Transitioning to network functions virtualization with Citrix

Transcription

1 Transitioning to network functions virtualization with Citrix Virtualization has been one of the most powerful forces in enterprise IT infrastructure over the past decade, and now Telcos are looking to reap the tremendous benefits such as increased utilization of compute resources and greater agility in managing and deploying them by tapping into the potential of NFV.

2 Thus far, enterprises have benefited from running their legacy or newly built applications on virtualized infrastructure using standard operating systems (Windows or Linux) as virtual machines on the core hypervisor platforms while Cloud service providers have taken a similar approach to virtualizing the underlying infrastructure. However, since most service providers have to offer this infrastructure as-a-service (IaaS), they have virtualized both the compute resources (by offering virtual machines) and parts of the underlying infrastructure such as the network, since that generally must be provisioned, scaled and managed just like any other software component alongside the virtualized application. Telco operators are the next frontier of companies looking to reap the benefits of virtualization. However, the scale and complexity of telco infrastructure and networks are vastly different compared to large enterprises or service providers. In addition, the initial wave of cost and agility benefits comes from virtualizing core infrastructure, while the ability to run applications on these virtualized platforms is a longer-term benefit. One of the main challenges facing telco operators today is how to scale new networking services to keep pace with the rapid increase in mobile devices. Adding new networking hardware is expensive, and managing it is becoming more complex due to a lack of compatibility among different vendors proprietary hardware. As a result, launching new network services is difficult and time-consuming. To accelerate the delivery of new network services while reducing CAPEX and OPEX, telco operators are turning to a new type of network architecture called Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). The aim is to decrease time to value and increase scalability and agility while promoting innovation. This solution overview provides an introduction to NFV and describes how Citrix technology can help telco operators successfully implement NFV in their networks. Introduction to NFV The ability to run infrastructure elements as virtual machines or software appliances has been around for a long time. Now, a newer approach called Network Functions Virtualization gives providers the ability to take network and traffic management oriented appliances and run them in a virtualized environment. Most discussions about NFV encompass not only virtualized network appliances (also called virtualized network functions or VNFs), but also special additional software required to replicate the functionality of these network elements in a large, scaled telco environments, such as service chaining, orchestration and interfacing with new or legacy billing systems. Therefore, NFV is much 2

3 The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI, introduced later) defines NFV in this way: Network Functions Virtualization aims to transform the way that network operators architect networks by evolving standard IT virtualization technology to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume servers, switches and storage, which could be located in datacenters, network nodes and in the end user premises. It involves the implementation of network functions in software that can run on a range of industry standard server hardware, and that can be moved to, or instantiated in, various locations in the network as required, without the need for installation of new equipment. 1 broader than the virtualization platform and virtualized network elements; it also includes an orchestration function typically called a MANO (for management and orchestration), which in turn comprises a few distinct elements. Figure 1. The ETSI NFV MANO framework with the three functional blocks As shown in Figure 1, a typical NFV stack is composed of three elements: 1. NFV infrastructure (NFVI): This is the core compute, networking and storage infrastructure on which the networking functions run. Beyond the raw elements of hardware needed to run these workloads, the infrastructure will also typically have a virtualization layer with a hypervisor. 2. VNFs: These are the actual virtualized workloads that run on top of the NFV infrastructure. These are the workloads previously handled by physical hardware appliances but are now running as virtual machines/appliances. 3. MANO: This layer handles the lifecycle of the VNFs running on the NFV infrastructure. The MANO is the brains of the operation and provides the broader management of resources and workloads. The MANO itself is broadly composed of three components: 1. NFV Orchestrator: As the name implies, this software is responsible for organizing and managing all core functions across the MANO layer and coordinating them with the workloads running on the system. 2. VNF Manager: This component manages the lifecycle (provisioning, teardown, scaling) of VNFs running on the system. 3. Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM): Most people would recognize this as the virtualization management layer, and there has been a tremendous focus on this layer with open source platforms like OpenStack, CloudStack/CloudPlatform and a number of other solutions. The VIM controls the three core components on which the NFVI runs compute, storage and core networking. In essence, a NFV infrastructure setup is not unlike a large, virtualized infrastructure with workloads that are primarily VNFs and an orchestration system to manage all of them. 1 Network Functions Virtualisation. ETSI white paper. 3

