example, replace carrier Ethernet with
hosted Ethernet switching. Even where an operator uses virtual switching,
optical transport and other deeper OSI functions won't be converted into
virtual functions. So in order to maximize NFV benefits, operators must
NFV p.2
extend NFV orchestration outside the boundaries of network functions to
underlying legacy network. Vendors and operators are still working on
Section 2: NFV roadblocks strategies to extend NFV orchestration in this way.
p.16
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 New network features for potential revenue
While there are still challenges in using NFV to impact service velocity in a
significant way, the technology can already enable a new range of service
work together p.53
features that will be used to produce revenue. NFV will allow operators to
offer context-aware network services, or the ability to ensure varying levels
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 of service and performance according to application, user or location.
Ultimately, providers will be able to charge accordingly for these granular
services and performance assurances.
content The ETSI specifications for NFV make it clear that NFV and cloud
computing, or hosted applications, are very closely related. A network
function could eventually be composed and provisioned in exactly the same
way as a SaaS application. This could create a totally new model of services,
blending network features with cloud computing or blending cloud-hosted
application components with network services.
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An example of this would be distributed load-balancing for cloudbursting. In

In this e-guide a model in which copies of an application are hosted in the cloud, but are
dispersed and shared among users, NFV and its dynamic provisioning can
be used to load balance effectively across sites and users.
NFV p.2
This kind of granularity in management lets operators define QoS/QoE
goals for a cloud application according to users' specific needs and meet
Section 2: NFV roadblocks those goals at the network level. Additionally, they can integrate managed
p.16 security and availability features into applications dynamically. Network
operators will use this capability to differentiate their own higher-level
services by tying them directly to network behavior.
NFV services must offer this kind of integration of applications and network
Section 4: How SDN and NFV behavior in order to be differentiated from other cloud services. But there
work together p.53 are also other important features beyond transport/connection QoS.
Network access security, as well as network resiliency and manageability,

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 are all features that can be linked to the network and offered more easily
and granularly with NFV.
NFV's dynamic distributed load-balancing and management across data
content
centers or clouds will allow operators to secure sites from DDoS attacks, as
well as to manage an array of remote devices, and even to use IT tools for
facilities management, to make power usage decisions for example.
NFV could also be extended to non-connectivity features of the network.

Probably the most relevant of these use cases is context-aware networking
or the ability to make performance and provisioning decisions based on
location, user activity and even social context.
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If users are busy, they don't have to receive application access. Or they can
In this e-guide receive varying levels of access depending on the type of application they
need.
Ultimately, it's not likely that NFV will introduce new services that couldn't
NFV p.2
otherwise be provided. NFV is about function hosting, and there are many
ways to host functions-- from appliances to dedicated servers, through
Section 2: NFV roadblocks virtualization and via the cloud. But NFV will create a framework for
p.16 deploying complex applications and operating them with high reliability and
low operational expenditure costs. This will allow operators to price even
complex contextual applications at levels that are consistent with broad
adoption and still make a satisfactory profit from their investment. It will also
allow operators to bring new services to market faster, accelerating revenue
Section 4: How SDN and NFV realization and encouraging investment.
work together p.53
The future of carrier networking depends on a combination of utility for
buyers and profit for the operators. NFV doesn't change the game, but it
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 optimizes how it's played, and that's just as important in today's world.

content Next article
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In this e-guide
How network functions virtualization will
Section 1: The ins and outs of revolutionize architecture
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks For decades, networks and network services have been built by linking
p.16 purpose-built hardware through communications trunks, then inducing
cooperative behavior among these elements using management systems.
The process worked well for traditional services, but it is breaking down in
the Internet age as operators look to reduce the cost of their infrastructure
to accommodate lower revenue per bit. Now, those operators want their
Section 4: How SDN and NFV own flexible platforms for building new revenue-generating services
work together p.53 because they are competing with handset and over-the-top players.
Network functions virtualization (NFV) is the initiative that embodies both
these goals.
Currently being considered by an Industry Specification Group within the
Getting more PRO+ essential European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), as well as other
content industry groups including the Open Networking Foundation, NFV aims to
move network functions out of network equipment and onto virtual hosting.
These functions range from simple firewalls, network address translation
and load balancing to more complex processes, such as IP Multimedia
Subsystem and the Evolved Packet Core framework.
If it's successfully developed and implemented, NFV will completely

revolutionize how networks are built, managed and used to create services.
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It's unlikely that virtual hosts will totally displace network equipment (data-
In this e-guide plane tasks like large-scale packet forwarding will likely require specialized
devices, though they could be simpler and cheaper), but the high-value
portion of network services could be made into a series of interoperating,
cloud-hosted components. In this context, virtual devices could be used to
NFV p.2
accomplish special missions, and they could be as easy to build as a
componentized application.
p.16 Network functions virtualization depends on the proper execution of four
steps:
1. Existing network functions have to be componentized and broken into
virtual functions with standard interfaces. It's likely that the points of
Section 4: How SDN and NFV virtual function componentization will at first align with existing device
work together p.53 boundaries and with standard component descriptions generated by
such standards groups as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project or
the Internet Engineering Task Force.
2. These new virtual functions will have to be structured to be run as
applications in the cloud, with virtual network interfaces instead of the
Getting more PRO+ essential physical connectors that serve device networks.
content 3. A deployment process, something resembling DevOps, will be needed
to instantiate virtual functions and connect them into cooperating
systems as we used to do with devices.
4. We'll need a new vision of management to handle a world where
major pieces of the network are virtual software elements sharing
servers, not real devices with real management interfaces to control
their behavior.
Page 48 of 117
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In this e-guide
Moving from hardware-based functions to virtual
ones
NFV p.2
Some network functions already are available in the form of open source or
proprietary software, but much is embedded in hardware. To be turned into
Section 2: NFV roadblocks virtual components, hardware functions have to be separated from the
p.16 specific hardware on which they run, which might leave some elemental
device with basic features behind -- similar to what could happen with
software-defined networking, or SDN.
For NFV to work, it will have to work with standardized components that
Section 4: How SDN and NFV obey defined and interoperable interfaces. It also will have to work with
work together p.53 proprietary components created by vendors to support cloud capabilities.
For example, engineers will have to be able to create multiple instances of a
function for improved reliability or performance. Open source packages or
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 software-based implementations of vendor-specific routers, switches,
firewalls and other elements could be suitable components in their current
Getting more PRO+ essential forms.
content
To make a component into a virtual function, you'll have to convert it into a
standard form suitable for deployment on a virtual resource pool, such as
the cloud. Obviously there are no physical plugs and sockets on a virtual
function, so every real interface will have to be replaced with a virtual one,
such as an Open vSwitch or other similar product. This would then manage
the connections and data flows among the virtual functions when they
deploy.
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At this point, some standardization of the server requirements will likely be

In this e-guide needed to ensure that every virtual function doesn't need its own specialized
hosting platform features.
These newly componentized and standardized virtual functions then will
NFV p.2
have to be deployed to create services, much as service-oriented
architecture components are deployed and integrated to build applications.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks In the cloud, this could be a function of cloud-management application
p.16 programming interfaces like Nova and Quantum in OpenStack, or
deployment could be managed through a DevOps process, using something
like Chef or Puppet. For NFV to provide reasonable operating costs and
agile deployment, some automated mechanism is indicated, and the NFV
activity could elect to identify something specific or only to provide the
Section 4: How SDN and NFV means of integrating a variety of open source or commercial tools to do the
work together p.53 job.

NFV management challenges
Getting more PRO+ essential Management is the most challenging aspect of NFV. It's true that NFV must
content somehow support the current network management, network operations
and the OSS/BSS processesOoSperations and business support systems
S/BSS processes of operators, but it's also true that doing this probably is
not as simple as providing a virtual management interface for each virtual
function. The actual resources that host and connect virtual functions are
outside the functions, so it isn't likely they'll be fully visible to current
management apps.
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Furthermore, they are shared resources, so no management interface can

In this e-guide be allowed to do something to a virtual function that would have a negative
impact on other functions that might share some of the resources.
Management changes must also preserve network stability and security. For
all these reasons, it could be that the management of virtual functions will
NFV p.2
itself be virtual, provided by some external process that relates virtual
functions and their resources to a series of management interfaces that can
Section 2: NFV roadblocks support both current and future management activities.
p.16
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 What will it take to create NFV standards?
To address all these steps with new standards would be a task so complex
it's doubtful it could be completed in a decade. It's therefore likely that ETSI
work together p.53
and associated organizations will develop NFV using current standards from
other bodies rather than creating new ones.
Where no standard is suitable, they'd recommend changes to the most
relevant standard available, working through the standards body that
Getting more PRO+ essential "owned" that particular standard. Any standard that currently defines the
content internetworking of real devices could be used to define virtual functions. For
example, virtualization and cloud management standards could describe
how virtual functions are actually hosted.
Network functions virtualization is an incredibly ambitious effort, but it's

driven by a growing number of vendors and operators who want to create a
profitable, stable and agile network framework for future services.
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It's already influencing network design for operators and product planning
In this e-guide for vendors. As it matures, its effects will surely be felt even in enterprise
networking. The union of the network and IT that the cloud represents could
be built on the architecture that NFV defines in the near future. If so, it will
shape every enterprise and consumer service delivered through the
NFV p.2
network.

p.16 Next article

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
Section 4: How SDN and NFV work
Section 1: The ins and outs of together
NFV p.2
What is the relationship between SDN and NFV
SDN and NFV aren't one in the same. In this section, experts explain the
p.16
differences between SDN and NFV, while also taking a look at how each
complements the other. Together, SDN and NFV provide powerful benefits
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 to those in the mobile space as well as within service chain provisioning.

