Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) An Introduction Santanu Dasgupta Sr. Consulting Engineer Service Provider Network Architecture

Network Functions in SP Network Architecture Landscape Smartphone Access 2G 3G RNC Gateways / Service Edge TAS Services OCS SMS-C MMS-C RMS HCS NodeB 2/3G SGSN 2/3G GGSN OSS/BSS enodeb LTE SecGW SGW PGW EMS Provisioning Analytics Billing Capacity Planning Smartphone FAP Small Cell HNB-GW MME IMS Subsystems and Control Video Network ewag ENUM BGCF PS / RLS I-CSCF Video ingestion DRM Radius Policy PC AP WiFi WLC epdg HLR MGCF DRA S-CSCF Transcoding Cache Control DNS SDN Controller Biz CPE Consumer CPE Ethernet xdsl CE PE DSLAM DSL/ xdsl FTTX BNG HSS MGW P-CSCF Data Plane Voice Video Data MSC-S Caching CGN Parental control DHCP DPI BGP server Cable Modem xdsl HFC CMTS A-SBC I-SBC Opt NAT FW IPSec Metro Ethernet Metro Network Infrastructure Metro Ethernet Core Routing Core Network Infrastructure Core and Data Center Network Infrastructure Data Center Cisco Confidential 2

Virtualization of Network Functions Existing Hardware / Appliance based Network Functions (NFs) Virtualized NFs running as VM on x86 Server Platform Step 1: Decouple software from underlying hardware Step 2: Port it as a VM on x86 Server platform running as a Network Function FW Routing DPI LB Hypervisor Ethernet Switches Storage Cisco Confidential 3

Need to Understand SP Challenges to realize Why NFV Service Consumers Telco Service Providers Cloud / OTT Service Providers $ revenue Enterprises Public Sector Consumer $$ $$ $$ $$ converged and private networks IPv6 IPv4 DHCP PPPoE OTN SDH MP-BGP VPN MPLS MPLS-TP ATM EOAM MPLS-TE ISIS/OSPF CLI xge IPOAM XML SNMP tunnel LACP DWDM cost $ $$ many networks, technologies and systems t massive growth of IP traffic $$ $$ $$ IaaS PaaS SaaS OTT $$ 1. User Experience 2. Cloud Centric ConsumpEon Models / Pay- as- you- go 1. Complex and silo d networks 2. High cost to operate 3. Lack of agility, huge Eme required to create new services 4. ExponenEal growth of bandwidth 1. Lean & Agile OTT players with economies of scale 2. Highly- automated operaeons 3. Fast- paced innovaeon Cisco Confidential 4

SP s Expectation from NFV NFV will help them to reduce cost (TCO) NFV will bring the much needed agility in the Service Creation & delivery process On-boarding a new service will be much easier with NFV SP s can now afford to go wrong decommissioning a failed service wont be expensive Services now can be scaled up and down elastically NFV will help drive more Openness and Standardization Cisco Confidential 5

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Initiative NFV = Transition of network infrastructure services to run on virtualised compute platforms typically x86 NFV It is a Service Provider driven Initiative. Initiative announced at SDN and OpenFlow World Congress, Darmstadt, Oct 2012 Industry Specification Group (ISG) group within ETSI Not defining standards -deliver white papers and liaising with standards bodies First ETSI meeting was held in January, 2013 Technically not related to SDN, conceptually different But may utilize SDN concepts Programmability, Orchestration Type of network function mostly determine where virtualization makes sense Careful analysis is required on Network Function by Network Function Cisco Confidential 6

Key Factors To Determine Potential Virtualization Targets 1 Packet / Data Plane Performance Requirements 2 Control Plane Performance Requirements 3 Deviation from Standard Server build (e.g. interface type, density) 4 Economics of On-boarding if Virtualized 5 Power Efficiency requirement of the System 6 Development, Ease of Integration, Service Elasticity Needs Cisco Confidential 7

The Fundamental Electrical Building Blocks General Purpose Processors (x86, ARM, PPC) Wide range of capabilities (including packet processing) Evolving multi-core capability (10+ processors per die) Support virtualization and easy to program Network Processor Units (NPUs) Designed for flexible packet processing Multi-threaded (100s) / n/w acceleration / integrated memory Programmable in high level languages Fixed function ASICs Very low cost Integrated s/w, very efficient but relatively inflexible All based on CMOS technology All subject to Moore s Law Cisco Confidential 8

Characteristics of Network Elements High Capacity Plumbing: (L0-3 : e.g. IPv4/v6, MPLS, VPNs, ACLs, optical devices ) High throughput / BW Many flows needing isolation, significant traffic management needed Stateless functions Mostly predictable traffic Interface-specific functions (2-stage forwarding) Network Services: (L4+ : e.g. DPI, vfw, CGN, DDOS, BNG, mobility, ) Throughput - varies # of flows (traffic management) varies Stateful functions Unpredictable traffic No i/f-specific functions High Compute + Low BW Yes (%) No (%) Low compute + High BW è Good fit for NPU è Poor fit for x86/cpu Good fit for x86/cpu Poor fit for x86/cpu Cisco Confidential 9

Network Functions Requirements & today s approaches High CPU Variable CPU / FPGA / NPU Distributed: Lots of CPUs + NPUs OSS/BSS, subsystem and N/W control Wireless GWs CPU Reqs Centralized: CPU or SoC Service Appliances (L4-L7) Wireline GWs Distributed: CPUs + Lots of NPUs Low Home CPE Business CPE Centralized: CPU + NPU Core Backbone Routing, CE Access-Aggregation and DC switching 0 10Mbps 100Mbps 1Gbps 10Gbps 100Gbps 1Tbps 10Tbps 100Tbps 1Pbps Cisco Confidential 10