4 One of the unique aspects of the NFV architecture, as defined by core standards bodies such as OpenNFV, is complete openness. You can build an entire NFV stack out of best-of-breed components, instead of being locked into a single vendor solution with potentially lower-performing or lowerfunctioning components. The ability to pick and choose different components also future-proofs your infrastructure against obsolescence you can upgrade components independently from each other and gain performance and feature benefits over time. Citrix technologies for NFV Citrix is helping telco operators realize the benefits of NFV with proven technologies and in-production cloud deployments. NFV will transform network and telco datacenters, making them closely resemble architectures found in public clouds where Citrix solutions are heavily deployed. This allows both telco operators and prospective networking partners to benefit from faster time to market by leveraging Citrix technologies in their NFV plans. Figure 2. Extend NFV infrastructure with the application delivery and virtualization layers Citrix offers a broad portfolio of products that can help you build your NFV stack. Since there is no vendor in the market offering a single, integrated stack, you can pick the right Citrix products for each layer and integrate them with products from other vendors or open-source components all ensured by open APIs and interoperability standards. The world s largest clouds run on Citrix infrastructure. As shown in Figure 2, Citrix offers three products that deliver core parts of an NFV infrastructure. Each can be individually deployed in your NFV infrastructure independent of the others, or you can implement them together, depending on your architecture and needs. XenServer for the virtualization layer The hypervisor is the bedrock component of any NFV infrastructure stack. It is software that essentially runs all the VNF workloads and manages all the compute, storage and networking infrastructure. 4

5 XenServer, based on the popular open-source Xen hypervisor project, powers some of the largest virtualized cloud infrastructure providers today. XenServer not only offers some of the best performance of any hypervisor in the market, but also is compatible with a variety of platforms, as well as other infrastructure components. XenServer provides broad compatibility, which allows full flexibility in choosing the best underlying compute, storage and networking platform for you, and also gives you a great range of operating systems and workloads to run on the infrastructure. CloudPlatform for the MANO Virtualized Infrastructure Manager layer The VIM layer, whose basic function is to manage the core virtualization platform, including compute, storage, and networking capabilities, has seen a lot of innovation over the past few years, with many mature and emerging solutions providing a tremendous amount of functionality to the mix. Citrix offers CloudPlatform, one of the most widely deployed VIM systems in the cloud offers a simple, turnkey system for deploying and managing the virtualization layer, whether it is XenServer, or other vendors such as KVM from RedHat or ESX from VMware. CloudPlatform, powered by Apache CloudStack, is a unified cloud management platform that combines the best cloud foundation for private enterprise workloads with the Amazon-style scale, elasticity and operational efficiency of cloud workloads. CloudPlatform is: The industry s most open, application-centric cloud solution proven to reliably and efficiently orchestrate both traditional enterprise workloads and cloud application workloads An open, flexible cloud orchestration platform that allows you to leverage existing hypervisor, storage and network investments Compatible with industry-standard Amazon Web Service APIs and a rich partner ecosystem to expand and integrate value-added solutions and services A proven, turnkey cloud orchestration platform that enables you to quickly and efficiently build new cloud solutions Able to support both traditional enterprise and cloud-native applications from a single cloud orchestration platform so you can address the requirements of today and tomorrow CloudPlatform enables you to meet enterprise isolation, virtualization and SLA requirements for running mission-critical application workloads. Choose from best-in-class virtualization, storage and networking solutions and a variety of isolation models for running traditional workloads in a virtual private cloud. Amazon-style operations and scale: Scaling to over 40,000 hosts per region, CloudPlatform has a simple approach to cloud provisioning, providing all of the scalability, elasticity and management efficiency required for running massive cloud workloads. 5

6 NetScaler virtualized application delivery controller (ADC) for the service delivery layer One of the key aspects of building and scaling a large virtualized infrastructure is managing traffic and maintaining high availability of services on the infrastructure. The main benefit of virtualizing the infrastructure, or the applications themselves, is to avoid being locked into a fixed-capacity system. Instead, you can scale your infrastructure capacity as your inbound traffic and users increase. In addition, with Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) capabilities, you immediately gain high availability. In a virtualized network, all virtual network functions will require traffic distribution using load balancing at Layer 4 through Layer 7. The current ETSI specification leaves it to the VNF vendor to provide a virtual load balancing solution. Thus, every VNF vendor would need to provide and maintain a Layer 4 to Layer 7 solution. Instead, Citrix proposes that a common pool of Layer 4 to Layer 7 application delivery controllers becomes part of the NFVI. This pool of virtual ADCs would support the necessary protocols and capabilities required by each VNF. In addition, these virtual ADCs become the implementation point for service chaining and VNF monitoring and assurance. NetScaler is the best choice for building your NFV stack to operate your workloads because it offers deep TCP optimization in fixed and mobile networks, and has been tested in 3G, 4G and 4G-Advanced networks and with protocols such as Citrix NILE, which was developed for wireless networks. Proven in the largest deployments NetScaler powers some of the largest cloud infrastructure service providers in the world today. A key set of factors have made NetScaler the preferred provider of traffic management for these dynamic and flexible deployments virtualized form factor, centralized management with distributed deployment model, multi-tenancy and isolation on a virtualized environment and, of course, scale. Given that the NFV stack looks surprisingly similar to what a cloud infrastructure service provider pulls together, it pays to go with a product that is already proven to operate and scale in a virtualized environment. Fully virtualized form factor NetScaler offers a wide range of form factors for deployment in any type of infrastructure. From a simple virtual appliance to a clustered, hardware-based solution, NetScaler will scale with your needs. Figure 3. NetScaler platforms NetScaler SDX is a fully virtualized ADC that will run as a virtualized workload on your core infrastructure. NetScaler SDX allows you to spin up additional capability on demand, giving you the flexibility to use it in your core telco infrastructure as well as other projects and deployments across your network. 6

