Network Function Virtualization: An Overview and Detailed Technology Review
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a new method of designing, deploying, and managing networking services that decouple physical network equipment from the functions that run on it, replacing hardware-centric, dedicated network devices with software running on general-purpose CPUs or virtual machines running on standard servers. Today, several open-source projects are developing NFV standards, including ETSI, an Open Platform for NFV, Open Network Automation Platform, Open-Source MANO, and MEF—formerly the Metro Ethernet Forum. It is even growing in popularity because of enterprise networks' quickly expanding complexity and requirements today.
Introduction
Product development has adhered to strict protocol adherence, stability, and quality criteria in the telecommunication sector. However, standards for hardware development have resulted in slow growth, extended product cycles, and dependence on proprietary hardware. Some online communications services such as Google Talk, Netflix, and Skype and their consumer demand drove changes to this status quo.
The need for telecommunication service providers worldwide to speed the deployment of new network services and to support their financial and long-term growth goals gave rise to the idea of Network Function Virtualization (NFV). Present-day telecommunication networks are overpopulated with a large and increasing variety of proprietary hardware appliances.
Therefore, launching a new network service often requires introducing another variety of proprietary hardware requiring finding the space and power to accommodate these arrangements, which is increasingly becoming difficult.
These limitations of hardware-based appliances (e.g., routers, firewalls, etc.) prompted them to go beyond traditional network systems, creating various IT virtualization technologies and standards and incorporating them into their networks. Service providers came together to work it out with different standardization bodies, such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), to accelerate progress toward this common goal. The ETSI Industry Specification Group for Network Function Virtualization (ETSI ISG NFV) is the leading group responsible for developing requirements, architecture, and other issues for the virtualization of various functions within telecommunication networks.
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a new method of designing, deploying, and managing networking services that decouple physical network equipment from the functions that run on it, replacing hardware-centric, dedicated network devices with software running on general-purpose CPUs or virtual machines running on standard servers. The concept of NFV is relatively recent, though it is based on technologies that have proven their validity in the IT sector. It is a result of careful experimenting and evaluation by players in the industry and academy in recent years. NFV can significantly reduce Operating Expenses (OPEX) and Capital Expenses (CAPEX) by decoupling Network Functions (NFs) from the physical devices on which they run, as well as by simplifying the deployment of new services with higher agility and faster time-to-value.
As shown in Figure 1, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) aims to change how network operators design networks by advancing standard IT virtualization technology to consolidate various network equipment types onto industry-standard high-volume servers, switches, and storage that may be situated in data centers, network nodes, or end-user premises. Network Function Virtualisation promotes the implementation of network functions in software that can run on a range of standard IT hardware in data centers and can be managed (e.g., moved or replicated) without modifying the physical infrastructure.
ETSI Vision for Network Function Virtualization (Source: Lumenci)
History Of Network Function Virtualization
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), a group of service providers including AT&T, China Mobile, BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, and many others, presented for the first time the idea of a network functions virtualization standard at the OpenFlow World Congress in 2012. These service providers had been searching for a way to accelerate the deployment of network services. More than 130 of the world's largest network operators recently formed an ESTI Industry Specification Group (NFV). The ISG consisted of members from the European and international telecommunications industries. ETSI ISG NFV covers several facets, such as functional architecture, information model, data model, protocols, APIs, testing, dependability, security, and future evolutions.
Today, several open source projects are developing NFV standards, including ETSI, Open Platform for NFV, Open Network Automation Platform, Open Source MANO, and MEF—formerly the Metro Ethernet Forum. It is even growing in popularity because of the quickly expanding complexity and requirements of enterprise networks today. So many organizations with competing proposals for standards have made it challenging for service providers to get comfortable with the virtualization of network functions.
Since May 2021, the ETSI ISG NFV has issued Release 5 of its standards, which aims to generate new specifications and expand the already-published specifications based on new features and improvements.
