SDN and NFV: Why ODL ticks all the right boxes?

Sridhar K. N. Rao (Ph.D)

NEC Technologies India Limited.

sridhar@linux.com www.theraos.in

Acknowledgement

• Image Sources. • NEC America.

• ETSI-NfV Framework

• ETSI-NFV PoCs– From slides distributed during SDN-NFV Conference held at Dusseldorf, Germany, in October 2014.

• ONF

• Stefan Schnitter

• Jim Machi

• Justin Dustzadeh

• THANKS A LOT.

Agenda

6 Questions

• What is NFV?

• Role of SDN in NfV?

• SDN-Elements (Controller, NEs and Apps) in NfV Architecture?

• What are expectations from SDN controllers for NFV?

• Why ODL ticks all the right boxes?

• What are the related trends to look out for?

What is NfV?

Traditional Approach

• Fragmented non-commodity HW

• Physical install per appliance per site

• Low asset utilization

• HW development is time consuming and can’t be continuously deployed / upgraded

• HW development is challenging for new vendors

• Limits modularity, vendor choice

BRAS

Firewall DPI CDN

Tester/QoE monitor

WAN Acceleration DNS

Carrier Grade NAT

Session Border Controller

PE Router EPC

Message Router

PHYSICAL NETWORK FUNCTIONS

NFV • Flexibility / Extensibility

• High asset utilization

• Continuously deployed / upgraded

• Achieve Modularity

• Gain Software benefits

• Opens the competitive landscape up

• Innovative Ecosystem

VM VM

VM

Virtual Appliance

Virtual Appliance

Virtual Appliance

VM VM

VM

Virtual Appliance

Virtual Appliance

Virtual Appliance

Virtualized Network Function Commodity/Off the Shelf Servers and Network Elements

Orchestrators (OpenStack)

and other Controllers

What is NfV • Cloudifying** the Network

• Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) replaces the need for physical appliances with virtualized network functions running on standard server platforms

• Moving the functions usually embedded in network hardware into software that can run in a VM on the standard servers.

• Functions: Routers, DPI, EPC, Firewalls.

• Separation of HW and SW

• NO Vertical Integration • Hw Vendor, Sw Vendor, Management Soln. Vendor

• Once Network elements are software-based hardware elements are managed as a ‘pool of resources’.

** Alcatel-Lucent

Examples: vCPE and vEPC

vCPE

Source : www.nec.com

(1) IP service edge function as VNF on COTS server

(2) CPE functionalities integrated into telecom carrier facility

vEPC

Source: 3gpp.org Source: www.nec.com

NfV Architecture

NFV Architecture

Computing

Hardware

Storage

Hardware

Network

Hardware

Hardware resources

Virtualisation Layer

Virtualised

Infrastructure

Manager(s)

VNF

Manager(s)

VNF 2

OSS/BSS

NFVI

VNF 3

VNF 1

Execution reference points Main NFV reference points Other reference points

Virtual

Computing

Virtual

Storage

Virtual

Network

EMS 2

EMS 3

EMS 1

Service, VNF and Infrastructure

Description

Or-Vi

Or-Vnfm

Vi-Vnfm

Os-Ma

Se-Ma

Ve-Vnfm

Nf-Vi

Vn-Nf

Vl-Ha

Orchestrator

Source: ETSI NFV Architectural Framework

A Layered View

Source: Andy Reid, British Telecom

Examples: Proof of Concepts

CloudNFV Open NFV Framework – PoC#1

Source: ETSI PoCs

E2E vEPC Orchestration in an multi-vendor open NFVI environment – PoC#5

Source: ETSI PoCs

Virtualized Mobile Network with Integrated DPI – (PoC#6)

Source: ETSI PoCs

Biggest Challenge

• How to achieve Carrier Grade?

• Uptimes: Five-9s at the services level and Six-9s for the Infrastructure (including networking).*

• Enterprise software : Three-9s

• Ensuring a highly stateful and secure end-to-end service is always available.

• Statefulness

• High Availability

• Ultra-low Latency.

