White Paper: OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
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OPNFV (Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization) was established in September 2014 to create an open reference platform for NFV, focusing on integrating and validating key concepts through collaboration with the open source community. It addresses challenges in NFV adoption, such as the need for operational efficiency, interoperability, and the avoidance of vendor lock-in, while striving to nurture a robust ecosystem for network operators and vendors. OPNFV has seen significant growth, releasing its initial version, Arno, and aims to create an extensible NFV reference platform with a focus on automated testing and industry-wide standards.
White Paper: OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
- 1. PAVING THE WAY TO OPEN SOURCE NFV A Linux Foundation Collaborative Project
- 2. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV 1. AN OVERVIEW OF OPNFV The Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization (OPNFV) was introduced in September 2014 as an outgrowth of the ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group (ETSI NFV ISG). Establishment of OPNFV resulted from the realization that an open reference platform was needed to validate key NFV concepts, leverage the growing open source community, and accelerate development and ultimately adoption of NFV products and services. Because of the breadth of the ETSI NFV ISG Architectural Framework, it was necessary to narrow the OPNFV scope to functional areas that had already achieved significant progress. Thus, the initial focus was limited to the NFV Infrastructure (NFVI1 ) and Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM2 ) (Figure 1). In contrast to traditional open source projects, which develop common components or platforms, OPNFV is committed to an ‘Upstream First’ methodology. OPNFV adopts one or more upstream open source projects, and devotes development resources towards integration and testing, instead of developing new code. OPNFV has been built on OpenStack, supports multiple SDN Controllers (including OpenDaylight, ONOS, OpenContrail), host platforms, and deployment technologies. Because each operator has a distinct environment, OPNFV offers a choice of distributions. For example, OpenStack may operate over an OpenDaylight or ONOS SDN Controller framework, with support for both x86 and ARM-compatible 2 1 NFVI: Totality of all hardware and software components thatbuild up the environment in which VNFs are deployed 2 VIM: Functional block that is responsible for controlling and managing theNFVI compute, storage and network resources, usually within one operator’s Infrastructure Domain (e.g. NFVI-PoP)
- 3. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV 3 processors. Through the collective experience gathered from using the open reference platform, OPNFV will contribute back to the upstream projects, fueled by operators’ real-world use cases. A particularly strong aspect of the project is a diverse and vibrant community consisting of network operators, network equipment manufacturers, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and component suppliers. The majority of OPNFV members also participate in the ETSI NFV ISG, ensuring close collaboration. OPNFV members contribute significantly to the upstream projects as well. 2. WHY OPNFV? OPNFV was envisioned to address a number of challenges (listed below) anticipated by operators, many of whom are also ETSI NFV ISG members, and pursuing their own NFV strategies: OSS/BSS INITIAL FOCUS OF OPNFV EMS 1 Orchestrator Virtual Computing Virtual Storage VIRTUALIZATION LAYER Virtual Network EMS 2 EMS 3 VNF 1 NFVI Hardware Resources VI-Ha VNF 2 VNF 3 Service, VNF and Infrastructure Description NFV Management & Orchestration Os-Ma Se-Ma Or-Vnfm Ve-Vnfm Nf-Vi Computing Hardware Storage Hardware Network Hardware Execution Reference Points Other Reference Points Main NFV Reference Points Or-Vi Vi-Vnfm Virtualized Infrastructure Manager(s) VNF Manager(s) VN-NF Figure 1- ETSI NFV Architecture Framework with OPNFV Initial Scope
- 4. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV 4 • The transformative impact of NFV and Software Defined Networking (SDN) • COTS hardware, which has traditionally has performed significantly poorer than purpose-built hardware • Traditional operational processes, which are manually intensive, subject to errors, and slow • Lack of definition for NFV areas (e.g., MANO), which has resulted in proprietary NFV architectures • Lack of telecommunications features in the open source community • An open NFV ecosystem, which avoids silos, proprietary solutions, and vendor lock-in Considering that vendors and network operators are racing to deliver NFV platforms and services, and that neither is waiting for standards or open source communities to deliver, OPNFV is playing a valuable role. OPNFV is speeding up integration and providing a technical forum to address performance, interoperability, security, and scalability issues that would otherwise be costly, time-consuming, and highly proprietary for each organization to address on their own. OPNFV is the only public forum with a broad community where the industry can pull together the components of the platform(s) to see if they work together. It is also an incubation environment to try out new software features or hardware components. However, OPNFV does not seek to provide a specific distribution for the NFV platform or even specify all the pieces in an NFV platform. The goal is to qualify a common set of building blocks with specific roles/functions. OPNFV building blocks need not necessarily be open, but must conform to a common framework. Many of the initial components in the initial OPNFV release, ARNO, are open source in order to expedite the initial releases and stimulate larger community participation.