ETSI NFV Release 5 kicks off with increased support for cloud-enabled deployments
The Release 5 work program is expected to drive ETSI NFV's work in two main directions: consolidating the NFV framework and expanding its applicability and functionality set. On the one hand, some aspects of the NFV concepts and functionalities that have been addressed in previous Releases, but need additional work, will be further developed in Release 5.
On the other hand, Release 5 aims to expand the work of the ISG into different dimensions to address the industry's needs regarding network transformation. One of the dimensions relates to referencing and extending if needed, the NFV framework to increasingly address telecom use cases in the Radio Access Network (RAN) domain by taking as an input the most recent outcomes from other standards development organizations explicitly involved in this domain. Energy efficiency aspects of NFV will also be analyzed, thus formally addressing the study of a long-standing promise of NFV raised by network operators.
"With Release 5, ETSI NFV advances state of the art in NFV and Cloudification to boost support for telecom use cases by taking into account technology advancements and trends from upstream technologies. This Release also applies the experience accumulated by network operators and vendors in developing and commercializing systems based on the NFV framework."
NFV releases and their features. (Source: Lumenci)
What is Network Function Virtualization?
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) replaces network appliance hardware with virtual machines. The virtual machines use a hypervisor to execute networking software and perform the functions of routing and load balancing.
Network function virtualization allows numerous VNFs to run on just one server and scale to utilize the remaining spare resources. Both outside networks as well as within the data center, NFV are also able to virtualize the control plane and data plane. This infrastructure virtualization also typically leads to more efficient use of data center resources.
How exactly does network functions virtualization work?
Essentially, network function virtualization supersedes the functionality provided by individual hardware networking components. Virtual machines run software that performs the same networking functions as traditional hardware. Load-balancing, routing, and firewall security are all performed by software instead of hardware components. A hypervisor or software-defined networking controller enables the network engineers to program all of the different segments of the virtual network and even automate the provisioning of the network.
What is NFV Architecture?
Individual proprietary hardware components such as gateways, load balancers, firewalls, routers, switches, and intrusion detection systems perform various networking duties in a conventional network design. A virtualized network replaces conventional networking devices with software programs that operate on virtual computers. The NFV architecture provided by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) contributes to NFV implementation standardization. Each design component is based on these standards to encourage greater stability and interoperability. An NFV architecture has three components:
Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVi): NFV infrastructure (NFVi) refers to the collection of software and hardware components that comprise the deployment environment for NFV. The infrastructure components of NFVi include computation, storage, and networking. The NFV infrastructure may cover many locations. The networking equipment that connects these sites is included in the NFVi. An NFV architecture may be founded on a container management platform or a hypervisor, like KVM, that isolates computation, storage, and network resources required to run apps. The NFV infrastructure manager (VIM) oversees the resource allocation for VNFs. OpenStack is an open-source virtual infrastructure manager (VIM) that manages physical and virtual resources.
Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs): Software applications replace the hardware components of a conventional network design to provide many forms of network functionality (virtualized network functions), such as WAN optimization, firewalling, and load balancing. VNFs are often launched as VMs using hypervisors on COTS hardware. A cloud-native network function (CNF) is a virtual network function (VNF) created for the cloud environment. CNF, unlike VMs, operates in containers and is a VNF for the cloud environment's future development.
MANO Framework: To administer the infrastructure and provide network functionality, a framework (commonly referred to as MANO - Management, Automation, and Network Orchestration) is required. The VNFs in the NFV architecture are administered and orchestrated by NFV MANO. MANO generates network services by automating, providing, and coordinating activities for VIM and VNF managers, developing VNFs, and overlaying networking service chains. NFV MANO is responsible for the following responsibilities:
Orchestrating virtual network functions into network services (NS)
Utilizing virtualized resources to deploy and execute VNF and NS instances
Engaging with operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) can deliver advantages such as rapid service innovation, flexible network function deployment, improved resource usage, and cheaper CapEx and OpEx costs.
