A short guide to network functions virtualization
- 1. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved A Short Guide to Network Functions Virtualization Presented by Tom Nolle President CIMI Corp Am I here yet?
- 2. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved What NFV Really Is • It’s an operator-driven industry specification process operating under ETSI not a standards body • It’s open to any company at no charge (but there is a charge to attend meetings) • It’s not a “forum” filled with cheerleaders but a body doing serious work on creating a model for the next-generation network
- 3. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved The Goal in a Nutshell Source: “Network Functions Virtualization: An Introduction, Enablers, Benefits, Challenges, & Call for Action”, ETSI NFV ISG
- 4. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved Think “Network Functions Virtualization” in Segments! “Functions Virtualization” The logic that does the deployment “Operationalization” The way we keep things running and billable “Network Functions” The logic we deploy to build services
- 5. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved Basic Architecture A set of repositories that hold an inventory of “Virtual Network Functions” that will be deployed to create features of network services now created by boxes NFV Orchestration, the process of creating instances of virtual functions to meet service requirements NFV Infrastructure, the servers, switches, storage, networks and other stuff that NFV runs on/in There are data flows among these functional elements as we move from defining, to creating, to managing a service NFV Management, the process of lifecycle management of the components and services
- 6. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved Key Challenges • Defining an open process that embraces both legacy and evolving (SDN, cloud) technology • Getting a complete inventory of Virtual Network Functions to deploy • Finding a management paradigm that will insure operations cost increases don’t overwhelm capital cost savings • Preparing to transition from being cost-driven to being opportunity-driven
- 7. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved Where Are We? Fall 2012 – Call for Action Issued January 2013 – First official ISG Meeting July 2013 – Proof of Concept Call Fall 2013 – PoC Demonstrations Begin January 2015 – Official Final Results We’re at the critical point where early/prototype implementations will begin to feed back insights into the process and also prepare the market for adoption
- 8. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved What’s Next? • Companies are already announcing NFV-related products/architectures • Most early activity is likely to focus on developing hostable Network Virtual Functions • There are about 7 implementations of actual NFV logic at some stage of development, two of which are “public” • Many more examples will come in the fall of 2013 and beyond
- 9. Copyright © CIMI Corporation Voorhees NJ USA All Rights Reserved To get involved in NFV you can: • Join the ETSI ISG (companies only) • Join a developer program offered by an NFV platform vendor • Follow blogs (like mine; http://blog.cimicorp.com/) Beware of Early Hype! • Most people who are commenting on NFV aren’t involved in any way with the process and many aren’t even talking with those who are! • Network operators are determined to make this work, more so than in any past activity I’ve been involved in! The Impact Could be Huge! • NFV could be the largest source of new data centers, influence three-quarters of all network purchases by operators, and drive a major change in vendor market share (and that is NOT hype!)