- 5. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV 5 3. PROGRESS TO DATE Since its formation in September 2014, OPNFV has grown considerably. At the time of publication, there are over 50 OPNFV members, including many of the world’s most important wireline, mobile, and cable operators; along with leading network equipment vendors, software, semiconductors, including several innovative startups. The OPNFV developer community has grown to over 125 code submitters with many more developers working on OPNFV-related projects for their own organizations. In June, 2015, only 9 months after introduction, OPNFV announced the initial release—ARNO. The ARNO3 release represents more than integrating OpenStack (VIM), KVM (hypervisor), Ceph, (distributed storage), OpenDaylight (SDN Controller Framework), and Open vSwitch (software switch), etc. (Figure 2). ARNO also introduces the OPNFV development environment: Continuous Integration, automated deployment and testing, documentation, and tooling. ARNO has been demonstrated running on platforms from multiple vendors across the x86 and ARM processor architectures. 3 OPNFV release names are river-themed, a community decision, inspired by the work with upstream projects Figure 2- OPNFV Initial Release- ARNO
- 6. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV 6 Unlike most open source projects, ARNO (and all OPNFV releases) do not introduce standalone code. By committing to ‘Upstream First’ OPNFV will only develop code where absolutely necessary to avoid proprietary forks of the upstream components. OPNFV is a use case driven project, motivated by the specialized capabilities required by CSPs. For example, one of the most important is virtualized CPE, which was prioritized as among the initial use cases by the ETSI NFV ISG. An IHS/Infonetics survey4 of leading network operator last year rated vE-CPE as the #1 use case overall for NFV in 2014–2015. Among the key requirements to support vCPE that OPNFV is currently addressing: • Massive scale out (Fuel, IPv6) • NFV integrated with virtualized networking (Open vSwitch for NFV) • Integrated resource reservation and capacity management (Promise) • Lightweight containerization (ONOSFW) 4 IHS/Infonetics SDN and NFV Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, 2014
- 7. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV 7 4. FUTURE DIRECTIONS Looking ahead, ONFV is seeking to create an extensible and automated NFV reference platform capable of VNF Lifecycle Management and support for diverse NFVI. Central to the mission is establishment of a highly automated build, continuous integration and deployment platform that will be validated by common traffic profiles and use cases, which will be automated as well. The OPNFV roadmap has been built upon a 6-month release cycle, balancing the goal to deliver against the release cadence of the upstream projects. Each release incorporates select new upstream functionality that is verified against a Management and Orchestration (MANO) VIM environment. OPNFV projects range from engaging directly with upstream projects, to internal projects that may be classified requirements, functional test, develop and documentation. Internal projects proposals, priorities, and scope, are motivated by the community, and overseen by the Technical Steering Committee. Another important objective is the cultivation and nurturing of an Open NFV ecosystem to offer network operators and vendors alike, qualified, and interoperable building blocks to enable network operators to move towards deployment. OPNFV progress will likely result in de facto standards that motivate continuous innovation, agility and usability, which ultimately expedite and facilitates NFV adoption. The future success of OPNFV will hinge not only how well we address functional and performance gaps in upstream projects, but also by industry-wide adoption of open, standardized interfaces to enable management and orchestration in an automated and interoperable manner. An OPNFV compliance program is planned, based on the testing and integration platform, which paves the way towards industrialization for NFV.
- 8. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV 8 5. CLOSING THOUGHTS NFV and SDN are challenging entrenched assumptions about how networks are designed, deployed, and managed. To keep up with the frenetic pace of innovation that is radically altering the network operator landscape, a paradigm shift is necessary. Enter the open reference platform to incentivize unprecedented industry engagement, operator and vendor collaboration, intelligent automation and openness. OPNFV is paving new ground, by challenging the rules for open source projects, and offering huge time to market, quality, and interoperability benefits. As the project is not yet two years old, we have just begun. To find out how your organization can participate in the most significant re-architecture in decades, visit us at www.opnfv.org.