Controlling the logical function and ensuring VNF service levels, including fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security (FCAPS), by interacting with element management (EM)
Lifecycle management of VNF and NS objects
Interact with NFVI to assign, manage, and coordinate virtualized resources.
This design allows service providers to build a private cloud and leverage a single hardware resource pool for all network tasks. All of this is made possible by using a virtualization layer managed by NFV Management and Orchestration, which allows providers to automate the provisioning, deployment, and management of a network service on top of a virtual infrastructure. Deploying end-to-end network services in such an environment conceals the complexity of the underlying infrastructure, facilitates the deployment of virtual network functions (VNFs), and simplifies the extension of all resources.
ETSI NFV reference architecture (Source: Lumenci)
Benefits of Network Function Virtualization
With traditional hardware-based networks, network administrators must purchase dedicated hardware devices and manually configure and connect them to develop a network. This is time-consuming and demands specialized networking expertise.
NFV allows virtual network functions to run on a standard generic server controlled by a hypervisor, which is far less expensive than purchasing proprietary hardware devices. Network configuration and management are much easier with a virtualized network. Best of all, network functionality can be modified or added on demand because the network runs on virtual machines that are quickly provisioned and managed.
Risks of Network Function Virtualization
NFV makes a network more responsive and adaptable, and easily scalable. It can expedite time to market and significantly reduce equipment costs. However, security risks and concerns have proven to be a barrier to broad adoption among telecommunications providers. Following are some of the risks of implementing network function virtualization that service providers need to consider:
Physical security controls are ineffective: Virtualizing network components increases their vulnerability to new attacks compared to physical equipment locked in a data center.
It is challenging to isolate and contain malware since it is simpler to spread between virtual components running on the same virtual machine than physically separate or isolated hardware components.
Network traffic is less transparent, and traditional traffic monitoring technologies struggle to detect potentially harmful anomalies in network traffic that travels east-west between virtual machines. As a result, NFV calls for more precise security measures.
Multiple security measures are necessary for complex layers: Environments for network function virtualization come with several layers that are difficult to secure using general security measures because of their inherent complexity.
How can NFV facilitate the development of 5G?
5G is the fifth-generation mobile network, and it was built and executed with NFV and cloud concepts in mind. From the 5G Core to the 5G RAN, NFV increases automation and operational agility and reduces CapEx throughout the 5G infrastructure.
Network slicing that NFV supports is a crucial component of 5G core networks. Network slicing is critical for using the 5G capabilities. It divides a single physical network into several virtual networks that use the same network architecture. This logical division divides networks into configurable slices, allowing operators to provide services tailored to the demands of each consumer. Beyond customization, network slicing enables operators to guarantee consumer quality of service (QoS). Good service quality helps network operators enhance network performance by decreasing latency and improving security, among other means.
NFV Applications
NFV applies across a broad scope of network functions, including mobile networks. A few common applications of network function virtualization include:
Security features, like intrusion detection and prevention systems, firewalls, and NAT
Session Border Control (SBC)
Software-defined branch and SD-WAN
Virtual Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE)
Content Delivery Networks (CDN), including any content delivery services such as video streaming
Evolved Packet Core (EPC)
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
Network-monitoring
Network slicing
NFV Implementation
To implement network function virtualization, build and deploy virtualized network functions, or VNFs. VNFs must be strategically constructed as part of a specific service chain to deliver more complex products or services.
Another element of NFV implementation is the orchestration procedure. A network's orchestration layer is responsible for creating, maintaining, and billing for VNF instances. Thanks to these carrier-grade capabilities, high security and availability are provided along with scalable, highly reliable services, which reduces maintenance and operational expenses.
The adequately implemented orchestration layer must be able to manage VNFs without regard to the underlying technology. In simple terms, an orchestration layer must be able to handle any VNF from any vendor running on any technology.
Reliable, high-performance servers are a central piece of NFV equipment.