• Security & Reliability

• Rapid Provisioning and Resource Optimization

Carrier Grade Vs COTS – Hardware* • Carrier Grade

• Strong fault detection and fault isolation capabilities at hardware level

• Well established traditions on software upgrade, patching, and maintenance

• Reliably Central Office assumed

• COTS • May have smaller “mean time between failure” (MTBF)

• Relative smaller “mean time to repair” (MTTR)

• COTS procedures for software upgrade, patching, and aintenance contribute more to “scheduled down time”

• Different grade of reliability for data centers

*Dr. Li Mo, CTO Group

SDN in NFV

SDN and NFV are independent.

But, SDN has a significant role to

play in NfV …

SDN and NFV: Twins or Distant Cousins ?...

Arpit Joshipura (Dell)

SDN is Necessary to Exploit the NFV Potential ..

Prodip Sen, HP

Carrier SDN= SDN + NFV , is getting mature and

commercially ready brings significant benefit to

Telecom Industry ..

Hashimoto (NEC)

SDN is already been well explored by Telcos for (multi-layer) WAN. We can come across many solutions where SDN is used for Transport Networks (SDN-Transport) SDN has played a Significant role in such Multi-Layer/Multi-Domain environments.

SDN in Telco Clouds with NFV

SDN and NfV: Similarity *

• Both owe their existence to similar market forces,

• Better processor capability • significant improvement in the processor technology

• Simplification in connectivity - scope for separation of planes.

• Virtualization maturity.

• Both technologies are designed to • increase flexibility, • decrease costs, • support scalability, • and speed the introduction of new services.

*Source: Jim Machi Source: Stefan Schnitter – Detecon International

Why Do we need SDN in NfV? • It is not mandatory to have SDN for NfV.

• But…

• NFV is a complementary initiative to SDN.

• SDN makes realization of NfV much easier and better - improve performance and simplify operations

• As long as NFV addresses the general case of ’policy-managed’ forwarding, and need dynamic service orchestration

• SDN can play a major role.

Why do we need SDN in NfV ?

• Use of Dynamic Virtual Overlays and need for Multitenancy in NfV also drives the need for SDN.

• Currently, the widely acknowledged role of SDN in NfV: Supporting Service Chain Management.

• Traffic Steering. • Offload, Bypass, Selection, etc.

• Dynamic Scale-up and Scale-out

• Service chain with Virtual-Networks.

• Load Balancing.

Service chaining

• On-demand network service composition by dynamically chaining virtual network functions, such as router, firewall, DPI, NAT, etc.

CE Router

Firewall

DPI

NAT

PE Router

Tenant-A

Tenant-B

ETSI : SDN for NfV • Classification of user-traffic

• Adding labels to the packet.

• L3-L4 or L7 traffic steering.

• L2-Transparent network service chaining with traffic steering.

• Automation of mapping in Multi-layer bandwidth on Demand • Automation of the process to map the service request requirements into

available network resources

• Dynamic manage of these resources can map the service into the appropriate network layer for the most efficient use of network resources

• Interconnecting VNFCs

• Interconnecting VNFs – connecting traffic sources and sinks, provide processing of traffic in transit.

• To provide a specified service of network design.

• Chained based on customer policy/service or on VNF Processing.

• Load balancing across VNFs - VNF elasticity.

Summary: SDN in NfV

Flexible Service Chaining

Network Virtualization:

large-scale Overlays.

Policy Enforcing Traffic Engineering

Real-World SDN & NFV Developments

Source: Justin Dustzadeh, Huawei

ETSI NFV Proof of Concepts

• SDN is used to implement the MAC forwarding required to connect the clustered VNFC components within the VNF and to connect the VNF to the network.

Hypervisor

IP Core

Network

Hypervisor

Switch

SDN controller

VM-1 VM-2 VM-n

DC GW

Orchestrator

Multi-Tenant

Virtualization

management

Virtualization

Layer

Physical

Layer

Orchestration

L2 Sw

Server HW

Virtualized Infrastructure Manger - OpenStack

NOVA SWIFT

NEUTRON

Service Description

(Infrastructure part)

Se-MA

Quantum API

OpenFlowOpenFlow

Rest API /Network service

SDN Agent

SDN plugin

Neutron

SDN daemon

SWIFT APINOVA API

Switch

Fabric

Standard L2

Or-Vi

Nf-Vi

• The QOSMOS DPI VNFs expects packets routed through and/or copied to its ports so that it can analyse the traffic.