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
What is the difference between SDN and
Section 1: The ins and outs of NFV?
NFV p.2
Glen Kemp, Professional services consultant
Section 2: NFV roadblocks What is the difference between SDN and NFV?
p.16
Network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networks (SDN)
are two closely related technologies that often exist together, but not
always. An SDN can be considered a series of network objects (such as
switches, routers, firewalls) that deploy in a highly automated manner. The
Section 4: How SDN and NFV automation may be achieved by using commercial or open source tools
work together p.53 customized according to the administrator's requirements. A full SDN may
only cover relatively straightforward networking requirements, such as
VLAN and interface provisioning.
In many cases, SDN will also be linked to server virtualization, providing the
Getting more PRO+ essential glue that sticks virtual networks together. This may involve NFV, but not
content necessarily. NFV is the process of moving services, such as load balancing,
firewalls and IPS, away from dedicated hardware into a virtualized
environment. This is, of course, part of a wider movement toward the
virtualization of applications and services.
Functions such as caching and content control can easily be migrated to a

virtualized environment but won't necessarily provide any significant
reduction in operating costs until some intelligence is introduced.
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This is because a straight physical to virtual, from an operational

In this e-guide perspective, achieves little beyond the initial reduction in power and rack-
space consumption. Until some dynamic intelligence is introduced with an
SDN technology, NFV inherits many of the same constraints as traditional
hardware appliance deployments, such as static, administrator-defined and
NFV p.2
managed policies.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks A good example is virtualized application delivery controllers (ADCs). With
p.16 careful configuration, it is possible to react to the network state and spin up
or down application servers as demands rise and fall. However, traditional
hardware deployments have been able to do this for a while, and the
configuration is very static; it doesn't cater to the scenario where the ADC
itself becomes overloaded or an additional application needs to be brought
Section 4: How SDN and NFV into production quickly. With SDN features driving NFV, several useful things
work together p.53 start to happen. The network can react when things need to change at the
micro and macro level. An additional instance can be provisioned in a cluster
of virtualized ADCs as the load increases, and production applications can
easily be cloned and re-deployed in a development environment. The
potential is endless.
content So it's perfectly possible to have NFV without the inclusion of a full-blown
SDN. The two are often deployed together, and an SDN that drives NFV is a
very powerful combination.
Neither NFV nor SDN are turnkey solutions in early 2014 -- a great deal of
integration and policy design still need to happen. This can become a reality
for many enterprises, but the harness is not entirely in place.
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That said, the tools are rapidly evolving, and many vendors are bringing
In this e-guide technologies to market that support SDN or NFV deployments. Ultimately,
the implementation of either or both technologies will be driven by the
business needs.
NFV p.2
Next article
p.16

work together p.53

content
Page 56 of 117
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In this e-guide
Understanding the relationship between
Section 1: The ins and outs of SDN and NFV
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks It's difficult to get an industry with a long depreciation cycle for capital
p.16 equipment to support any sort of revolution, but networking is facing two at
once. Both software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions
virtualization (NFV) propose revolutionary developments, and the success of
either in changing the network may depend on the technologies being
somewhat harmonious, if not actually supportive of each other. Just where
Section 4: How SDN and NFV the points of harmony lie may explain our roadmap to the network of the
work together p.53 future.

SDN and NFV are not part and parcel
Getting more PRO+ essential SDN evolved out of two fairly different industry problems. First, building and
content managing large IP/Ethernet networks was becoming increasingly complex
given the adaptive nature of packet forwarding for both protocols. Traffic
management and operations efficiencies could be improved, many said, by
exercising central control over forwarding. Early examples of SDN by
players like Google seem to bear this out.
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Second, the promise of cloud computing creates a new model for

In this e-guide application deployment where tenants must share public cloud data centers
in a non-interfering way, and multi-component applications must be
deployed on flexible resource pools without losing control over performance
and security. Given two different missions, it's not surprising that there are
NFV p.2
at least three models of SDN being promoted. One model is based on
centralized control using OpenFlow controllers, another depends on using
Section 2: NFV roadblocks SDN to provision and manage network virtualization using network overlays,
p.16 and the third is a distributed model in which a higher layer of software
communicates with the network and its existing protocols.
Network functions virtualization is a carrier-driven initiative to virtualize
network functions and migrate them from purpose-built devices to generic
Section 4: How SDN and NFV servers. The express goals of NFV are to reduce deployment costs for
work together p.53 services by reducing the reliance on proprietary devices and to improve
service flexibility by using a more agile software-based framework for
building service features. From the first white paper proposing NFV,
innovators visualized a pool of virtual functions, a pool of resources, and a
composition/orchestration process that links the former to the latter. That
Getting more PRO+ essential paper suggests that NFV and SDN have some overlap, but SDN is not a
content subset of NFV, or the other way around. So where do SDN and NFV
intersect? And how will the interaction between SDN and NFV impact the
evolution of both ideas?
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In this e-guide
SDN and NFV will meet to advance centralized
control … down the road
NFV p.2
It seems clear that NFV could define the central control functions of SDN as
virtual functions, so, for example, OpenFlow switches could be directed by
Section 2: NFV roadblocks NFV software. In theory, the SDN controller could be implemented as a
p.16 virtual function, which would make it conform to both SDN and NFV.
Firewall and load-balancing applications are also targets of NFV since they
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 have an SDN-like segregation of forwarding and control behaviors. Indeed, if
NFV addresses the general case of policy-managed forwarding, it could
Section 4: How SDN and NFV define a superset of SDN.
work together p.53
NFV could also define central control and administration of networks that
operate through other protocols, such as BGP and MPLS, and even define
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 configuration and management of optical-layer transport. However, none of
these appear to be near-term priorities for the body, and so this direct
overlap of SDN and NFV doesn't seem likely in the next few years.
content
NFV demands virtual network overlays … and thus

SDN
While it may take some time before we see NFV play a key role in SDN
architecture and vice versa, the use of network overlays in NFV will drive an
intersection of the technologies in the shorter term.
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NFV is likely to at least accept, if not mandate, a model of cloud-hosted

In this e-guide virtual functions. Each collection of virtual functions that make up a user
service could be viewed as a tenant on NFV infrastructure, which would
mean that the cloud issues of multi-tenancy would likely influence NFV to
adopt a software-overlay network model. This is where SDN comes into
NFV p.2
play.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks This model, made up of tunnels and vSwitches, would segregate virtual
p.16 functions to prevent accidental or malicious interaction, and it would link
easily to current cloud computing virtual network interfaces like
OpenStack's Quantum. The virtual networks would be provisioned and
managed using SDN.
Section 4: How SDN and NFV Adoption of network overlays for virtual function segregation could make
work together p.53 NFV the largest consumer of cloud networking and SDN services. This
would mean that NFV could shape product features and accelerate product
deployment in the SDN space.
That alone could have an impact on every cloud computing data center and
application, including private and hybrid clouds.
content
How NFV will push SDN beyond the data center

NFV's use of virtual network overlays could also drive an expansion of this
SDN model beyond the data center where it's focused most often today.
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If NFV allows services to be composed of virtual functions hosted in

In this e-guide different data centers, that would require virtual networks to stretch across
data centers and become end-to-end. An end-to-end virtual network would
be far more interesting to enterprises than one limited to the data center.
Building application-specific networks that extend to the branch locations
NFV p.2
might usher in a new model for application access control, application
performance management and even application security.
p.16
Will NFV unify differing SDN models?

With the use of network overlays, NFV could also unify the two models of
SDN infrastructure -- centralized and distributed. If connectivity control and
application component or user isolation are managed by the network
work together p.53
overlay, then the physical-network mission of SDN can be more constrained
to traffic management. If SDN manages aggregated routes more than
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 individual application flows, it could be more scalable.
Remember that the most commonly referenced SDN applications today --

Getting more PRO+ essential data center LANs and Google's SDN IP core network -- are more route-
content driven than flow-driven. Unification of the SDN model might also make it
easier to sort out SDN implementations. The lower physical network SDN in
this two-layer model might easily be created using revisions to existing
protocols, which has already been proposed. While it doesn't offer the kind
of application connectivity control some would like, that requirement would
be met by the higher software virtual network layer or overlay.
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Despite all the conversations, SDN and NFV are still works in progress, and
In this e-guide both could miss their targets. But if NFV succeeds in reaching its goals, it will
solidify and propel SDN forward as well and create a common network
revolution at last.
NFV p.2
Next article
p.16

work together p.53

content
Page 62 of 117
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In this e-guide
In mobile networks, SDN and NFV mean
Section 1: The ins and outs of service orchestration
NFV p.2
Indranil Chatterjee, Community Member
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Software-defined networking (SDN) and Network functions virtualization
p.16 (NFV) took center stage at Mobile World Congress this year as it became
clear that the technology has the potential to revolutionize mobile operator
networks. SDN and NFV can enable resource and service orchestration with
dynamic provisioning that can take minutes instead of months.