NFV architecture is based on server virtualization technology, with VMware, OpenStack, and container technology as virtualization layer options today. While container-based network function virtualization is not as widely deployed, it provides performance benefits for next-generation applications. The primary hypervisor options are VMware and OpenStack.
MANO network function virtualization architectures vary; some are open standard, while some vendors are supplied. Network operators must modify MANO to satisfy the specific requirements of their billing and operational infrastructures. The primary open-source MANO option comes from the Linux Foundation, the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP).
VNFs provide feature-rich network application code at the application layer. In more advanced scenarios, network operators will select multiple VNFs from a large pool to be service chained to deliver a broad network function.
Market Analysis
"Network Function virtualization is anticipated to make a pronounced impact on the IT sector. During the pandemic, network function virtualization has been very advantageous for different industries as it implements various network functions, for instance, load balancing, IP multimedia subsystems, firewall, mobile core, security, routing, or video. Moreover, it reduces costs and improves scalability and resource management for an organization. Thus, many enterprises are deploying network function virtualization infrastructure".
Network function virtualization (NFV) combines hardware and software networks in a virtual network. It assists in optimizing the networks and related operations and reduces power consumption, thus decreasing equipment costs. A decreased capital and operational expenditure are significant advantages of Network Function Virtualization. Furthermore, increasing virtualized software deployment among enterprise data centers, including Internet Service Providers (ISP) and Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), drives the market growth.
What are the Driving Factors behind the Global Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Market in the Forecast Years?
One of the primary drivers driving the global network function virtualization (NFV) market is its remarkable expansion in the banking, financial services, Insurance, healthcare, retail, and IT industries. Demand for virtual functions has increased manifold to handle the expanding network traffic and massive data conflicts.
Network function virtualization (NFV) symbolizes a significant shift in telecom services from hardware devices to software programming. With worldwide operators investing more in software applications than storage facilities, the software category accounted for a large portion of the software-defined networking and network function virtualization market.
Several Telecom carriers' commercial deployment of NFV is driving sustainable, intelligent technologies in this arena. Transitioning to 5G network services can necessitate the deployment of NFV devices even more in the coming years. Other significant factors influencing the global and regional markets include the growing demand for data center consolidation and server virtualization at different locations.
Competitive Landscape and Network Function Virtualization Market Share Analysis
The network function virtualization market competitive landscape provides a list of leading market players in NFV. It also provides NFV market segmentation based on components, virtualized network functions, applications, end-user, enterprise- size, and region.
Leading Market Players in NFV
Affirmed Networks
NETSCOUT (United States)
NEC (Japan)
Ribbon Communications (United States)
ZTE Corporation (China)
Fujitsu (Japan)
Ciena (United States)
Mavenir (United States)
Cisco (United States)
Ericsson (United States)
Huawei (China)
VMware (United States)
Nokia (Finland)
HPE (United States)
Dell EMC (United States)
Juniper Networks (United States)
NFV Market Segmentation
The market is primarily segmented based on components, virtualized network functions, applications, end-user, enterprise- size, and region.
Orchestration and automation components accounted for the largest market share.
Based on components, the Network Function virtualization market is categorized into solutions, services, orchestration, and automation. Orchestration and automation accounted for the largest market share as it automates and enhances service creation by combining virtual network function, self-healing, scaling, and resource lifecycle management of service.
Similarly, it caters to the issue directly and provides flexible terms for traffic management operators to improve efficiency. Accordingly, it provides access to several applications on one system appliance, reducing operational costs and driving the market's growth.
Additionally, automation improves availability and consumes the time of network operators from their daily tasks. Several components, such as NFV orchestrators, WAN configurations, SDN controllers, virtual infrastructure managers, and others, have driven the growth of orchestration and automation in the NFV market.
Network function accounted for the largest market share.
Network Function virtualization is categorized as computing, storage, and network based on functionality. Network function accounts for the largest revenue share as the demands for mobile broadband speed, wireless services, and mobility have increased, which has driven the growth of this segment.