Source: ETSI-NFV

SDN Elements in NFV architecture

NETWORK ELEMENTS

SDN Controller

SDN Applications

MANAGEMENT PLANE

Data Plane

Control Plane

Business Apps Plane

OSS/BSS

SDN Components

Source: ONF

NFV Architecture

Computing

Hardware

Storage

Hardware

Network

Hardware

Hardware resources

Virtualisation Layer

Virtualised

Infrastructure

Manager(s)

VNF

Manager(s)

VNF 2

OSS/BSS

NFVI

VNF 3

VNF 1

Execution reference points Main NFV reference points Other reference points

Virtual

Computing

Virtual

Storage

Virtual

Network

EMS 2

EMS 3

EMS 1

Service, VNF and Infrastructure

Description

Or-Vi

Or-Vnfm

Vi-Vnfm

Os-Ma

Se-Ma

Ve-Vnfm

Nf-Vi

Vn-Nf

Vl-Ha

Orchestrator

2

1

0

3

6 5

4

Application Data Control

Source: ETSI GS NFV-SWA 001 V1.1.1-

SDN in NFV Architecture

• DATA: SDN-enabled Network Elements • Virtual and Physical

• CONTROL: SDN Controller.

• APPLICATION: SDN Applications.

• SDN enabled Virtual Network Function? • Should there be any overlap with VNFM and

SDN Controllers?

• VNFs are providing networking services - virtual routers – They may be configured by SDN Controllers?

SDN Controllers and Nfv

NfV framework enhances and

redefines the role of SDN

controllers.

Expectations from an SDN Controller for NfV • Multi-Deployment Support

• Fully Programmable, Open Interfaces

• Virtualized Infrastructure connectivity Management.

• Support Multiple Southbound/Data-Plane Elements

• Interoperability with other controllers/orchestrator/managers.

• Rich Feature Set. • Routing, SFC, etc.

• Transport Networks: • Multi-Layer

• Multi-Domain

• Non-Functional: • Scalability

• Low-Latency

SDN Controller Deployment Options

Options Description

Non Virtualized Complete controller instance running on single system (a

physical machine)

Virtualized Controller instance running in virtualized environment (as a

VM)

Options Description

Integrated All the SDN controller functions running under single

instance.

Distributed SDN controller functions are distributed.

Options Description

Single/Redundant Single (or with redundancy) controller for the network

Hierarchical A hierarchy of controllers with, possibly, client/server

relationships between them.

Deployment

•SDN Controller should support multiple deployment models.

•Support different Control plane options in NfV Architecture. • VIM, NFVI, VNFM, etc.

• In either case - Support appropriate interfaces in each model and option.

Virtualized Infrastructure connectivity***

• Responsible for the following aspects related to NFVI connectivity services:

• Interconnecting VNFs

• Waypoint * support.

• Resource management and tracking of network resources and attributes such as bandwidth, jitter, delay etc.

• Connectivity services to create overlay tunnels (e.g., VXLAN, NVGRE, MPLS over GRE) or network partitions.

Support Multiple Southbound/Data-Plane Elements • Southbound support of multiple protocols

• OpenFlow, NetConf, SNMP, BGP-LS etc

• Support IETF protocols to control physical and virtual routers and switches

• Border Gateway Protocol – Link State (BGP-LS) –

• Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP) –

Fully Programmable, Open Interfaces

• Fully programmatic open interfaces for service and Resource Orchestration within and across NFVIs (Data-Centers).

• Support different deployment options too.

• Minimize Manual/Proprietary interfacing.

Interoperability

• Interoperability with other controllers and Orchestrators.

• Non-SDN Network Controllers

• VIMs

• Support different scenarios • Multiple Orchestration (VIMs)?

• Single VIM and multiple SDN Controllers.

• Within Single and Across Multiple Data Centers.

Transport Networks Support: Interconnecting Data Centers

DC-1

DC-2

WAN

SDN Controller(s) SDN Controller(s) SDN Controller(s)

VIM VIM

Controller/Orchestrator

NEs NEs NEs

Rich and Relevant Feature Set

• Features : • Multi-layer Topology Management.