work together p.53
In mobile networks, the need for dynamic
provisioning and orchestration
The foundation of Ethernet and IP protocol networks is elegant and simple,
but things have become ever more complicated over the years with the
content
introduction of features, such as access control lists (ACLs) and VLANs.
This issue has become even more pronounced in mobile core data centers
where operators must support control plane functions, such as policy and
charging rules function (PCRF), User Data Repository (UDR) for subscriber
data management and user plane applications involving complex Layer 7+
processing for rapidly growing video traffic.
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Let's take the example of a control plane function, UDR, to illustrate current
In this e-guide mobile network operator challenges. Openwave Mobility has deployed a
UDR with a customer that has over 100 million subscribers. The UDR is
accessed by dozens of applications including the short message service
center (SMSC) and the multimedia messaging service (MMSC) in real time
NFV p.2
for reading and writing subscriber attribute data. It is arguably one of the
most critical control plane elements in the customer's network. While the
Section 2: NFV roadblocks application has been solid over the last 10 years, there are two areas where
p.16 this application can benefit from the introduction of SDN and NFV.
The first area is related to provisioning lead times. Today the UDR
dimensioning and provisioning based on peak traffic forecasts has to be
done almost a year in advance to account for setting up hardware, VLANs,
Section 4: How SDN and NFV load balancing, as well as software installations, configuration, data
work together p.53 synchronization, and so on. That's a complex and time-consuming process
to say the least. Imagine the multiplicative effect of this challenge for
network and IT personnel when you take into account that each application
in the network that has its own solution for load balancing, high availability
(HA), configuration, monitoring, reporting, and the like.
content This has resulted in CFOs sweating with the working capital ramifications of
these long lead times. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that, given
the long lead times, operators usually end up overprovisioning by 60-100%
to ensure that there are no outages on days like Dec 25th, which would be a
PR nightmare and immediate trigger for churn of subscribers.
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The second challenge that could be addressed by SDN and NFV is a

In this e-guide concept that is interestingly not talked about as much in the context of SDN
-- separation of application logic and enforcement from corresponding
subscriber data. In many applications today, such as the policy and charging
rules function (PCRF) and home subscriber service (HSS), the subscriber
NFV p.2
data and application logic/enforcement are banded together, usually in a
proprietary interface, resulting in subscriber data that resides in multiple
Section 2: NFV roadblocks silos leading to data duplication, storage inefficiencies, data errors,
p.16 complexity in the application related to HA and ultimately increasing the
complexity and time to market for new applications.

How SDN and NFV address mobile network
work together p.53 challenges
We know already that SDN and NFV can address these challenges in two
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 ways: dynamic resource orchestration and intelligent service orchestration.
Dynamic resource orchestration, involving the principles of NFV, requires a
Getting more PRO+ essential uniform virtualization stack across applications often in the context of a
content private cloud for operators.
This means that individual applications such as the UDR not only have the
capability to run on virtual machines but also have the capability of being
auto-elastic during peak load times, with self-configured new instances
coming up while maintaining state and critical capabilities such as HA and
failover.
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This ultimately means that operators can reduce lead times for dimensioning
In this e-guide and provisioning of resources for an application down to minutes from
months. Meanwhile intelligent service orchestration primarily involves the
principles of SDN whereby switches, routers and applications at Layer 7 can
be programmed from a centralized component called the controller with
NFV p.2
intelligent decisions regarding individual flow routing in real time. It is
important to note that intelligent service orchestration means subscriber
Section 2: NFV roadblocks policy and profile-aware service chaining at the flow level. In other words to
p.16 realize this vision of differentiated service offerings by mobile operators will
require a centralized data component such as a UDR. The SDN controller
will interface with a UDR to truly enable dynamic and subscriber aware
service chaining for each flow.
Section 4: How SDN and NFV In summary, dynamic resource orchestration in tandem with intelligent
work together p.53 service orchestration dramatically cuts down the long lead times associated
with dimensioning and provisioning additional resources for an existing
application, while also reducing the cost and time to market for new
applications. It also goes a step further by providing the capability to deploy
subscriber-aware services.
content Given that this is a paradigm shift when it comes to how OpenWave's
customers deploy and go to market with new services, the reality is that all
this will be done very much in a phased approach over the next few years. In
terms of functional areas, operators are focusing on OSS/BSS and the
services data center as testing grounds for SDN and NFV, where proof of
concepts have involved basic resource orchestration capabilities such as
deploying applications on virtual machines.
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In 2013 we will see thought leadership and proof-of-concepts given our

In this e-guide interactions and active engagements with mobile operators with regards to
SDN and NFV.
NFV p.2
Next article
p.16

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
How SDN and NFV simplify network
Section 1: The ins and outs of service chain provisioning
NFV p.2
David Jacobs
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Service chaining is not a new concept, but the trend has taken on a new
p.16 importance with the rise of SDN and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).
A service chain simply consists of a set of network services, such as

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 firewalls or application delivery controllers (ADCs) that are interconnected
through the network to support an application. But SDN and NFV can make
Section 4: How SDN and NFV the service chain and application provisioning process a whole lot shorter
work together p.53 and simpler.
In the past, building a service chain to support a new application took a great
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 deal of time and effort. It meant acquiring network devices and cabling them
together in the required sequence. Each service required a specialized
Getting more PRO+ essential hardware device, and each device had to be individually configured with its
content
own command syntax. The chance for error was high, and a problem in one
component could disrupt the entire network.
Moving network functions into software means that building a service chain
no longer requires acquiring hardware.
Adding to the difficulty, application loads often increase over time, so

building a chain that would not have to be immediately reconfigured meant
estimating future demand and over-provisioning to support growth.
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Devices needed to be sized to support the maximum level of demand --

In this e-guide something which might only occur at particular times of the year. Yet extra
capacity has meant extra capital investment.
The effort required to construct a chain also meant that chains were often
NFV p.2
built to support multiple applications. As a result, data sometimes passed
through unnecessary network devices or servers and consumed extra
Section 2: NFV roadblocks bandwidth and CPU cycles.
p.16
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 SDN and NFV simplify service chains
Two recent developments -- SDN and NFV -- now enable network managers
Section 4: How SDN and NFV to quickly and inexpensively create, modify and remove service chains.
work together p.53
SDN moves management functions out of the hardware and places it in
controller software that executes in a server. A standardized configuration
protocol between the controller and network devices replaces proprietary
device configuration languages. As a result, entire service chains can be
Getting more PRO+ essential provisioned and constantly reconfigured from the controller. In that scenario,
content the chance for error is much smaller since the controller software has an
overall view of the network, reducing the chance for inconsistent device
configurations.
NFV moves network functions out of dedicated hardware devices and into
software. Functions that in the past required specialized hardware devices
can now be performed on standard x86 servers.
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Specialized packet handling hardware has been added to standard servers

In this e-guide to make this possible.
Moving network functions into software means that building a service chain
no longer requires acquiring hardware. Network functions typically execute
NFV p.2
as virtual machines under control of a hypervisor. When more bandwidth is
required, an additional virtual machine can be provisioned to take part of the
Section 2: NFV roadblocks load, or the initial VM can be moved to a higher capacity server or to one
p.16 that is less heavily loaded by other applications. There's no need to
overprovision since additional server-based capacity can be added when
needed.
Connections between service chain components may be contained within a
Section 4: How SDN and NFV single virtualized server or may cross network links between servers. Traffic
work together p.53 may be contained within a VLAN or by one of the technologies being
developed by vendors to address VLAN limitations, such as VXLAN
tunneling.
Getting more PRO+ essential SDN and NFV service chains change the service
content
provider model
Because communications service providers and public cloud providers carry
such a wide variety of data types and applications, SDN and NFV-driven
service chaining can improve their business models just by simplifying the
service chain provisioning process.
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Cloud providers must host enterprise applications that access databases

In this e-guide and make bulk data transfers to and from customers' private networks
constantly; meanwhile, communications service providers carry email, voice,
video, Web traffic and downloads. Each data type benefits from specific
types of related services. With SDN and NFV, providers can create service
NFV p.2
chains tuned to each data type and ensure the level of service each
customer purchases as a result. What's more, they can do this provisioning
Section 2: NFV roadblocks more quickly and for less money.
p.16
For service providers, a service chain may consist of an edge router at the
customer premises, followed by deep packet inspection (DPI). The DPI
service determines the type of traffic and signals the controller software to
create a service chain for that packet stream and that customer.
work together p.53 An email service chain, for example, would include virus, spam and phishing
detection and could be routed through connections offering no delay and
with jitter guarantees. Web traffic would be routed through a chain that
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 includes virus scanning and an ADC. The chain created for video and voice
traffic would include traffic shaping, so that traffic would be routed over
Getting more PRO+ essential links with the level of delay and jitter guarantees purchased by each
content customer. Each type of stream would receive only the services needed,
skipping the unnecessary ones.
SDN or NFV service chaining also makes the process of network upgrade
simpler. Communications service providers, for example, have networks that
are geographically distributed, so upgrading equipment requires travel. In
addition, a single error can bring down the entire network and cause
outages on interconnecting providers' networks. But with SDN and NFV,
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providers can create new chains that increase the efficiency and the
In this e-guide capacity of their networks without radically changing hardware.
Finally, service providers can use new service chaining techniques to

generate revenue from applications. Until now third parties have delivered
NFV p.2
services such as video on demand over service provider networks, while
service providers themselves have been unable to enter these markets
Section 2: NFV roadblocks because of the complications involved in provisioning. But service chaining
p.16 enables them to more efficiently embed applications and related services in
the network itself, placing them at an advantage over the third party
provider.
SDN and NFV and their use in building service chains are very recent
Section 4: How SDN and NFV developments. Vendors have begun exploring the technology and
work together p.53 developing management tools that will simplify their use. As experience with
the techniques accumulates and network managers see their benefits,
service chains based on SDN and NFV will become a standard component
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 of clouds and service provider networks.

content Next article
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In this e-guide
Section 5: Tangible NFV
Real world uses of NFV
NFV p.2
NFV is getting closer to actual uptake. In this section, read about various
Section 2: NFV roadblocks vendors and their NFV strategies for mobile operators and other service
p.16 providers.