Also, rapid investment in popularizing 5G technology increases the importance of the grid function. The network function is also driven by the growing promotion of technologies, including IoT and Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).
The core segment is expected to hold a significant revenue share over the forecast period.
The market has been divided into virtual appliances and core networks based on application. The core segment accounted for the largest revenue share. It is also estimated to be the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period. The core market segment is driven by increased demand for virtualization and automation. Also, the number of grid complexes is driving the growth.
The core segment includes operations such as traffic forwarding, traffic monitoring security, intrusion-based system, and domain name services carried over virtual evolved packet core over the edge. Most NFV solutions and associations are significantly investing in R&D to introduce much better and more affordable solutions for small and medium-scale ventures, describing the growth for the core segment.
The enterprise segment accounted for the most significant growth rate.
The market is split based on end-users: service providers, data centers, and enterprises. Enterprises accounted for the largest revenue share in 2022. Due to significant advantages such as improved grid ability by enhanced IT rapidity and centralized management, enterprise customers are quickly accepting the Network Function virtualization technology.
The enterprise segment is further categorized into various sub-segments: manufacturing, government and defense, healthcare, retail, education, IT-enabled services, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI). The distribution of Network Function virtualization is currently deployed in the healthcare, BFSI, manufacturing, and retail sectors.
North America is forecast to account for the largest revenue share by 2030.
North America accounted for the largest revenue share for the network function virtualization market in 2021-22. Equally, Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. North America has several NFV infrastructure providers, such as IBM, Cisco, Extreme, and Juniper Networks. Various technologies such as software-defined everything (SDx), IoTs, and cloud computing are being adopted faster in the US., making it the largest shareholder in the North America NFV industry.
Due to the growing 5G distribution, the acquisition of Network function virtualization has increased accordingly. Massive industrialization in countries such as the US and Canada has driven the growth of the NFV industry in this region. Apart from 5G technology, demand for a high proportion of data storage and security, an increase in subscriber base, and appropriate governmental policies drive the industry growth in this region.
How is the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Market in North America Shaping Up?
Due to the increase in 5G implementations, the adoption of NFV is increasing in the region. It is estimated that North America would represent most of the NFV market and be promoted by rapidly adopting technologies like cloud computing, all-defined software(SDx), and IoT. However, in NFV, control of the entire network is done with the controller; therefore, implementation requires various organizational, functional, and cultural changes within organizations.
North American nations have advantageous standards and networking laws, which aid in expanding the NFV industry. It is also a potential investment market, offering new avenues for deploying NFV infrastructure. The region's usage of NFV is increasing as 5G deployments expand. However, with NFV, the controller controls the whole network; hence, the adoption necessitates different organizational, functional, and cultural changes inside enterprises.
In the forthcoming years, it is anticipated that North America will maintain its market share of approximately 40% in the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Market. With numerous key players in the firewall, included among the services virtualized using NFV, the sector has begun offering firewall-as-a-service (FWaaS), including all the abilities of firewall tools and packages as a service.
This not only benefits the IT sector by saving companies the additional costs of separately deploying, monitoring, and managing their respective firewalls, but it also benefits the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Market, as IT is one of the numerous segments that have shifted to Network Function Virtualization (NFVs) to keep up with the massive surge in digitization.
IT industry finds using NFV in new ways for building complex IT applications. Additionally, the North American region accounts for approximately 61% of the global Cloud Computing industry. Cloud computing goes hand in hand with network function virtualization since it is among the different facets of virtualization, aiding firms in building an agile and elastic network coupled with cloud-based security features.
Challenges for Network Functions Virtualization
The community must address several challenges to implementing Network Functions Virtualization if progress is to be accelerated. The challenges we have identified are listed below:
• Portability/Interoperability. The ability of different vendors for different operators to load and execute virtual appliances in different but standardized data center environments. The goal is to create a unified interface that decouples software instances from the underlying hardware, represented by virtual machines and their hypervisors. Portability also enables the operator to optimize the location and required resources of the virtual appliances without limitations. Portability and interoperability are critical because they create different ecosystems for virtual appliance vendors and data centre vendors, even though both ecosystems are linked and rely on each other.