7 Intelligent, multi-protocol traffic management available as a service NetScaler supports the most important protocols that need to be managed and load balanced, including Diameter, DNS caching and load balancing, SMPP, SIP and CGNAT, as well as subscriberaware traffic steering and TCP optimization. NetScaler offers load balancing of these protocols as a service, as well as TCP optimization and CGNAT as a service for the mobile core. For the datacenter, the solution provides NetScaler AppFirewall and SSL offload for applications. Third-party solutions for NFV As mentioned earlier, no single vendor produces all the components of an NFV stack giving you the freedom to assemble a stack from different components supplied by a variety of vendors. 7

8 MANO Orchestrator Citrix does not produce its own MANO Orchestrator. Through APIs, NetScaler and XenServer can be controlled through the MANO stack. There are multiple providers of MANO Orchestrator products in the market, as well as open source projects and code (for instance, released by Telefonica) that can help you deploy them. MANO Virtualized Infrastructure Manager: OpenStack Citrix also has a strong position on supporting OpenStack, which has emerged as a popular solution for the VIM layer. Citrix does not offer an OpenStack distribution, but has integrations and partnerships with the popular distributions in the industry. Citrix NFV infrastructure products including XenServer and NetScaler fully support OpenStack distributions from partners, giving customers the choice and flexibility of using those products if OpenStack is the technology of choice for their VIM. Mirantis: Citrix has announced direct integration between XenServer and NetScaler and the Mirantis OpenStack distribution. Telco operators using or deploying the Mirantis OpenStack distribution can now use these two pieces of infrastructure to build out their NFV stack. RedHat: Citrix is currently in the process of integrating with the RedHat OpenStack distributions, and the main integration will be through the NetScaler Control Center product. Open standards Citrix is a member of many important open source initiatives related to NFV and software-defined networking (SDN), as listed below. Adherence to industry standards gives customers greater flexibility in choosing the solutions that meet their needs without being locked into a vertically integrated stack with potentially subpar elements. ETSI In November 2012, seven of the world s leading telecom network operators selected ETSI to be the home of the Industry Specification Group for NFV. The membership of ISG NFV has grown to more than 270 companies, including 38 of the world s major service providers as well as representatives from both telecoms and IT vendors. OPNFV OPNFV is an open source project focused on delivering an open platform and reference architecture for building and deploying NFV platforms. One of the core principles of OPNFV is true openness of products and technologies used in the platform to avoid vendor lock-in at any layer of the stack. 8

9 OpenDaylight OpenDaylight is an open platform for network programmability to enable SDN and create a solid foundation for NFV for networks of any size and scale. OpenDaylight software is a combination of components including a fully pluggable controller, interfaces, protocol plug-ins and applications. Conclusion Telco operators can choose from a growing number of NFV products and solutions. Citrix technologies are currently used by many of the largest operators and can provide the capabilities you need to realize the benefits of NFV quickly and easily. NetScaler, XenServer and CloudPlatform are fully integrated with a number of other leading NFV components and are proven to operate at scale. They will not lock you into a single-vendor architecture that can limit your growth and ability to innovate in the future. Corporate Headquarters Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA India Development Center Bangalore, India Latin America Headquarters Coral Gables, FL, USA Silicon Valley Headquarters Santa Clara, CA, USA Online Division Headquarters Santa Barbara, CA, USA UK Development Center Chalfont, United Kingdom EMEA Headquarters Schaffhausen, Switzerland Pacific Headquarters Hong Kong, China About Citrix Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is leading the transition to software-defining the workplace, uniting virtualization, mobility management, networking and SaaS solutions to enable new ways for businesses and people to work better. Citrix solutions power business mobility through secure, mobile workspaces that provide people with instant access to apps, desktops, data and communications on any device, over any network and cloud. With annual revenue in 2014 of $3.14 billion, Citrix solutions are in use at more than 330,000 organizations and by over 100 million users globally. Learn more at Copyright 2015 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. NetScaler, CloudPlatform, Xen, XenServer, CloudStack, NetScaler AppFirewall and NetScaler SDX are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. and other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. 0815/PDF/