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
AT&T Domain 2.0 kicks into high gear as
Section 1: The ins and outs of carrier embraces NFV and SDN
NFV p.2
Shamus McGillicuddy, Enterprise Management Associates
Section 2: NFV roadblocks SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- AT&T will start deploying SDN and network
p.16 functions virtualization technologies this year as part of its Domain 2.0 vision
for a next-generation network -- and it's willing to shake up vendor
relationships to get there.
Last year, the carrier announced AT&T Domain 2.0, a plan to transform its
Section 4: How SDN and NFV network using SDN and network functions virtualization (NFV). During a
work together p.53 keynote address at the Open Networking Summit this week, John Donovan,
AT&T's senior executive vice president for technology and network
operations, said 2014 is the year of "beachhead projects" that will move his
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 company toward Domain 2.0. AT&T will use SDN and NFV to create a "user-
defined network cloud." This will be a multi-service, multi-tenant platform
Getting more PRO+ essential that "taps into NFV and SDN to perform a broad variety of network functions
content and services," he said.
"NFV moves network functions from ASIC-based hardware to software

running on general purpose computing. Those virtual network functions can
be instantiated anywhere and more quickly than they are today," Donovan
said.
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AT&T will follow four principles as it builds out this user-defined network
In this e-guide cloud, he said. The infrastructure must be open, simple, scalable and secure.
The openness means AT&T is ready to do business with new vendors, even
companies that are not traditional telco vendors, he said.
NFV p.2
"We're leaving the [procurement] process open," he said. "We appreciate the
benefits of collaboration, and we're going to make sure we stay open to new
Section 2: NFV roadblocks ideas and maintain a competitive process. So if a company comes along with
p.16 an innovation, they'll have a chance to pursue it with us."
"Our strategy is more than just a network design change," Donovan added.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 "It's a change in how we do business with suppliers [and] with how we
manage platforms, systems and software. It changes our people. We have to
Section 4: How SDN and NFV take advantage of cultural change at our company."
work together p.53
Donovan called on the networking industry to work with AT&T to build SDN
and NFV products that enable this user-defined network. "We've reached
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 out to 100 different vendors to drive a whole new ecosystem of network
equipment," he said. "Some won't share the same interest we have in moving
to a new future, but some have."
content
Donovan identified hardware vendors Ericsson and Metaswitch as two
established suppliers that are on board with AT&T's plans. He also identified
two smaller vendors, Tail-f Systems and Affirmed Networks, which are
working closely with AT&T.
He lauded Tail-f for its network control software, which can manage network
gear from multiple vendors by interfacing with their existing control planes.
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He also praised Affirmed Networks for the technology it's developing that
In this e-guide virtualizes the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

NFV p.2 AT&T's SDN plans: The bigger picture
There are key areas that AT&T will not touch as part of its SDN initiative, at
least for now, Donovan said. Those areas include the routing core, the
p.16 optical transport network and radio access networks.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 The carrier's decision to focus on the EPC, also known as the mobile core,
as well as IP Multimedia Subsystem technology, opens up several
possibilities for innovation, according to Lee Doyle, chief analyst for
Section 4: How SDN and NFV Wellesley, Mass.-based Doyle Research. He also noted Donovan's mention
work together p.53 of turning AT&T's 4,600 central offices into environments that support a
networking cloud -- a move that Doyle speculated would take advantage of
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 existing infrastructure at those locations, including fiber, DSL, content
delivery networks and potentially edge routers.
Getting more PRO+ essential Overall, AT&T's SDN and NFV plans could affect between 40% and 50% of
content its annual infrastructure budget, Doyle said. The initiative will involve billions
of dollars of spending. If anything is going to spur laggard vendors to
comprehensively embrace SDN and NFV, that's the kind of money that will
get it done. However, AT&T also hopes the move toward SDN and NFV will
reduce its capital budget.
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As part of its year of "beachhead projects," Donovan said AT&T will try
In this e-guide putting controllers on existing platforms and building a set of capabilities it
can test. In 2015, the carrier will start building out new platforms, part of the
AT&T Domain 2.0 initiative. The legacy infrastructure that comprises Domain
1.0 will have to go. "We won't do overlay networks," he said. "We will tag
NFV p.2
things as Domain 1.0, toe-tag it and move to 2.0."

p.16
AT&T confident it can secure, manage new
network
Donovan faced pointed questions from the audience following his
Section 4: How SDN and NFV presentation. When asked whether AT&T's operational support system
work together p.53 (OSS) could handle this transformation. Donovan said his team has
identified 1,000 applications in AT&T's OSS environment that are targeted
for retirement.
"We will have new applications and new technology that will allow us to do
policy and provisioning as a parallel process, rather than an overarching
process that defines and inhibits everything we do," he replied.
content
One audience member expressed skepticism about AT&T's ability to secure
such an infrastructure.
"We have an architectural design for security -- a platform called Astra --

which is abstracted and cloud-based," Donovan responded.
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"We're in the process of moving from a firewalled enterprise into highly

In this e-guide distributed data piles with rigorous requirements for compliance around that,
and [we're working on] an architecture where data is hard to find and
difficult to assemble into something meaningful."
NFV p.2
When asked to explain why AT&T was doing SDN, Donovan replied, "There
is no army that can hold back an economic principle whose time has come."
p.16
Next article

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
CloudNFV group will create network
Section 1: The ins and outs of functions virtualization prototypes
NFV p.2
Shamus McGillicuddy, Senior Analyst
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Several vendors have formed the CloudNFV consortium to create
p.16 prototypes of network functions virtualization while service providers
continue to move forward with standardization.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 Last year nearly a dozen top network service providers banded together to
define the concept of network functions virtualization (NFV). NFV posits that
Section 4: How SDN and NFV service providers can redeploy many of the network functions that live in
work together p.53 large and expensive carrier-grade network appliances as virtual machines
on industry standard hardware. NFV promises to reduce both the cost and
complexity of service provider networks.
Service providers want their vendors to adopt this approach. To spur action,
Getting more PRO+ essential the Industry Specification Group (ISG) of the European Telecommunications
content
Standards Institute (ETSI) has started standardizing NFV.
Meanwhile, CloudNFV has emerged on the vendor side to prototype

technologies based on these emerging standards, said Tom Nolle, president
of CIMI Corp., the network technology consulting firm that is leading the
CloudNFV effort.
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"Standardization is essential for creating interoperable frameworks for

In this e-guide something like this, but standardization doesn't provide an implementation
model," Nolle said. "You can't write software from a standard. You've got to
have a software implementation architecture. While standards and
implementation architecture are obviously related to one another, there are
NFV p.2
a lot of decisions in implementing something that can also affect
interoperability in ways that the people who write standards might not
Section 2: NFV roadblocks visualize."
p.16
Nolle emphasized that CloudNFV isn't competing with the ETSI ISG's work,
but rather is trying to support and inform the standardization effort by
demonstrating the interplay between the standards and commercial
implementation of them.
work together p.53 Five vendors went public with their participation in CloudNFV last week, and
each plays a role creating an integrated, multi-vendor prototype for NFV.
Dell offers data center infrastructure where the virtual network functions
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 reside. 6WIND accelerates the performance of those functions in a cloud
environment. EnterpriseWeb provides software for a data model that
Getting more PRO+ essential describes, orchestrates and optimizes the resources that compose a virtual
content network function. Overture Networks is providing orchestration software, an
SDN controller and metro edge switches to link the WAN with the virtual
network functions deployed in a cloud. Qosmos offers network monitoring
software that provides network operations insight into how NFV is
performing on the network. The IP voice infrastructure vendor MetaSwitch
has also reportedly joined the group.
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"All these [components] were important from the start because it was our
In this e-guide intention with CloudNFV to build a framework that could be deployed
globally," Nolle said. "Every operator could stick this in a lab and build a
global federation of NFV implementations that could then be used to test
and validate different approaches and concepts."
NFV p.2
CloudNFV is not an open source project like OpenDaylight. The participants

Section 2: NFV roadblocks are not creating an open source platform that anyone can build products
p.16 upon. The vendors are retaining their intellectual property, but they are
creating open interfaces between the different components of NFV so all
vendors can build to that specification and service providers can deploy
multi-vendor NFV with minimal heartbreak.
Section 4: How SDN and NFV "We published our integration guidelines on our website and integration is
work together p.53 the thing we're principally looking at here," Nolle said. "We're trying to build
an expandable framework. We are going to serve as both a model for NFV
implementation and also as a source of components of NFV implementation
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 because our architecture breaks up into pieces."
This is important because service providers "aren't keen on a big monolithic

[NFV] solution from a single tier-one vendor," said Mark Durrett, director of
content
marketing for Morrisville, N.C.-based Overture. "They would rather see
something that is open and has field-replaceable components. If they
become dissatisfied with one vendor's solution, they can move on to another
one and keep the rest of the infrastructure in place."
CloudNFV is ready to start demonstrating its first NFV prototype, an IP