• Migration and co-existence of legacy & compatibility with existing systems. The Network Functions Virtualization architecture must provide a path for migration from today's proprietary physical network appliance-based solutions to more open standards-based virtual network appliance solutions. Network Functions Virtualization implementations must coexist with old network equipment and be compatible with existing Element Management Systems, Network Management Systems, OSS and BSS, and other systems.
• Automation. Automation of operations is crucial to success. Network Functions Virtualization will only scale if all functions can be automated.
• Security & Resilience. Network operators must be satisfied that their network's security, resilience, and availability are not harmed when deploying virtualized network functions. A virtual appliance should be as secure as a hardware appliance if the infrastructure, especially the hypervisor and its setup, is safe. Network operators will be seeking methods to control and validate hypervisor setups. They will also require security-certified hypervisors and virtual appliances.
The more software components in an NFV, the more options there are for detecting potential software vulnerabilities. The expanding participation of various partners or vendors, processes, and subsystems in generating and delivering services increases the threats of data breaches, data residue, and attacks. It can also create incredibly intricate supply chains. It takes work to manage so many vendors. All it takes is a security hole in one vendor's environment to start a supply chain attack whose impact can extend far and wide.
Some ETSI ISG NFV security specifications:
Published specifications:
ETSI GR NFV-SEC 005: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV); Trust; Report on Certificate Management.
ETSI GR NFV-SEC 018: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV); Security; Report on NFV Remote Attestation Architecture.
ETSI GS NFV-SEC 022: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Release 2; Security; Access Token Specification for API Access.
Draft Specifications (work in progress):
Draft ETSI GR NFV-SEC 016: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV); Location, loc stamp, and timestamp; Report on location, timestamping VNFs.
Draft ETSI GS NFV-SEC 023: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Release 4; Security; Container Security Spec.
Draft ETSI GS NFV-SEC 024: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Release 4; Security; Security Management.
Draft ETSI GS NFV-SEC 025: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Release 4; Security; Secure E2E VNF & NS management.
Draft ETSI GS NFV-SEC 026: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Release 4; Security; Isolation and trust domain.
Draft ETSI GR NFV-SEC 027: Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Release 4; Security; Report on security assurance of NFVI.
• Network Stability. Ensuring network stability is not harmed when managing and orchestrating multiple virtual appliances between hardware suppliers and hypervisors. It is particularly significant when, for example, virtual functions are relocated or during re-configuration events (e.g., due to hardware and software problems) or cyber-attack.
• Integration. A fundamental difficulty for Network Functions Virtualization is the seamless integration of many virtual appliances onto existing industry-standard high-volume servers and hypervisors. The ecosystem must provide integration services, maintenance, and third-party support; integration difficulties involving many parties must be resolved. Mechanisms will be required in the ecosystem to validate new Network Functions Virtualization solutions. To overcome these difficulties, tools must be found and developed.
3GPP standards in NFV (Source: Lumenci)
Leading NFV Vendors
The Table below indicates whether the vendor is a significant participant in the NFV markets of Carrier NFV, Wireless Carriers, and Enterprise/Data Centers. If the company is not listed under one of these categories, this does not imply that they have no relevant offerings but merely that they are not a major player.
Recent Developments
Red Hat and Intel upgraded a lab facility in Singapore to accelerate the adoption of 5G and edge computing in the Asia Pacific. While the original lab was designed to support the move of telecommunications service providers to Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), the upgraded Red Hat and Intel 5G and Edge Technology Lab supports the creation of next-generation Cloud-native Network Functions (CNFs) and edge computing use cases. Red Hat is dedicated to driving the evolution of 5G through cloud-native, open-source innovation. It Supports flexible deployment models creating easier adoption for multi and hybrid cloud architecture strategies from edge to the cloud.
