Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) with a Touch of SDN

Rajendra Chayapathi is a Senior Solution Architect in Cisco’s professional and consulting services organization. His most recent work has been on emerging technologies such as NFV, SDN, programmability and network orchestration and its adoption in the industry. He has over twenty years of experience in networking technologies, customer interaction, and networking products; his focus is on network design and architecture. He has previously worked in Cisco’s engineering teams where he was involved on various network operating systems and product development. Before his employment at Cisco, he provided consultancy services to AT&T and financial institutions for the design and deployment of IP core network technologies. He has been a regular speaker at multiple technology conferences such as Cisco Live, Cisco Connect and NANOG. Rajendra has a CCIE (#4991) in Routing and Switching and also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication from University of Mysore, India and a Masters’ degree in Business Administration with a focus on technology Management from University of Phoenix, USA.   Syed Farrukh Hassan has been in the networking industry for fifteen years, and is currently a Senior Solutions Architect in Cisco’s professional and consulting services organization. He has worked with various Internet and cloud service providers, helping them in adoption of innovative network technologies and supporting them in design and deployment of new architectures. In his current role, Syed is involved in SDN and NFV adoption, providing guidance, future strategy, and planning to service provider, enterprise, and data center customers. Syed has previously been part of engineering teams within Cisco and has been an active contributor towards design and innovation of network products and solutions. Syed has been a regular speaker in public forums and conferences and is recognized as a Cisco Live Distinguished Speaker. Syed is a double CCIE in Service Provider and Data Center technologies (#21617) and also a VMware Certified Network Virtualization Professional (VCP-NV). He holds a Bachelors’ degree in Engineering from NED University, Pakistan, and a Masters’ degree in Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.   Paresh Shah has been in the network industry for more than twenty years and currently working as a Director in Cisco’s professional and consulting services organization. He is responsible for bringing to market new disruptive services based on cutting-edge technologies and solutions to achieve successful deployment in customer networks. Paresh has led various global engineering and customer-facing groups in the service provider market and is a veteran of the high-end routing, service provider, enterprise, and cloud segments. He started his career as an engineer in 1996 building one of the first high-speed multi-services routers in the industry and was responsible for adoption of new technologies then, like MPLS, BGP, and L2/L3 VPN and new operating systems like IOS-XR. Paresh is leading the adoption of NFV, SDN, and segment routing consultancy services and driving the solutions for cloud-providers, traditional service providers, and enterprises that are looking to adopt these new technologies. Paresh is a regular speaker at industry conferences such as Cisco Live, NANOG, and SANOG, with a pulse on the latest trends in the industry. He has a Bachelors’ degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Pune, India and a Masters’ degree focusing in Networking and Telecommunications from University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA.

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

About the Technical Reviewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

Chapter 1: The Journey to Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Era . . .1

    The Evolution of Network Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

        Traditional Network Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

        Introducing NFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

    NFV Architectural Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

        Need for a Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

        ETSI Framework for NFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

        Understanding the ETSI Framework . . . . . . . . . . . 10

        A Closer Look at ETSI’s NFV Framework . . . . . . . . . 13

        NFV Framework Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

    Benefits of NFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

        Hardware Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

        Faster Service Life Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

        Scalability and Elasticity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

        Leveraging Existing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

        Rapid Development and Vendor Independence . . . . . . . 29

        Validation of New Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

        Amorphous Service Offering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

        Operational Efficiency and Agility . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

    NFV Market Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

        Movement to Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

        New Business Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

        Capital Expense Savings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

        Operational Expense Savings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

        Barrier of Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

    References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

    Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 2: Virtualization Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

    History and Background of Virtualization . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

        Virtualization Benefits and Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

        Server Virtualization, Network Virtualization, and NFV . . . 41

        Virtualization Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

        Virtualization versus Emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

    Virtual Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

        Components of a Virtual Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

        Resource Allocation to the Virtual Machine . . . . . . . . 53

        Network Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

        Packaging a Virtual Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

        Commonly Used Hypervisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

    Linux Containers and Docker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

        Understanding Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

        Container versus Virtual Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

        Application Container and OS Container . . . . . . . . . 70

        Enter Docker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

        Container Packaging–Beyond Docker . . . . . . . . . . 76

    Single and Multitenant Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

    Virtualization and NFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

    References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

    Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Chapter 3: Virtualization of Network Functions . . . . . . . . . . .83