Multimedia Subsystem service.
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For a group that formed just six months ago, CloudNFV's ability to have an
In this e-guide initial prototype so quickly speaks to the power of multi-vendor approaches
to NFV, Durrett said.
"We've gone from zero to proof-of-concept demo in six months," he said. "If
NFV p.2
you look at recent announcements from tier-one vendors of cloud-based
NFV platforms, they've spent upwards of $60 million in three years to get
Section 2: NFV roadblocks this far."
p.16
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work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
Cisco NCS enables programmable
Section 1: The ins and outs of network functions virtualization
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks With its Network Convergence System, Cisco Systems Inc. has introduced a
p.16 family of highly programmable routers that deliver some of the flexibility and
programmability service providers are looking for in SDN and network
functions virtualization.
"The infrastructure being programmable accelerates or amplifies the actual
Section 4: How SDN and NFV usefulness of NFV [network functions virtualization]," said Stephen Liu,
work together p.53 director of service provider marketing at San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco. "If
you take NFV in its pure concept, it's about moving off of dedicated
hardware onto general-purpose compute [in data centers] to do functions in
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 the network like security or certain policy actions. Along with being able to
support those types of topologies, the programmable interface [of NCS]
Getting more PRO+ essential allows us to distribute those service stations and actually make those
content services portable, inline in the infrastructure to be brought online, on
demand."
The Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) platform comprises three

new series of routers:
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• Cisco NCS 6000: A 1.2 PBps modular router with 1 Tbps line cards,
In this e-guide shipping today, and 5 Tbps per slot capacity for future line cards. The
router converges both IP and optical networking.
• Cisco NCS 4000: A modular 6.4 Tbps modular router with 400 Gbps
per slot. It supports optical transport, dense wavelength division
NFV p.2
multiplexing (DWDM), SONET and Ethernet.
• Cisco NCS 2000: A series of routers available in two models (2 and 6
Section 2: NFV roadblocks line card capacities) that can connect DWDM transport networks at
p.16 rates of 100 Gbps and beyond.
The NCS routers are powered by Cisco's new nPower X1 ASIC, which
delivers 400 Gbps of capacity on a single chip. Unlike most network silicon,
which balances processing and memory on one platform, the nPower X1 is
Section 4: How SDN and NFV 100% processing capacity, accessing the memory it needs by going off the
work together p.53 chip. And combined with the open programmability of the overall system, it
allows the NCS routers' network processing power to be repurposed on the
fly, according to Len LuPriore, senior manager of strategic marketing for
Cisco's service provider group.
Getting more PRO+ essential The NCS routers integrate with Cisco's management and orchestration
content software, including the company's Prime and Quantum software suites, to
create a highly programmable network that can provision new services and
applications automatically.
"We're building a layered approach, made up of the engines [routers],

coupled with orchestration and management that are working with the
applications," LuPriore said.
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"In between each layer we have new code and capabilities that allow for
In this e-guide cross communications between the applications, orchestration and
hardware. The orchestration system is telling the hardware what to do and
the hardware is responding back and saying, 'This is what I just did. Are my
tolerances right? Do I have the right speed?' The application might say, 'No, I
NFV p.2
need more power.' This feedback loop occurs with constant monitoring of
what's going on."
p.16 The degree of programmability supplied in this case is "stunning and opens
up execution models for services that haven't really been possible before,"
said Paul Parker-Johnson, practice lead for cloud computing and virtual
infrastructure technologies at Gilbert, Ariz.-based ACG Research. "One can
easily envision localized instances of M2M [machine to machine] or so-
Section 4: How SDN and NFV called Internet of Things application modules deployed as desired in a given
work together p.53 service context at any place in the supported network."
At a higher level, service providers will be able to create "policy domains,"

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 such as threat protection and authentication, which will allow them to create
a programmable framework where services are running partially in the WAN
Getting more PRO+ essential and in cloud data centers, he said.
content
NCS "combines all of Cisco's next-generation technologies under a common
umbrella to address emerging changes in the network and how it is
managed to deliver on services as driven by the Internet of Everything [IoE],"
said Glen Hunt, principal analyst for transport and routing infrastructure at
Washington, D.C.-based Current Analysis Inc.
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NCS "goes beyond a simple platform launch to include a common operating

In this e-guide system to span the network, data center and offers cloud support to deliver
a more flexible services model."
NCS has the ability to orchestrate the service chains of virtual network
NFV p.2
functions associated with NFV, Cisco's Liu said. But it can also instantiate
those services inline on the routers themselves. Routing traffic to NFV-
Section 2: NFV roadblocks enabled data centers slows down performance.
p.16
"With NFV, [service providers] want to get dedicated functions off hardware
and put them on cheap compute," Liu said. "That's all well and good from a
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 CapEx point of view. What is overlooked a little bit is that now you have
these service stations existing in data centers. To get to those, you have to
Section 4: How SDN and NFV trombone a lot of traffic from the users to these service stations, and then
work together p.53 back onto the network and onward to their final destination. So there is a lot
of inefficiency that might occur. The virtualization and programmability [of
NCS] allows us to port those network functions and distribute them into the
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 network elements so we can process them inline."
Cisco is extending the concept of NFV further with the ability to link its own
server platform, the Unified Computing System (UCS), directly to the control
content
plane of the NCS routing subsystem.
"Once we extend the virtual capabilities -- where we have virtual IOS-XR

running on virtual machines -- we can move the virtual control plane to UCS,
which allows us to capitalize on x86 compute, coupled with our customized
silicon," Cisco's LuPriore said.
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"Then with NFV, we can move functions anywhere in the network by

In this e-guide creating this fabric through UCS that allows us to aggregate core, edge,
data center and optical components. We can really repurpose those at will
across the cloud and leverage resources in an optimal way."
NFV p.2
Cisco announced that service providers BSkyB, KDDI and Telstra have
already deployed NCS.
p.16
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work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
Ixia virtualizes IxLoad appliance for NFV
Section 1: The ins and outs of testing
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Ixia is virtualizing its IxLoad testing appliances to help service providers
p.16 evaluate network functions virtualization in the mobile core. Mobile
operators, in particular, are looking for help with NFV testing.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 "We're seeing some pause in spending and rollouts in some operators as
they are trying to figure out NFV," said Joe Zeto, senior director of product
Section 4: How SDN and NFV marketing at Ixia. "They are trying to figure out what to virtualize and what
work together p.53 not to virtualize. At the end of the day, they have known performance from
their physical appliances and they have to make sure whatever they do
when using virtualized software and off-the-shelf equipment [doesn't affect]
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 quality of experience for their end users."
Getting more PRO+ essential By virtualizing IxLoad, operators and developers can now run instances of
content
the testing technology directly on the hypervisor hosts where the NFV virtual
network functions reside, he said.
"This is for performance testing of virtual switches and hypervisors and

getting the bottlenecks out of that," Zeto said. "It's also for functional testing
[of NFV applications]. You can spin [virtual test ports] up and down pretty
rapidly."
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As service providers start NFV testing, many of them are looking to

In this e-guide accelerate and scale out their approach to testing individual virtual network
functions, said Paul Parker-Johnson, practice lead for cloud computing and
virtual infrastructure at ACG Research. "You can easily see a testing
organization being able to accelerate and do multiple evaluations by being
NFV p.2
able to deploy and scale out testers quickly," he said.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Many service providers are also very interested in evaluating and
p.16 characterizing the performance of the virtual networks that they are
considering for their NFV deployments, he said.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 Service providers and developers can use different combinations of virtual
and physical IxLoad products for NFV testing, depending on what they are
Section 4: How SDN and NFV evaluating.
work together p.53
"It's not going to replace physical IxLoad appliances," Zeto said. "[You] might
want to use a physical tester to test high-scale traffic and then use virtual
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 testers to measure individual points on the network. You might [use the
virtual tester] to measure voice or video quality or transaction latency. And
you might use the physical tester to put massive stress on the network."
content
Ixia is targeting evolved packet core (EPC) applications with its virtual
IxLoad tester, Zeto said. EPC and customer-premises equipment are seen
by many experts as two of the early popular use cases for NFV.
Park Johnson expects that service providers will also use the virtual IxLoad
tester to evaluate virtual firewalls and other virtual network security
functions.
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Ixia also published a free e-book, Demystifying NFV, which offers a guide to
In this e-guide NFV migration for mobile operators. The virtual IxLoad tester is available
today. Ixia did not reveal prices for the software, but Zeto said the company
will offer use-based licensing, versus the per-module licensing that Ixia
charges for his chassis appliances.
NFV p.2

p.16

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
Overture offers NFV orchestration and
Section 1: The ins and outs of control software
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Overture Networks, a carrier Ethernet infrastructure vendor, introduced new
p.16 orchestration and control software that service providers can use to replace
network services appliances with software delivered via network functions
virtualization.
Overture introduced its Ensemble architecture for network functions
Section 4: How SDN and NFV virtualization (NFV) last year. Now the company is announcing the first
work together p.53 products in that architecture -- Ensemble Service Orchestrator (ESO) and
Ensemble Network Controller (ENC) -- for NFV orchestration and control.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 "This is not just how to spin up virtual network functions, but how to connect
them to customers with no forklift [equipment replacement]," said Prayson
Getting more PRO+ essential Pate, Overture founder and chief technology officer. "Service providers want
content
to decouple hardware and software. That's good in theory, but how do you
put it back together and deliver services? ESO and ENC unite the virtual and
physical worlds."
ESO takes service orders for virtual network functions through a

northbound interface that connects into a service provider's back-office
systems, higher-level orchestration system or business applications.
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It translates those service orders into NFV orchestration commands for both
In this e-guide the ENC software and an OpenStack cloud controller that comes bundled
with Overture's Ensemble software.
The OpenStack controller orchestrates the instantiation of new network
NFV p.2
functions and services on virtual infrastructure within a service provider's
data center or central office.
p.16 ENC then sends commands to carrier Ethernet infrastructure in the service
provider network, reprogramming the network gear via command-line
interface and protocols like Simple Network Management Protocol so traffic
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 is routed to a provider's data center or central office where the architecture
can apply the appropriate virtual network functions.
Overture also introduced the first in a series of "turnkey" NFV packages,
work together p.53
known as Ensemble Solution Packs (ESP), which customers can deploy on
top of the Ensemble architecture. The first ESP is a package that replaces
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 the need for installing customer-premises equipment (CPE) on-site every
time an enterprise orders new managed network services, such as firewalls
and load balancers. The service pack, virtual managed enterprise CPE (vE-
CPE), allows service providers to deploy those firewalls, load balancers and
content
other services in their own data centers or central offices and route
customer traffic to those functions.
While service providers are pushing hard for NFV products from vendors,
standards around the concept are still developing, particularly at the points
where network orchestration and control intersect with a service provider's
back-office systems and customer portals.
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"All of this is still a work in progress," said Akshay K. Sharma, research

In this e-guide director for Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. "[The] ETSI [European
Telecommunications Standards Institute] is still defining the northbound
interfaces for [NFV] orchestration."
NFV p.2
Overture is providing only the NFV orchestration and control on the network,
Pate said. It has no intention of building software for the virtual network
Section 2: NFV roadblocks functions. For that, the company will partner with third-party vendors.
p.16 Overture hasn't yet identified any partners in that area. Many infrastructure
vendors who are building an NFV architecture will have to do the same.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 "They'll have to partner with a Sonus for session border controllers, or an F5
Networks for load balancers and application delivery controllers, or with
Section 4: How SDN and NFV BroadSoft for unified communications as a service," Sharma said.
work together p.53
Overture said several tier-one service provides are testing or trialing the
Ensemble NFV technology, and those providers are working closely with the
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 company to advance the technology.
"They do have a lot of traction in proofs of concept and trials," said Ron
Kline, principal analyst for network infrastructure at London-based research
content
firm Ovum. "But in the end, can they get a large-scale deployment of this
stuff going?"
Overture has also indicated that its Ensemble NFV architecture will
eventually work with third-party network infrastructure. That integration will
be critical to most service providers, Kline said. Overture will need to prove
that capability over anything else.
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"These networks tend to operate in multivendor environments," he said.