• Real-Time Monitoring.

• Policy Driven Load Balancing.

• Policy Driven Traffic Steering.

• Service Function Chaining Management.

Service Insertion and Chaining

• Ability to manage network service chains.

• Ability to manage network functions within the chain –

• Service Insertion/Deletion • No disruption to existing traffic when new service is inserted in the chain.

• Traffic Steering

• Ability to define traffic rules to bypass network functions in the chain.

• Ability to define traffic rules for selecting the chain out of multiple chains.

• Multi-tenancy and Service Chaining

• Management of network service chain with virtual networks.

• Ability to associate multiple network service chains to a network.

Why ODL ticks all the right boxes?

ODL is the best OpenSource

solution we have for NfV, at least

for now, and the competition is

heating up!

Expectations ODL

Multiple Deployment Model Support – Including the modularity, Clustering and Virtualization of the Controller

YES

Multiple Southbound Protocols including IETF Protocols YES

Service Function Chaining and Insertion YES and PARTIAL

Multiple Network Virtualization support YES [VTNs, Dove, etc]

Multiple Network Configuration Protocols YES (NETCONF and SNMP)

Multi-Layer Network Optimization for transport networks. YES

Support for Integration with VIM (Openstack) and VNFM (Proprietary). Deeper Integration with Openstack.

YES and PARTIAL

Interoperability YES

ODL for NfV: Features

ODL for NfV: Platform

• Dynamically pluggable module architecture brings lot of advantages.

• The Helium release: • The platform has evolved

• Key Areas • High availability,

• clustering and security,

• Newer concepts like • OpenFlow Table Type Patterns,

• PacketCable MultiMedia,

• Application policy framework and tools for Service Function Chaining

ODL for NfV: Usage in PoCs

• ODL has been used in NfV Proof Of Concepts

• Ex: POC# 19. • Demonstrated at Dusseldorf, Germany

• Service Acceleration of NW Functions in Carrier Networks

• Acceleration of Virtualized NW functions (VNFs) that work on carrier networks utilizing commoditized white box hardware

• DPI and Firewall

ODL For NfV: ODL-Based*

• ODL-Based Controllers by… • Ciena • Huawei • HP • Ericsson • ADVA • Brocade • ConteXtream • Oracle • Cisco • Intel • ….

How ODL fares in comparison with Other OpenSource SDN Controllers

Controllers

Use-Cases Trema Nox/Pox RYU Floodlight ODL ONOS***

Network Virtualizaiton by Virtual Overlays YES YES YES PARTIAL YES NO

Hop-by-hop Network Virtualization NO NO NO YES YES YES

OpenStack Neutron Support NO NO YES YES YES NO

Legacy Network Interoperability NO NO NO NO YES PARTIAL

Service Insertion and Chaining NO NO PARTIAL NO YES PARTIAL

Network Monitoring PARTIAL PARTIAL YES YES YES YES

Policy Enforcement NO NO NO PARTIAL YES PARTIAL

Load Balancing NO NO NO NO YES NO

Traffic Engineering PARTIAL PARTIAL PARTIAL PARTIAL YES PARTIAL

Dynamic Network Taps NO NO YES YES YES NO

Multi-Layer Network Optimization NO NO NO NO PARTIAL PARTIAL

Transport Networks - NV, Traffic-

Rerouting, Interconnecting DCs, etc. NO NO PARTIAL NO PARTIAL PARTIAL

Campus Networks PARTIAL PARTIAL PARTIAL PARTIAL PARTIAL NO

Routing YES NO YES YES YES YES

Related Trends and Open Source Projects

There are other interesting open-

source projects to watch out for…

Significant Open Source Works • OPNFV

• April 23rd 2015

• Open-MANO • Telefonica

• Bare Metal Switches and Open Networking • Open Compute Project by Facebook.

• Open Source Software and Open Hardware • ONL • Switch Abstraction Interface – Forwarding Abstraction. • Open Network Switch Library (NSL)by Broadcom

• Closed Source, but, Open API. • FBOSS Agent

• Use of Docker Containers in NfV Environments • Related SDN Controller

• ONOS from ON.LAB