Mapping Back to the Service Provider Landscape Smartphone Smartphone PC High Appeal Biz CPE Consumer CPE No Appeal Cable Modem NodeB enodeb FAP AP Ethernet Access 2G 3G LTE Small Cell No Appeal WiFi xdsl CE xdsl HFC RNC High Appeal SecGW HNB-GW WLC Gateways / Service Edge 2/3G SGSN SGW PE DSLAM DSL/ xdsl FTTX BNG 2/3G GGSN PGW High MME Appeal ewag epdg Depends CMTS ENUM HLR HSS IMS OSS/BSS Subsystems and Control Data Plane Voice Video Data Parental Caching CGN MGW MSC-S control High Appeal A-SBC TAS BGCF MGCF P-CSCF I-SBC OCS SMS-C MMS-C RMS HCS EMS Provisioning Analytics Billing PS / RLS DRA I-CSCF S-CSCF Services Very High Appeal Opt Video ingestion Transcoding Video DRM Cache Control Capacity Planning Radius DNS DHCP Network DPI NAT FW IPSec Policy SDN Controller BGP server Metro Ethernet Metro Network Infrastructure Metro Ethernet Core Routing No Appeal Core Network Infrastructure Data Center Cisco Confidential 11

The Role of SDN and Orchestration Partial list, just a few main ones are mentioned here NAT Firewall DPI VM / VNF Lifecycle Management in End-to-end manner Network Plumbing to orchestrate dynamic topologies Configuration Management of the VNFs Integration with Other DC/POD And the WAN OAM, Assurance, Analytics Orchestration and SDN Control Function Standard APIs NAT Firewall DPI Hypervisor Hypervisor Hypervisor Server 1 Server 2 Server 3 Ethernet Switching Network Underlay Storage Cisco Confidential 12

NFV Reference Architecture from ETSI NFV ISG NFV Management and Orchestration OSS/BSS Service, VNF and Infrastructure Description Os-Ma Se-Ma Orchestrator Or-Vnfm EMS 1 EMS 2 EMS 3 Ve-Vnfm VNF Manager(s) VNF 1 VNF 2 VNF 3 Or-Vi NFVI Vn-Nf Vi-Vnfm Virtual Computing Computing Hardware Virtual Storage Virtualisation Layer Vl-Ha Storage Hardware Virtual Network Hardware resources Network Hardware Nf-Vi Virtualised Infrastructure Manager(s) Execution reference points Other reference points Main NFV reference points Cisco Confidential 13

Major Service Providers Driving the ETSI NFV ISG * Partial List Cisco Confidential 14

NFV Use Cases Simple ones Virtualized Route Reflector Virtualized CPE for Business VPN services Virtualized Mobile Packet Core Virtualized Managed Services (CPE, FW, UTM..) Virtualized Home CPEs Virtualized Gateways (BRAS, BNG, mobile gateways, Wi-Fi gateways). Cisco Confidential 15

End-to-End Orchestration vcpe Web VM DB VM L2 NID Backhaul vfw vwaas PE DCI DCI WAAS FW End-to-End Orchestration vfw Web VM DB VM L3 CPE / vcpe Backhaul vesa vwaas PE DCI DCI WAAS FW Cisco Confidential 16

Business VPN CPE in a Overlay Transport Model Cloud-Hosted Management Scalable, elastic, on-demand VR vfw Internet Router Cloud IPVPN with FW and Remote Access to Internet vfw with NAT and Policy vfw with IPSec/SSL Remote Access including Remote End-Host posture verification CPE CPE SP CLOUD Internet Overlay Packet Tunnels Keyed IPv6 tunnels - mesh, hub&spoke; IPSec tunnels mesh, hub&spoke if keyed IPv6 tunnels not supported; CPE Cisco Confidential 17

Where to Place the VNFs? Candidate location types in the network Centralized Data Centers à Easier to manage Fully Distributed POP s, Edge / Anchor Points / Peering locations à Higher scale & performance Hybrid Mix of the above Some factors that may need to be considered here The Use Case to deploy the VNFs Cost of transporting traffic across core Network Architecture / design Chance of Sub-optimal routing, impact on SLA (e.g. delay) Management Ease vs. Scalability Cisco Confidential 18

Centralized L2 Backhaul DCI DCI vcpe vcpe WAAS Web VM FW DB VM Higher Traffic Across Core Sub-optimal routing Higher e2e delay Distributed L2 Backhaul vcpe vcpe PE DCI DCI WAAS Web VM FW DB VM Better performance / scale More Complex to manage Distributed with Service Chain L2 NID / L2 Backhaul vcpe vfw vwaas PE DCI DCI WAAS Web VM FW DB VM Better performance / scale More Complex to manage Cisco Confidential 19

NFV How to build / Augment Operations skillsets Most existing technologies, protocols and associated skills is equally required On top of that, there is a need for acquisition of New Skills x86 Server Virtualization Virtualization on Linux (and KVM/QEMU) Environment Cloud Orchestration System OpenStack Virtual Switches OVS, Snabbswitch, Netmap/VALE, Vendor Specific SDN Controllers OpenDayLight, Vendor Specific Device Programmability and APIs NETCONF, Yang, RESTCONF, REST APIs, OF. Service Function Chaining specially NSH (Network Service Header) Network based Virtual Overlay transport VXLAN, MPLSoGRE/UDP, LISP, L2TPv3.. Management, Orchestration, OSS Fundamentals.. Cisco Confidential 20

Thank you.