In this e-guide "Several of the trials [Overture] told me about are multivendor in nature. You
really need to negotiate the interfaces between the controller and those
[third-party [elements]. Just because everything is 'open' doesn't' mean it's
interoperable."
NFV p.2

p.16

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
New NFV vendor ecosystem, usual
Section 1: The ins and outs of suspects: Cisco, Juniper ALU, HP
NFV p.2
Rivka Little, Product Marketing Specialist
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Last week's Mobile World Congress set the stage for an NFV showdown
p.16 between Cisco, Juniper, HP and Alcatel.
All four are now officially network functions virtualization (NFV) vendors,
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 offering technology that virtualizes key network functions on standard
servers and then connects those servers using SDN and a unified
Section 4: How SDN and NFV orchestration platform.
work together p.53
The goal is to enable dynamic provisioning of applications, along with
supporting network services. That means service providers can provision
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 customized content and applications dynamically based upon user need.
In traditional hardware networks, service and application provisioning can

take weeks -- or even months -- since it requires implementing new
content
hardware to establish more capacity, as well as manually linking together all
of the supporting services, such as firewalls and load balancers. With NFV,
virtual network components can be provisioned with a few clicks, and
supporting services can be deployed along with them.
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The ability to offer customized content will mean service providers can begin
In this e-guide prioritizing specific sets of content -- business video over YouTube in the
workplace, for example. It also means they can spin up capacity for traffic
spikes on holidays or during disasters.
NFV p.2

Cisco pushes for virtualized packet core and
p.16 portability across operators
Cisco has virtualized key capabilities of its Aggregation Service Router
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 (ASR) 5000, and at Mobile World Congress, they demonstrated how these
virtual features could be portable across disparate operator networks.
Cisco's Quantum Virtualized Packet Core lets service providers automate
work together p.53
the way they authenticate and manage subscribers, and it lends a hand in
dynamic provisioning of applications and services.
Cisco's strategy relies on a service broker layer that lets operators
implement service models across their domains to extend functionality.
Operators create profiles for services and applications, along with user and
content
traffic policy. Then those profiles are shared through the broker and
incorporated as part of the overall orchestration context.
"They've included in their design a service broker [that relies on] processing
templates and descriptions of what the operators themselves want to
achieve in an orchestration function," said ACG Research analyst Paul
Parker-Johnson.
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"This broker layer allows for service description to be exposed or advertised

In this e-guide from one operator to another, so the guys who are working on the match
have less work to do in creating the resulting parameters that are then
passed down to the orchestration layer to allow the traffic to pass."
NFV p.2
Cisco allows service providers to incrementally move into NFV. There are
four ways that operators can buy into Cisco's new system. They can start
Section 2: NFV roadblocks with virtualizing just one network function. A second option lets them buy a
p.16 prepaid orchestration package. The third option lets operators buy an entire
application bundle. The final option lets them buy network virtualization as a
hosted service.
"It all has the same personality, but there are different levels of
Section 4: How SDN and NFV commitment," Johnson said.
work together p.53

Juniper might be an NFV vendor, but it's pushing
SDN for service providers
Juniper unveiled an expansion to its service provider SDN portfolio, and
content
there's a new controller at the heart of the release that's not Contrail.
The strategy, rolled out at Mobile World Congress this week, combines NFV
and SDN to let operators automate provisioning of applications, supporting
network services and traffic optimization through a unified orchestration
system.
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Juniper said the goal is to let operators provide varying levels of content
In this e-guide quality based upon the user and context. That means companies could
prioritize video for business use over video for personal use, even to the
same user on the same device.
NFV p.2
To enable this, Juniper has one set of programmable technology aimed at
the network layer, another aimed at the application layer, and then an in-
Section 2: NFV roadblocks between that integrates the two. At the network layer, Juniper has released
p.16 software called Fusion, which lets operators manage thousands of network
components -- whether they are routers or mobile devices -- through a
single platform as if they were one cohesive unit. Meanwhile, a new SDN
controller called NorthStar uses existing protocols, like Border Gateway
Protocol, to control traffic between network components. NorthStar
Section 4: How SDN and NFV controllers automatically identify optimal paths for traffic based upon set
work together p.53 policy.
Meanwhile, at the service layer, operators can use NFV technology to

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 virtualize the service creation functions and subscriber management.
Services are controlled and provisioned through the Service Control
Getting more PRO+ essential Gateway that lives on MX series routers, which can provision applications
content based on subscriber and policy. Then, there is the Carrier Services Gateway,
which lets operators provision virtual network functions either directly on a
router, on a standard hardened x86 server, or on a virtual platform in the
cloud. Operators can use these three options as "a stepping stone" to
implement various levels of NFV or to implement distributed services, said
Mike Marcellin, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at Juniper.
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In this e-guide
HP's NFV brings technology and a partner
ecosystem
NFV p.2
Hewlett-Packard launched OpenNFV, which also aims to virtualize network
features and enable dynamic application, network and service provisioning in
Section 2: NFV roadblocks operator networks. HP differentiates itself by taking a three-prong
p.16 approach, which includes an overarching reference architecture, a partner
ecosystem, and a testing lab for users.
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 HP's reference architecture, the HP NFV RA, stretches across physical and
virtual network elements, enabling provisioning of network features, services
Section 4: How SDN and NFV and applications. The RA includes the HP Virtual Services Router that will be
work together p.53 used to support and manage virtualized appliances in distributed clouds.
Essentially, HP will use a combination of NFV on servers and SDN
controllers to connect those servers through networks. All will work within a
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 single orchestration framework.
HP also detailed the OpenNFV Partner Program and the OpenNFV Labs,
which aim to develop an ecosystem of partners co-creating NFV features or
content
applications. The lab will also encourage vendors to test how they
interoperate in a multivendor environment. HP execs said they are already
working with a range of equipment providers and carriers.
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In this e-guide
Alcatel-Lucent applies CloudBand orchestration to
NFV
NFV p.2
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) released technology this week that will let service
providers virtualize and automate elements of the mobile network, making it
Section 2: NFV roadblocks possible to provision Voice over LTE and multimedia services on demand.
p.16
Using ALU NFV technology, mobile network operators can place evolved
packet core (EPC), IP multimedia subsystem (IMS,) and radio access
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 network features on virtual machines in the cloud. Then, network operators
can use SDN technology from ALU's spin-off Nuage Networks to connect
Section 4: How SDN and NFV those virtual machines across data centers, as well as to optimize networks.
work together p.53 Finally, they can then employ ALU's orchestration platform CloudBand to
automatically provision these functions across distributed data centers.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 Combined, the technology will let mobile operators provision and de-
provision instances of voice or other real-time applications on demand to
meet users' needs.
content
Specifically, virtualizing the EPC will let operators automate the
authentication and management of subscribers as they access services.
Meanwhile, virtualizing the IMS changes the way those multimedia services
are provisioned.
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A virtualized IMS means voice services, for example, can be controlled by

In this e-guide hypervisors and deployed among a pool of servers without having to be
bound to a particular hardware server and CPU, explained Akshay Sharma, a
research director at Gartner. Provisioning can occur dynamically in response
to user need.
NFV p.2
"Previously, we had to buy more capacity in boxes and [would] have it sitting
Section 2: NFV roadblocks idle until Mother's Day, [for example], when call volume went up," Sharma
p.16 explained. "In the new world, we can [provision] new instances of those
functions for call volume without having dedicated resources that sit idle for
the rest of the year."
Section 4: How SDN and NFV Next article

work together p.53

content
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In this e-guide
Alcatel-Lucent NFV technology for mobile
Section 1: The ins and outs of means Voice over LTE at last
NFV p.2
Rivka Little, Product Marketing Specialist
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) released technology this week that will let service
p.16 providers virtualize and automate elements of the mobile network, making it
possible to provision Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and multimedia services on
demand.
Using ALU network functions virtualization (NFV) technology, mobile
Section 4: How SDN and NFV network operators can place evolved packet core (EPC), IP multimedia
work together p.53 subsystem (IMS) and radio access network (RAN) features on virtual
machines in the cloud. Then, network operators can use SDN technology
from ALU's spin-off Nuage Networks to connect those virtual machines
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 across data centers, as well as to optimize networks. Finally, they can then
employ ALU's orchestration platform CloudBand to automatically provision
Getting more PRO+ essential these functions across distributed data centers.
content
Combined, the technology will let mobile operators provision and de-
provision instances of voice or other real-time applications on demand to
meet user need.
Specifically, virtualizing the EPC will let operators automate the

authentication and management of subscribers as they access services.
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Meanwhile, virtualizing the IMS changes the way those multimedia services
In this e-guide are provisioned. A virtualized IMS means voice services, for example, can be
controlled by hypervisors and deployed among a pool of servers without
having to be bound to a particular hardware server and CPU, explained
Akshay Sharma, a research director at Gartner. Provisioning can occur
NFV p.2
dynamically in response to user need.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks "Previously, we had to buy more capacity in boxes and have it sitting idle
p.16 until Mother's Day, [for example], when call volume went up," Sharma
explained. "In the new world, we can [provision] new instances of those
functions for call volume without having dedicated resources that sit idle for
the rest of the year."
Section 4: How SDN and NFV In LTE networks, which are IP-based, voice has been such a challenge that
work together p.53 operators have pushed it over legacy 3G networks and maintained LTE for
data and video. In fact, a number of key players have delayed launching
VoLTE services because of performance challenges, said Manish Gulyani,
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 vice president of product marketing at ALU.
"Nobody has launched voice over LTE -- they are all on track to do it this
year. But now, performance really matters. It's no longer just a data service,"
content
Gulyani said. Beyond voice, mobile operators are finding the need to burst
up and down capacity to support machine-to-machine technology, as well as
mobile worker access.
Page 103 of 117