    Designing NFV Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

        NFV Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

        NFV Transformation Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

    Virtualization of Network Infrastructure and Services . . . . . . . 118

        NFV for Routing Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

        Virtualization of Network Security . . . . . . . . . . . 127

        Virtualization of Mobile Communication Networks . . . . 129

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

    References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

    Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Chapter 4: NFV Deployment in the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . .137

    What’s in a Cloud? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

        Characteristics of Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

        Cloud-Based Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

        Cloud Deployment Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

        NFV and Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

    Revisiting ETSI Management and Orchestration Block . . . . . . 145

        MANO Data Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

    Orchestrating, Deploying, and Managing NFV Infrastructure . . . . 157

        Hardware Virtualization Deployment Options . . . . . . . 158

        Deploying Virtual Machines and Containers . . . . . . . 160

        Software and Tools for NFVI Deployment . . . . . . . . 164

    Introduction to OpenStack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

        So What Is OpenStack? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

        A Brief History of OpenStack . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

        OpenStack Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

        OpenStack Deployment Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

        OpenStack Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

        OpenStack Deployment Nodes Revisited . . . . . . . . . 192

        OpenStack High Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

        Live Migration for VNF mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

        Deploying OpenStack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

        Using OpenStack as VIM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

    Life Cycle Management of VNFs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

        VNFM Software Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

    Orchestration and Deployment of Network Services . . . . . . . 214

        Cisco’s Network Service Orchestrator . . . . . . . . . . 214

        Telefonica’s OpenMANO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

        Brocade VNF Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

        Nokia’s CloudBand Network Director . . . . . . . . . . 215

        Ciena’s Blue Planet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

        HP’s NFV Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

        Ericsson Cloud Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

        OpenStack Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

        RIFT.io’s RIFT.ware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

    NFV MANO and Open Source Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

        Open Platform NFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

        Open Orchestration Project (Open-O) . . . . . . . . . . 218

        Open Source MANO (OSM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

    Describing Network Service Descriptor . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

        Juju Charms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

        HOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

        TOSCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

    References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

    Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Chapter 5: Software Defined Networking (SDN) . . . . . . . . . . .227

    Basic Concepts of SDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

        What is SDN? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

        Advantages of SDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

    SDN Implementation and Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

        Introduction to SDN Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

        SDN Implementation Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

        SDN Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

    SDN Use-Cases for Different Networking Domains . . . . . . . . 251

        SDN in the Data Center (SDN DC) . . . . . . . . . . . 251

        SDN in Service Provider Cloud (SP SDN) . . . . . . . . . 254

        SDN in Wide-Area Networks (SD WAN) . . . . . . . . . 257

        Enterprise SDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

        Transport SDN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

    Revisiting SDN Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

        Open Source SDN Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

        Commercial SDN Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

    SDN Correlation with NFV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

        CORD–An Example of NFV and SDN Working Together . . 276

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

    References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

    Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Chapter 6: Stitching It All Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .285

    Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

    Service Function Chaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

        Service Chaining in a Traditional Network . . . . . . . . 288

        Service Function Chaining for Cloud Scaling . . . . . . . 289

        Network Service Header (NSH) . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

        Other Protocols for SFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

        Service Chaining Use Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

    How Virtual Machines Communicate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

        Virtual Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

        Single Root Input/Output Virtualization and

        Sharing (SR-IOV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

        Direct Memory Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

    Enhancing vSwitch Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

        Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) . . . . . . . . . . 309

        Vector Packet Processing (VPP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

    Data Performance Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

        CPU Usage Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

        Optimized Use of Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

    Programmability in a Virtualized Network . . . . . . . . . . . 317

    Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

    References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

    Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Appendix A: Answers to Review Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

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