This chapter is focused on the traditional network architecture limitations with NFV benefits. Discussion of NFV architecture and framework as well as management and orchestration has been discussed in this chapter. Cisco VNF portfolio and virtual network functions implementation is included with software implementation of the architecture of NFV (network function virtualization). Management and orchestration functional layers as per ETSI standard. The challenges in NFV implementation is also a concern today, which is a part of this chapter.
TopNfv Practical Orientation
Network functions virtualization (NFV) has changed the way we have traditionally thought about networking design, deployment & Implementation of the networking components within the IT Infrastructure through the approach of virtualization & not through the traditional hardware approach with predefined software within each component.
NFV decouples network functions from underlying hardware resources by virtualizing the storage, network and compute functions (Chiosi, Clarke, Willis, Reid, Feger, Bugenhagen, & Benitez, 2012). The Idea is to save the proprietary equipment cost by virtualizing network functions and creating on servers instead of their defined hardware.
This transition towards virtualization will take a period of time because providers & enterprises are not going to decommission their existing Infrastructure and replace everything by virtualized Individual components as this will be too expensive then.
Figure 1.
Changes with NFV with VNFs
TopTraditional Network Architecture Limitations
- 1.
Scalability Limitations.
- 2.
Vendor dependent predefined hardware & software components.
- 3.
High operational cost due to the management of Individual hardware within datacenters.
- 4.
More Space & Power Requirements.
- 5.
Individual Hardware management Issues.
- 6.
Huge Capital Expenditure.
- 7.
Limitation in rapidly offering services to the users due to the time to build the infrastructure.
- 8.
Additional hardware to deploy for High Availability.
TopNfv Benefits
- 1.
Service Elasticity.
- 2.
Operational Efficiency.
- 3.
Automated Network Operations.
- 4.
Capital Expenditure Reduction.
- 5.
Vendor agnostic.
- 6.
Software Oriented Innovation.
- 7.
Rapid Service Delivery
- 8.
Reduced Space & Power Consumption.
- 9.
Hardware Flexibility
- 10.
Scalability & Multi-tenancy.
- 11.
Reduction of number of network devices management.
- 12.
Reduced complexity for HA (High Availability).
- 13.
Reduction of network elements for deployment and management.
TopNfv Architecture And Framework
The relevance of NFV framework is to ensure standardization & compatibility between different vendor software pieces of share hardware resources.
Virtualized Network Function (VNF) – A software component that replaces the vendor specific hardware to perform the same function on share hardware, eventually reducing the capital & operational expenses.