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This week at Mobile World Congress, ALU and China Mobile are displaying
In this e-guide the combined SDN and NFV technology, allowing users to make calls on
VoLTE handsets over a multivendor network that uses Alcatel's virtual
network functions and orchestration.
NFV p.2
A number of vendors are introducing carrier NFV, but few are able to
introduce orchestration and SDN out of the gate.
p.16 "You could argue that ALU has some unique advantage in that they have
IMS virtualized and they have a router and they have Nuage. They are ahead
in connecting the dots," Sharma said.
Section 4: How SDN and NFV How NFV and mobile will change business models
work together p.53
ALU and other equipment vendors are banking on the concept that mobile
operators will find their way to new revenue-generation models using NFV
and SDN.
Getting more PRO+ essential In old-school networks, it took weeks, sometimes even months, to provision
content new applications and their supporting network services. With NFV and SDN,
this type of provisioning and service chaining can be done in minutes.
This kind of flexibility will mean that operators can charge for services on an
as-you-go basis without being required to build out excess capacity for
traffic spikes and dips. What's more, if Net Neutrality rules remain irrelevant,
operators will soon be able to use SDN and NFV to prioritize certain types of
content for a higher rate, Sharma said.
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E-guide
Going forward, ALU expects to see even more mobile network functions
In this e-guide become virtualized, but it'll be a while before off-the-shelf servers and virtual
machines can handle intensive applications, such as video, or replace core
routers.
NFV p.2
"There is work that needs to be done through the chipset to improve the
performance of those platforms," Gulyani said. "We are working with
Section 2: NFV roadblocks vendors in the chipset space to get it to a place where you can get the
p.16 performance."

Next article

work together p.53

content
Page 105 of 117

E-guide
In this e-guide
Brocade Vyatta Platform provides
Section 1: The ins and outs of software for NFV data centers
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks Brocade announced a new SDN architecture that will enable network
p.16 functions virtualization within service provider data centers. At the heart of
the architecture is the company's Vyatta software, a virtual router that
Brocade is transforming into a platform for delivering virtual network
functions.
Section 4: How SDN and NFV The Brocade Vyatta Platform will pull together open source and Brocade
work together p.53 technologies to provide the network software that service providers will
need as they build new data center networks to support NFV initiatives.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 "Brocade has done a lot with Vyatta to this point," said Bob Laliberte, senior
analyst with Milford, Massachusetts-based Enterprise Strategy Group. "The
Getting more PRO+ essential question is: Do you view this platform as an ending point or just a beginning?
content
They're looking at this as a platform to leverage going forward."
Laliberte expects third parties to develop services and security technologies

that run on top of the Vyatta platform, which becomes less of a router and
more of an engine for network functions virtualization (NFV) functions. "If
you deploy Vyatta and think of it as a platform, what can you deliver on top
of that as well in an automated and orchestrated fashion?" Laliberte said.
Page 106 of 117

E-guide
In this e-guide
Service providers will build thousands of NFV data
centers
NFV p.2
Service providers will be building "subscriber clouds, not to host
applications, but to revolutionize or modernize the way they provide
Section 2: NFV roadblocks subscriber services," said Kelly Herrell, vice president and general manager
p.16 for Brocade's software networking business unit. "As the telcos build out all
this infrastructure in more regionalized areas, it's not just about producing
one big mega data center. They'll use their central offices and other small
facilities for smaller data centers. The number of data centers is going to
explode. [CIMI Corp. President and Analyst] Tom Nolle says we could see an
Section 4: How SDN and NFV additional 30,000 to 100,000 data centers [built to support NFV]."
work together p.53
Brocade sees this as the real near-term SDN opportunity for networking
vendors, and it's aligning its SDN efforts accordingly. The Brocade Vyatta
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 Platform includes existing products and open source software from the
OpenDaylight and OpenStack projects. The Brocade Vyatta architecture
Getting more PRO+ essential comprises three layers.
content
• NFV Connection Services: This layer is where the Vyatta software
comes into play, including the Vyatta virtual router, virtual firewall and
virtual VPN gateway, as well as Brocade's virtual ADX application
delivery controller (ADC) -- all of which will be service-chained by the
Vyatta platform.
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E-guide
• NFV Structural Services: This is the traditional SDN control layer.

In this e-guide Brocade's architecture calls for using the open source OpenDaylight
controller in this layer. Herrell would not comment on whether
Brocade would release its own commercial version of OpenDaylight,
as other vendors have done.
NFV p.2
• NFV Functional Orchestration: In this layer, Brocade will use
OpenStack for NFV orchestration with proprietary enhancements.
Section 2: NFV roadblocks These enhancements include Brocade's Application Resource Broker,
p.16 a software module and policy engine for Brocade's ADX platform that
can automatically deploy ADC resources based on application need.
Brocade will also include its Dynamic Network Resource Manager, an
extension to OpenStack's Neutron networking framework.
Section 4: How SDN and NFV "We've been advancing the technology at each layer. We're offering a
work together p.53 platform, rather than a product," Herrell said. "An integrated set of software
components that together give you what you are looking for, both in terms
of services and management."
Brocade will emphasize modularity with its platform. If a service provider

Getting more PRO+ essential wants to use HP or Red Hat's distribution of OpenStack, Brocade will
content interface with those distributions seamlessly, Herrell said.
Forty telecommunications providers across the globe are running proofs of

concept with the Brocade Vyatta Platform, he said.
Page 108 of 117

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In this e-guide
Brocade knows hypervisor-based network services
Section 1: The ins and outs of Performance will be a huge issue in the first generation of NFV
NFV p.2 implementations, said Peter Christy, research director at New York-based
451 Research. Service providers might find that running high-performance
virtualized network functions on hypervisor hosts could be more challenging
than it looks.
p.16
"One of the things that Vyatta/Brocade really knows how to do is run
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 networking functions in virtualized software, which includes mastery of
things like multi-core CPU utilization and getting excellent I/O performance
through a hypervisor," Christy said. "So I believe that Vyatta brings important
intellectual property and know-how to the party."
work together p.53
Brocade will need to offer concrete information about the ecosystem of
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 third-party vendors who will develop network services that run on top of
Vyatta, versus how many network services it will try delivering on its own.
Getting more PRO+ essential "There still seems to be a bit of ambiguity about the ecosystem," said Brad
content Casemore, research director for Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC.
"Obviously they have an ADC and a firewall and are developing other pieces.
How much will they do themselves, and how much do they intend to do with
a platform and an ecosystem of partners? I think they recognize that they
will have to be open so customers can p choose the pieces they want."
Next article
Page 109 of 117

E-guide
In this e-guide
Everything you need to know about the
Section 1: The ins and outs of VMware NFV strategy
NFV p.2
Section 2: NFV roadblocks We sat down with Bruce Davie, a principal engineer at VMware, to discuss the
p.16 how the company will enable Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). In this
Q&A on the VMware NFV strategy, find out how the virtualization pioneer is
optimizing its hypervisor to support NFV workloads and enhancing the
service chaining capabilities of its NSX network virtualization software. Also
find out how VMware will help telecoms orchestrate NFV services.
work together p.53 Telecom providers are telling you they want lower latency in hypervisors
for NFV. How are you approaching this problem?
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 Bruce Davie: Going all way back to beginning of virtualization, the big
question was how much overhead do I have to pay for having hypervisors in
Getting more PRO+ essential the first place, compared to running my workload on bare metal? So we've
content been optimizing performance for the entire lifetime of the company.
But there are tradeoffs when you turn the latency knob all the way to 11 [in a
hypervisor]. You start turning off things that might help you be more
efficient, use less power, get higher throughput. So, you can't say I want my
hypervisor to be low latency and that's that. You have to say for some
workloads, " I'm going to turn the knobs to get low latency and I'm willing to
give up some other things to get that."
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E-guide
Improving latency or any kind of performance is always about finding the 10

In this e-guide little things that are each taking up a little bit of the budget and finding ways
to improve them. There is no single magic bullet to get low latency.
A prototype we have worked on turns the latency as far as you can turn it to
NFV p.2
try get 100%, with worst case latency down to [the] 20 microsecond level.
That's what I would call the extreme latency cases for something like
Section 2: NFV roadblocks nuclear reactor control, where you would make that choice rather than
p.16 having other tradeoffs like efficiency or throughput.
We've made huge advances from ESXi 5.1 to 5.5. We have code that's
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 written but not yet shipping that makes more advances.
What are the tradeoffs associated with pushing down latency in the
hypervisor?
work together p.53
Davie: Take interrupt coalescing as an example. Normally, [a hypervisor]

