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WhitepaperSimplify Your Network Infrastructure withNetwork Functions VirtualizationAuthor: Krishna Kunapuli

ContentsAbstract .02Introduction .02Exponential Increase in Data Demand .03Network device as a VM – The origin of Enterprise NFV .04Introducing MANO - The need for standardization .04MANO and Service Chains .05NFV use cases .06Branch-in-a-box – virtualized small branches .06Cloud Edge Gateway VNFs .08Elements of an NFV solution .10Choosing the right NFV Solution .10A peek Into Cisco’s NFV .11Conclusion .12

Network Functions VirtualizationAbstractIntroductionWhen it comes to networking equipment,Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) wastraditional hardware architectures are growingoriginally conceptualized in early 2000s throughtoo diverse, making the operation of servicea collective effort of service providers andadditions and upgrades increasingly difficult forequipment manufacturers as a technology forservice providers and data center operators. Thereplacing physical network devices with virtualNFV approach helps service providers simplifydevices that could be deployed on demand.operations by virtualizing network functionsNetworks had a higher number of devices, whichpreviously performed by proprietary hardware.were becoming larger in size with extra spaceThis paper discusses how virtualization ofand power requirements. There was a need fornetwork functions also provides the ability formore ports with higher port speeds with andynamic service chaining, resource allocation,increasing number of IP-enabled endpoints suchand scale-in or scale-out.as peripherals, phones, surveillance cameras, etc.To cater to the service provider transportnetworks, manufacturers had to come up withmulti-chassis devices with terabit throughput. Inaddition, an increase in the number of devicesresulted in more complex cabling le. The growing need to scale outled to the origin of NFV.Even today, global networks are disruptedconstantly to accommodate newer connectivityrequirements, changing application architecturesand data demands of an organization. This isdriven by the increased number of connecteddevices within an enterprise due to BYOD andseamlessmobilityrequirements,ahighernumber of end-user applications and richaudio-visual content, and the collaborationrequirements of the smart workplace. There isalso a greater need for ubiquitous access to SaaS02

Network Functions Virtualizationapplications over Internet due to the globalthe origin of an Enterprise NFV, and how thenature of a flexible and disparate business needs.standards bodies and the industry are working toNetwork Functions Virtualization (NFV) is oneestablish management frameworks that makesuch major disruption that is enabling digitalinteroperability possible. It further introducestransformationconcepts such as Service Chains and givesbyremovingtherigidityassociated with traditional networks.examples of common use-cases for NFV. Finally,it lists out important criteria for choosing an NFVThis whitepaper considers the problems insolution and gives an example of a turn-key NFVtraditional networks and challenges posed bysolution available in the market.ever-increasing data demands. It also looks atExponential Increase in Data DemandAs enterprise users started consuming data ation, the demands put on networkbecamesignificantlyhigher.(100Mbps), which was theFastEthernethighestaccessswitchport speed for a long time, quicklybecame obsolete as networks moved to 1gigabit or higher speeds in the access layer.Multi-gigabitnetworkbackbonesbecamepossible with improvements in silicon packagingdensities and availability of high speed fibers.This bandwidth eventually trickled down to theaccess layer.Today we have 10 gigabit ports availableon almost every shipped networkequipment. With the advent of Wi-Fi6,we can move 1 gigabit per stream. Buthandling such large data volumesrequires more expensive silicon on eachequipment. There needs to be a betterway of segregating this traffic insoftware with fewer interconnectionsbetween the devices to reduce theoverall cost of the infrastructure.03

Network Functions VirtualizationNetwork Device as a VM – the origin of Enterprise NFVHowever, there was the problem ofmanaging these appliances andBy 2005, OEMs started manufacturing softwaresending traffic to and from theseversions, or virtual machines (VMs), of their hardwarevirtual appliances for different flows.devices. These were called Virtual Network FunctionsThis was also a big shift away from(VNFs), and the earliest commercially availablehardwarenetwork functions that gained mainstream attentionforAdoptionwere the Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000v, JunipernetworkwasOEMs.slowasadministrators were not confident ofvirtual SRX and Riverbed virtual Steelhead amongthese experimental appliances withothers. These VNFs could be installed as VMs onunclear management strategies.commodity servers. The opensource community alsoembraced NFV quickly. There were someopensource projects such as the VyattaOS, whichfurthered the development of VNF as a concept.Introducing MANO - The Need for StandardizationTelcos and OEMs were instrumental in thenow isdevelopment of NFV due to their participation,Opensource MANO. MANO is key in choosingalong with ETSI in creating standards that ensuredany NFV architecture and defines what an NFVinteroperability across the industry. ETSI wasdeployment should contain at a minimum, i.e. aninfluential in developing the Management andNFV Orchestrator, a VNF manager and a VirtualOrchestration architecture for NFV (MANO),Infrastructure Manager. MANO compliance is keywhich is widely accepted across the industry andin choosing any NFV architecture.04anopensourceprojectcalled the