Ericsson and VMware have signed an agreement aimed at helping service providers deploy virtualized networks. The two vendors have collaborated since 2012, but this new five-year agreement takes it to the next level. The alliance includes technical collaboration and interoperability testing across Ericsson's virtual network functions, billing and charging software, and automation and orchestration systems. These will be combined with VMware's telco NFV platform, vCloud NFV. The two companies have invested in a certified lab to test and verify interoperability between Ericsson's VNFs and VMware vCloud NFV platform.
Nokia and VMware have expanded their partnership to include a lab to certify Nokia's Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) on VMware's vCloud NFV platform. In addition to providing common VNFs, and, eventually, Container Network Functions (CNFs), the Certification Lab will speed up the onboarding of VNFs by services providers. Nokia and VMware have a broad mutual customer base across their portfolios. They are working to advance the interoperability between Nokia's software applications and VMware's Telco Cloud, which includes VMware vCloud NFV. Nokia Service Management runs on VMware's Telco Cloud Platform and HXC. The two companies are working to help customers create a multi-cloud strategy for their network and I.T. environment, linking them to the private, edge, and public clouds. Various Nokia software applications, such as Nokia CloudBand Application Manager and Nokia Smart Plan Suite, and the virtual IMS, virtual packet core, and session border controller, have already been certified for operations in VMware cloud environments.
Conclusion
The introduction of Network Function Virtualization is a core structural change in the telecommunication infrastructure marketplace. Rather than installing expensive proprietary reduction services, providers can purchase inexpensive switches, storage, and servers to run virtual machines that perform network functions. Network Function Virtualization is a way to reduce costs and speed up service deployment for network operators by decoupling functions such as a firewall or encryption from dedicated hardware and transferring them to virtual servers.
If a client wants to add a new network function, the service provider can spin up a new virtual machine to perform that function. For instance, instead of deploying a new hardware appliance across the network to enable network encryption, encryption software can be deployed on a standardized server or switch already available in the network. Such virtualization of network functions reduces dependency on dedicated hardware appliances for network operators and allows for improved scalability and customization across the entire network. To make NFV fully operational, there is a need to coordinate three interlinked but separate development paths: virtualization, orchestration, and automation. NFV is a disruptive technology. It is expected to change how current networks are built, operated & managed. The multi-vendor management and orchestration objective of NFV needs to be streamlined toward smooth migration.
Apart from the opportunities, the telecommunication sector may have to address many technical hurdles that can limit its advancement. As an emerging technology, NFV may offer various issues to network operators, such as the guarantee of network performance for virtual appliances, their dynamic instantiation and migration, and their efficient placement. Therefore, the problem for network operators may be transferring their operations and skill base to a software-based networking environment while carefully re-targeting investment to maximize the reuse of existing systems and processes. It may entail some investment of time, resources, education, and operational reform. Still, it may be the most efficient strategy in the future to keep pace with the rapid growth of the Telecommunication networks of tomorrow.
Network Functions Virtualization will likely benefit network operators, their partners, and customers while creating new ecosystems that encourage and support rapid innovation with reduced cost and risk. To realize these benefits, the technical challenges, as described above, should be addressed by the industry.
Author
Iman Ali
Associate Consultant & Member of Telecom & Wireless Technology Group at Lumenci
Iman is experienced in the IP domain with expertise in an Infringement analysis, Patent Portfolio Mining, Prior Art Search, and (EoU)/Claim Chart creation services. He has patented innovative ideas recognized by Intellectual Property India in various technologies. He is interested in Wireless Cellular technologies, IoT, DIP & Network Traffic Analysis (NTA). He is an Electronics and Communication Engineer from Amity University, India.
Editorial Team at Lumenci
Through Lumenci blogs and reports, we share important highlights from the latest technological advancements and provide an in-depth understanding of their Intellectual Property (IP). Our goal is to showcase the significance of IP in the ever-evolving world of technology.