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 coalesces interrupts. Instead of the first interrupt coming and waking up the
CPU, you can take several interrupts together and then wake it up. That's
good for efficiency, but not so good for latency because that first interrupt
had to wait for the next couple of interrupts. By coalescing interrupts, you
content
do effectively less work per interrupt, but latency is worse. You turn it on and
you get better efficiency, and if you turn it off [there is less latency]]. So, we
give people the knob to make that choice. And efficiency and throughput
can be kind of related because if you are inefficient, you are ultimately
burning CPU cycles that might have been used for doing something else, like
throughput.
Page 111 of 117

E-guide
Telecom providers have also requested higher throughput for small

In this e-guide packets. Could you describe this problem?
Davie: You have to do a certain amount work on any packet, independent of

how large it is. When you are doing large packets you can get a lot of
NFV p.2
throughput by doing relatively few packets per second. What happens with
small packets is, you are still doing the same number of packets per second
Section 2: NFV roadblocks you were doing with large packets, but your throughput is going down
p.16 because the number of bytes per packet is going down.
That's the kind of thing where you look at all the operations that you do on a
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 per-packet basis, as opposed to per-byte basis. For us, it's mostly about
providing enough [throughputs] to fully utilize all the resources on the
Section 4: How SDN and NFV server. It's really hard for an x86 machine to compete against a router full of
work together p.53 ASICs, which is why there will be hardware vendors building switches for the
foreseeable future.
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 In the NFV environment, you've got a server that has compute, networking,
I/O -- a whole lot of things. And you want make sure you are using them all
efficiently. A good use of that server would be [a] CPU running at 100% and
content
a NIC that is loaded to 100%. Exactly how you get there depends on what
workload you are running on the CPU. [In tests we have discussed at
VMware], the CPU operation was trivial. It would receive the packet and
transmit the packet. So there is not much useful computation being done. A
much more likely thing would be the thing running inside the guest OS is
actually a firewall or evolved packet core function which is doing quite a lot
of computation on each packet. So you want that CPU to be completely
busy and to be able feed packets to it fast enough to keep it busy.
Page 112 of 117

E-guide
We're able to get to 4 million packets per second range for short packets in
In this e-guide the next release. That would keep a lot of CPUs busy for a lot of [NFV]
applications.
How does NSX contribute to the VMware NFV strategy?
NFV p.2
Davie: The thing where there is the most interesting work to do is around
Section 2: NFV roadblocks service chaining. We have some good capabilities today, but we definitely
p.16 have some thoughts on what we could do to be more powerful in that area.
There are only a very small number of things you can do conceptually for
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 service chaining. I think the most important thing is that you need a system
for creating abstract topologies to interconnect the virtual network
functions, which is exactly what NSX does.
work together p.53
Essentially, a service chain is a topology of services, and NSX creates virtual
topologies to interconnect VMs, which is a very fine place to run your virtual
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 network functions. Traditionally, people might have done it with things like
VLANs, just like people did things like segmentation with VLANs. Obviously
we view NSX as a much better solution for building these topologies in a
programmatic way.
content
The second thing you need for a service chain is a metadata channel to pass
information from one point in the service chain to another. A good example
here is that maybe the first block in a service chain gets a whole lot of
information on what handset initiated a call and what the user's profile is.
Some kind of classification goes on at the start of the service chain.
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E-guide
[You] end up with this index that tells you that this user belongs to class 732
In this e-guide and somewhere down the chain I'm going to do something special for this
user because he belongs to that class. He'll get to the video optimization
stage of the service chain and I'm going to give him the premium video
optimizer
NFV p.2
You need to pass that metadata along the chain so the classification needed
Section 2: NFV roadblocks back here can be leveraged by some other function further down the chain.
p.16 There is really only one place to put the metadata. You've got to put it in a
packet header that travels with the packet. But, it probably doesn''t need to
be in the packet itself because you don't want to modify the user's packet
[and] given that [NSX] encapsulates packets in a virtualization header, that's
the perfect place to put it.
work together p.53 We've recently published an Internet draft about an encapsulation header
called GENEVE. GENEVE is effectively VXLAN plus flexible option [fields].
So those flexible options give you a great place to put metadata. You can
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 think of that metadata as being something that the virtual network function
at [the] beginning of the classification could write into the [GENEVE option
Getting more PRO+ essential field]. It travels along with [the] packet in [an] encapsulation header. It's
content handed off to another virtual network function that can now read that
metadata and do something scheduled for the packet based on that.
Is this something that's possible to do in VXLAN but is better to do in

GENEVE?
Davie: It's less obvious where you could put that in VXLAN. I was talking to
somebody who had done it by putting it in an IP option.
Page 114 of 117

E-guide
You do run out of places to put it if you are in a fixed header. One thing
In this e-guide people have talked about doing is carrying a VLAN header along with the
packet inside VXLAN. It's not ideal because it's still a pretty short field.
Are there other VMware NFV initiatives you can share?
NFV p.2
Davie: The other place where there is a big piece for VMware to play in NFV
Section 2: NFV roadblocks is around orchestration. That's where I see the least maturity in terms of
p.16 products. People are kind of doing demo level orchestration at the moment.
That's an area where we could leverage some tools we have and do things
through OpenStack to provide some validated capabilities.
You mentioned there are NFV trials happening with your hypervisor. Are
you seeing any uptake of NSX?
work together p.53
Davie: The NSX team gets pulled in to discuss many of these NFV trials, in
part because of the recognition of needing some of what NSX brings, and
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 also because we're the networking team and they want that expertise.
But some pilots are so small that the agility benefits of NSX are less
Getting more PRO+ essential necessary. You can get away without agility when things are really small-
content scale. As people are planning their bigger pilots, I think that's where they will
see the benefits of having an automated network virtualization component.
Are you building relationships with virtual network function vendors?
Davie: We've been building relationships with virtual network function

vendors for a long time.
Page 115 of 117

E-guide
If you asked anybody from VMware what our NFV strategy was a year ago, it
In this e-guide would mostly [have] been around partnerships with traditional network
equipment manufacturers.
What's the timeline on delivering a hypervisor that is ready for NFV?
NFV p.2
Davie: I would say the hypervisor is ready today for a lot of telco
Section 2: NFV roadblocks applications. Part of the challenge is you have to really validate solutions
p.16 [to] make the latency requirements on applications. I think with the low
latency settings in ESXi 5.5, we can meet the requirements for of a lot of
NFV applications, [including evolved packet core and customer-premises
Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 equipment].

Are there areas of NFV that remain a challenge for your hypervisor?
work together p.53
Davie: Virtualizing the radio access network is one that we view as a pretty
tough latency challenge. It's kind of in the same category as high-frequency
Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 trading. I think [VMware CEO] Pat [Gelsinger] has said he wants 100% of
applications to be virtualized. He's put the stake in the ground, like Kennedy
saying we're going to the moon in 10 years. I think we can meet those
numbers, but they do require some fairly extreme tuning of the hypervisor
content
that would produce some other downsides. So virtualizing the radio access
network is something we see as being a little way out for us at the moment.
Next article
Page 116 of 117

E-guide
In this e-guide
Getting more PRO+ exclusive content
This e-guide is made available to you, our member, through PRO+ Offers—a
NFV p.2
collection of free publications, training and special opportunities specifically
gathered from our partners and across our network of sites.
p.16 PRO+ Offers is a free benefit only available to members of the TechTarget
network of sites.
Take full advantage of your membership by visiting

work together p.53
http://pro.techtarget.com/ProLP/
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NFVBasics Implementation Challenges and Benefits

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E-guide

In this e-guide In this e-guide:

Section 4: How SDN and NFV

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73

Getting more PRO+ essential

All that's needed is a manager that takes into consideration every

Section 2: NFV roadblocks

As the name suggests, this is also intended as a cloud specification, but

Do NFV orchestration tools exist?

Very large networks have massive inventory of different device types,

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41

Section 2: NFV roadblocks

7. Network operations must be simplified. Today's network complexity is

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73 Next article

Getting more PRO+ essential

Will network functions virtualization be used in enterprises, or is it just an

Getting more PRO+ essential

Another challenge is the time and process it takes to re-architect monolithic

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41

Section 4: How SDN and NFV

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73

Getting more PRO+ essential

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41

Section 4: How SDN and NFV

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73

Getting more PRO+ essential

Section 2: NFV roadblocks Tom Nolle, President

While this approach would address the stated goal of exploiting

Section 2: NFV roadblocks

Section 2: NFV roadblocks

Section 2: NFV roadblocks Next article

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41

Section 4: How SDN and NFV

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73

Getting more PRO+ essential

Finding common management framework for NFV:

But in practice, accommodating that wide a range of implementation choices

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73

Section 2: NFV roadblocks

By having a common architecture to represent all kinds of services, the

Virtualization, machine images of virtual functions, virtual-network SDN

Modern data-driven process models separate data storage from

These can easily accommodate collector interfaces to gather telemetry

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41 In NFV implementation, do we need off-the-shelf

There will almost certainly be many NFV implementations before

Section 2: NFV roadblocks

Section 3: NFV upsides p.41

Section 4: How SDN and NFV

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73

Getting more PRO+ essential

Section 4: How SDN and NFV

Wide breadth of NFV applications

• Routing and broadband remote access server, or BRAS -- e.g.,

Getting more PRO+ essential Challenges for NFV ISVs

In a recent survey of 40 NFV ISVs, Doyle Research found their top

• Creating market awareness

A marketing message that can be heard in a sea of

A number of large IT and network suppliers, including Intel, Alcatel-Lucent

Section 4: How SDN and NFV

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73

Getting more PRO+ essential

The goal is to provision virtual services and applications in minutes instead

But to go deep enough to provision bandwidth on demand, with self-service

Section 5: Tangible NFV p.73