Network Functions VirtualizationMANO and service chainsMANO introduced a simple concept calledswitching layer to carry the VLANs and aService Graphs that are hop by hop connectionsrouter-to-route the traffic to a partner datacenter.between different network functions. These areThis connectivity requires the laying of cables thatanalogous to cables in the physical world. Awill only be required until the activity lasts, i.e. aservice graph delivered a meaningful end-to-endfew weeks. The cost involved can be avoided ifnetwork service by interconnecting differentNFVs were used.network functions, or what we can call a servicechain. With the increase in dynamic on-demandHere is how an NFV implementation of thisapplications and connectivity needs, enterpriserequirement would look like. A VNF oyoneVNFinstance/onefunctions for a given amount of time. Each suchconfiguration item for each for the functions. Itscenario required a service chain, as permanentwould deploy these VNFs on the virtualizedconnectivity and rigid application architecturescompute and storage provided by the Virtualstarted becoming obsolete.Infrastructure Manager. It would also inform theNFV orchestrator about how these VMs can beLet’s look at an example. Users of a specific line ofaccessed such as IP address/authenticationbusiness (LoB) want to test a new partner solutionparameters, etc. The NFV orchestrator would takeand to achieve this, need secure access to thethe necessary VLAN and IP subnets needed forpartner’s datacenter. This access has to bethis service from a dynamic pool of availablerestricted to a particular user group and theaddresses and provision the same on the devicespartner data needs to be stored in redundantafter logging into them. It would present theserver clusters.service with a name and unique identifier to thebusiness user, who can monitor the service usingTo implement this requirement, the LoB needs aAPIs available on the orchestrator.firewall, a load balancer, access to server farm, the05

Network Functions VirtualizationNFV Use CasesUseCase1Branch-in-a-Box –Virtualized Small BranchesA common use-case for Enterprise NFV is plug-&-play branches that can beconfigured in a few minutes and would take not more than 3-4 RU of rackspace for realizing the network functions.Below are the key business and operational driversfor this use case:Lean hardware with COTS serversOn-demand provisioning of network resourcesSingle pane of glass for Network ManagementNetwork functions realized in software reducing power needsSwitching in software for intelligent forwarding decisionsZero-touch deploymentSavings in time, cost and resources for implementing new branchesDynamic scale up and down in functionality in a few clicksBelow is an illustration of a typical Branch-in-a-box solution using NFV. In this example, aCOTS server in the branch is used to implement network functions such as Firewall, SDWANand Wan Optimizer in software.06

Network Functions VirtualizationPublic CloudFunctions inthe Cloud:Office 365SDWANIntuneOneDrivehead-endTransit VNetVirtual FirewallEnd UserworkloadsSDWANVNFservices (O365,One Drive etc.)VDIsvFWVNetGatewayPublic CloudINTERNETSDWAN gatewayWi-FiBranch in A BoxCOTSFunctions inthe tchservices (Router,Firewall, WanOp, SDWAN)virtualized in anX86 boxSwitchingLayerNFVIUsers07

Network Functions VirtualizationUseCase2Cloud EdgeGateway VNFsAnother use-case for Enterprise NFV is deploying VNFs as Cloud Edge Gateways. Thisis becoming a necessity as customers want some flexibility in choosing features thatare not available in native Cloud solutions for VPN connectivity and Security. While itis likely that more features will be added to cloud- native solutions such as the TransitGateway in AWS, there will always be customers with a bespoke need that is satisfiedby a commercially available VNF that can be deployed in a few minutes.Below are the key business and operational drivers for this use case:VNF with the best feature set can be selectedAdditional layer of security on top of native security on CloudUTM and DPI firewall featuresCloud-integrated Enterprise WANConsistent policy across enterprise irrespective of locationReduced need for private WAN connectivity to cloud such as Direct ConnectsQuick deployment timesOn-demand scale out (more VNFs can be added/throughput can be purchased)Below is an illustration of a typical Branch-in-a-box solution using NFV. In this example, aCOTS server in the branch is used to implement network functions such as Firewall, SDWANand Wan Optimizer in software.08

Network Functions pointsWi-FiINTERNETAzure LBSubscription AVNet ATransit VNetActiveAvailability SetSRT, UDRSRT, UDRSubnet ANSGSubnet BvFirewallAzure LBStandbyVNetGatewayOther VNetsvFirewallSRT, UDRNSG09