Network function virtualization facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a cool idea in computer networking that uses virtualization technology. Think of it like turning big, special network machines into software that can run on regular computers.

Normally, a network needs lots of different physical machines for different jobs, like a firewall to protect against hackers, or a load balancer to share internet traffic. With NFV, these jobs, called network functions, become software programs. These programs run on powerful, standard servers, just like the ones used in cloud computing. This means companies don't need to buy expensive, custom-made hardware for each network job.

For example, instead of buying a big, physical firewall box, a company can just run a virtual firewall program on a standard server. This makes setting up new services faster and cheaper. It also helps companies avoid being stuck with one hardware maker.

Why NFV is Important
How NFV Started
How NFV Works
Putting NFV into Practice
NFV in Different Places
Building Blocks of NFV
NFV and SDN: Working Together
Impact on the Industry
Managing and Orchestrating NFV (MANO)
Looking at Performance
Cloud-Native Network Functions
See also

Why NFV is Important

In the past, phone and internet companies used very special, custom-built hardware for their networks. This hardware was super reliable, but it had some downsides:

Slow to Change: It took a long time to design and build new features or services.
Expensive: The custom hardware was very costly.
Hard to Grow: Adding more capacity meant buying more expensive, special machines.

Meanwhile, big internet companies like Google Talk, Skype, and Netflix were growing fast by using regular computer servers and smart software. This made telecom companies look for new ways to be more flexible and save money. NFV was the answer!

How NFV Started

The idea for NFV came about in October 2012. A group of big telecom companies got together in Darmstadt, Germany. They published a white paper (a detailed report) about a new way to build networks.

This led to the creation of the Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Industry Specification Group (ISG) within the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). This group, made up of experts from many telecom companies, works on setting the rules and standards for NFV.

Since then, the ETSI ISG NFV has published over 100 documents. These rules are now used in many big open-source projects, which are software projects that anyone can use and improve.

How NFV Works

The NFV system has three main parts that work together:

Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs): These are the software programs that do the network jobs. Think of them as apps for your network. They can be things like virtual firewalls or virtual load balancers.
NFV Infrastructure (NFVI): This is all the hardware and software that runs the VNFs. It includes the regular servers, storage devices, and the network connections between them. It's like the playground where the VNF apps run.
NFV Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO): This is the "brain" of the NFV system. It manages and controls everything. It makes sure the VNFs are set up correctly, that they have enough resources, and that they work well together. It's like the conductor of an orchestra, making sure all the instruments (VNFs) play in harmony.

The NFV platform is the base for both the NFVI and NFV-MANO. It includes the virtual and physical computer power, storage, and the software that makes virtualization happen. This platform also has special features to keep the network running smoothly, recover from problems, and stay secure.

Putting NFV into Practice

When a company uses NFV, they deploy one or more VNFs. But a single VNF usually doesn't provide a full service by itself. To create more complex services, companies use something called service chaining. This means connecting several VNFs together in a specific order to deliver a complete service to customers.

Another important part of NFV is orchestration. This is the process of setting up, monitoring, fixing, and managing the VNFs. It makes sure the network can create new VNF programs when needed, keep an eye on them, fix them if they break, and even handle billing for the services. This orchestration layer needs to be smart enough to manage VNFs from different companies, no matter what technology they use underneath.

NFV in Different Places

At first, people thought NFV would mostly be used in big data centers. But NFV is designed to be super flexible about where the virtual functions are located.

Ideally, virtual functions should be placed where they work best and cost the least. This means a company can put NFV in many places:

In large data centers.
Closer to the network's edge.
Even at the customer's location.

This idea is called distributed NFV. It has many benefits, from saving money to improving how well the network performs.

For example, in 2014, several companies worked together in Chicago to show how distributed NFV could work. They used special equipment at a customer's location to run virtual firewalls and encryption tools, all managed by a central system.

Building Blocks of NFV

When companies create the software for VNFs, they often break it down into smaller parts called VNF Components (VNFCs). Imagine a VNF as a LEGO model, and each VNFC is a different LEGO brick.

These VNFCs can be scaled up or scaled out.

Scaling up (or vertically) means giving a VNFC more computer power on a single server to handle more work.
Scaling out (or horizontally) means running multiple copies of a VNFC on different servers to handle even more work.

This modular design helps the network handle heavy traffic and grow easily without affecting other parts of the system.

NFV and SDN: Working Together

NFV is often talked about with Software-Defined Networking (SDN). While they are different, they work very well together.

SDN is about separating the "brain" of the network (the control part) from the "muscle" (the part that moves data). The brain is in one central place, and it tells all the network devices what to do.

NFV doesn't need SDN to work, but using them together makes the network even more flexible and easier to manage. For example, an SDN controller can help set up the connections between different VNFs.

Imagine NFV as creating the virtual machines that do the work, and SDN as the smart traffic cop that directs all the data between them.

Impact on the Industry

NFV has become very popular quickly. It can be used for many things, like making mobile base stations virtual, improving content delivery networks (CDNs), and managing home internet connections.

The benefits of NFV are huge:

Lower Costs: It reduces the money spent on buying and running network equipment.
Faster Services: New services can be launched much quicker.

Many major network equipment companies now support NFV. However, they are also working to make sure that NFV technology is as reliable and high-performing as the old custom hardware. This means making sure virtual systems can handle huge amounts of traffic and stay available almost all the time (99.999% of the time!).

A key part of NFV platforms is the vSwitch (virtual switch). This software helps connect virtual machines to each other and to the outside network. Improving its performance is important for NFV to work efficiently.

NFV is also changing how we think about network availability. Instead of just making sure a piece of equipment is working, NFV focuses on making sure the service is always available, even if some parts of the system fail.

Managing and Orchestrating NFV (MANO)

ETSI has emphasized that managing the NFV environment needs to be automated. This is where NFV Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO) comes in. It's a set of functions that manage and control how virtual resources are given to VNFs and network services. It's the main automation tool for NFV.

The main parts of NFV-MANO are:

Network Functions Virtualisation Orchestrator (NFVO): This is like the master planner. It manages the entire life cycle of network services, from setting them up to taking them down.
Virtualised Network Function Manager (VNFM): This manages the life cycle of individual VNFs. It makes sure each VNF is running correctly.
Virtualised Infrastructure Manager (VIM): This manages the virtual resources (like virtual computers and storage) that the VNFs use.

These parts work together to make sure that network services are set up and run smoothly. They use special templates and rules to know how to deploy and manage everything.

ETSI has created many standards for NFV-MANO. These standards help different companies' NFV products work together, creating an "open ecosystem." This means you can use VNFs from one company with management systems from another, making the network even more flexible.

Looking at Performance

Recent studies on NFV performance look at how fast data moves (throughput), how long it takes for data to get from one point to another (latency), and how steady that time is (jitter) for VNFs. They also check how many VNFs a single physical server can handle.

There are open-source NFV platforms available, like openNetVM. These platforms help deploy network functions and connect them to build service chains.

Cloud-Native Network Functions

Since 2018, many VNF providers have started moving their VNFs to a new type of architecture called "container-based." These are known as Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNFs).

CNFs use ideas common in big internet services, like:

Auto-scaling: They can automatically grow or shrink based on how much work they need to do.
Continuous Delivery: They make it easier to update and deploy new features quickly.
Efficiency: They use computer resources more efficiently by sharing common services.

By using containers, CNFs avoid some of the extra steps of traditional virtualization. This makes them even more efficient and helps the network recover faster if something goes wrong.