ETSI

Title*: Interim Report: Subscriber Aware SGi/Gi-LAN Virtualization

from Source*: ConteXtream

Contact: Ajay.Sahai@contextream.com

input for Committee*: NFV PER

Contribution For*: Decision

Discussion

Information X

Submission date*: 2014-07-24

Meeting & Allocation: -

Relevant WI(s), or deliverable(s):

ABSTRACT:

B.1 NFV ISG PoC Report B.1.1 PoC Project Completion Status

• Overall PoC Project Completion Status:

o First Demo done and test cases executed o Covered additional targets that weren’t listed in the initial targets:

Addressed reliability/high availability and elasticity scenarios The PoC used open source tools, integrating both OpenStack and OpenDaylight

o 2nd demo was initially targeted for NFV#7; The demo will now be shown at IDF and SDN World Congress

o The next demo will show all the capabilities identified in the PoC proposal and additional capabilities that will be available. An updated report will be issued after this stage.

•

B.1.2 NFV PoC Project Participants • PoC Project Name: Subscriber Aware SGi/Gi-LAN Virtualization • Network Operator/Service Provider: Telenor Contact: Pål Grønsund (Pal.Gronsund@telenor.com) • Manufacturer A: ConteXtream Contact: Ajay Sahai (Ajay.Sahai@Contextream.com)

• Manufacturer B: SkyFire Networks Contact: Jason Guesman (jguesman@skyfire.com)

ETSI

• Manufacturer C: Guavus Contact: Sandeep Bajaj (Sandeep.Bajaj@guavus.com)

• Manufacturer D: Redhat Contact: Nicolas Lemieux (nlemieux@redhat.com) • Manufacturer E: Hewlett Packard Contact: Srikanth Kilaru (srikanth.kilaru@hp.com)

B.1.3 Confirmation of PoC Event Occurrence • PoC Demonstration Event Details:

The first demo of the PoC was completed on May 28 and 29 at the Innovation Center in the Telenor HQ located in Fornebu (near Oslo) Norway. Representatives from the participating companies were present, and over 20 people participated.

Figure 1 - NFV PoC #15 Demo at Telenor in progress

B.1.4 PoC Goals Status Report • PoC Project Goal #1 – The PoC will verify a subscriber aware method for service chaining

intrinsically provided by the NFVI

Goal Status: Demonstrated

It was shown that subscribers can choose services from a portal which are then reflected into the VNF Function Graph also called service function path (SFP in IETF) that is implemented by the NFVI Network Layer. For example, if from the portal a customer selects Content Filtering (with Child) profile, then that particular function is chained for that user. If a service is not selected by a subscriber the NFVI will not include the

ETSI

function for the traffic to/from that user. This is implemented by appropriate manipulation of Open Flow rules by the SDN Controller.

• PoC Project Goal #2 – The PoC will demonstrate how the use of a subscriber aware service chaining method applied in the NFVI can enable virtualization of functions on the SGi/Gi interface of a 3GPP mobile network and provide elasticity to VNFs.

Goal Status: Demonstrated

The PoC showed several functions (Content Filtering, Analytics, HTTP Header Enrichment, TCP and Video Optimization etc.) deployed on the Gi/SGi interface running in a virtualized environment. The SDN infrastructure interfaced with the VIM (OpenStack) to keep track of VNF Instances (that were added/removed to reflect elasticity) and leveraged this information while chaining subscriber flows. Subscriber flows were load balanced across available instances of applicable functions.

• PoC Project Goal #3 – The POC will show how each subscriber’s specific service function element chain will be selected and will be composed from a catalog of individual functions, where the said set of functions can be hosted within a NFVI-PoP or across NFVI-PoPs

Goal Status: Demonstrated

The PoC showed how a set of functions running in a virtual environment were hosted within a NFVI-POP and/or across NFVI-POPs to provision subscriber aware Gi/SGi LAN. To this end a demo was setup in which the NFVI comprised of 3 hosts. While all the VNFs were running in virtualized environments on the 3 hosts in the Telenor demo location, one VNF (Guavus) was also running in the Guavus facility in Redwood City CA. Upcoming demonstrations will be based on platforms in PoP’s provided by HP in facilities owned by them.

• PoC Project Goal # 4 – The POC will show by example how virtualization can enable

(a) programmability of network driven functions that are selected by subscribers on a self-service portal

(b) rapid introduction of new functions in the form of VNF’s greatly increasing service deployment velocity

Goal Status: Demonstrated

It was established by the PoC that NFVI programming can be linked to end user selections. This is reflected in the underlying networking which can then immediately provide visibility into the complete e2e flows that a subscriber experiences. Further because the infrastructure enables scalability and load balancing it becomes easier to add new functions (by lowering the scalability bar that a typical operator network function has to meet). This was demonstrated by using an off the shelf open source component for content filtering. It was shown that it is possible to scale this function by running multiple instances of the function and then steering individual flows across instances so as to effectively balance the load across available resources.

The PoC was enhanced to show a few additional goals, beyond the original scope:

• PoC Project Goal #5 – The PoC will address reliability/high availability and elasticity.

Goal Status: Demonstrated

The PoC showed how service can be maintained when a VNF instance fails. In 2 cases different services were brought down and service was monitored to make sure that the

ETSI

services were maintained. In another scenario service overload was identified and additional VNF instances were brought up to maintain capacity. It was shown that the loadbalancing scheme distributed new subscribers to the new VNF instances.

• PoC Project Goal #6 – usage of open source software.

Goal Status: Demonstrated

The PoC was based on both OpenStack and OpenDaylight.

B.1.5 PoC Feedback Received from Third Parties (Optional) PoC has received positive feedback from several parts of the industry. While Tier 1 operators are interested in the PoC other members of the ecosystem like VNF vendors and analysts have also expressed support for the concepts demonstrated by the PoC.

B.2 NFV PoC Technical Report (Optional) Overview The Gi/SGi interface is the “reference point” defined by 3GPP between the mobile packet core and packet data networks (PDN). Specifically the Gi refers to the point between GGSN and PDN while SGi is the point between P-GW and a PDN. In the context of this proposal the term Gi-LAN or SGi-LAN refers to the functions deployed by mobile operators on this reference point (i.e. between the two networks). Typically functions deployed at this point are middle-boxes and do not use the traditional client-server, destination based forwarding paradigm of IP and Ethernet. Rather, traffic flows through them in a sequence. They are often implemented as logical or physical “rails” with all bearer traffic going through all of them. This is illustrated in Figure 2 below

Figure 2 - Gi/SGi-LAN interface and middle boxes

Mobile operators are currently experiencing large growth in traffic on the SGi/Gi-LAN. Increased adoption of smartphones, faster access networks are factors that have contributed to this increase in traffic. Today operators typically deploy functions like Deep Packet Inspection, Caches, Video optimization, TCP optimization, NAT and Firewall on the SGi/Gi-LAN for subscribers accessing Internet based content/services. Currently these functions are deployed on dedicated hardware components.

ETSI

Virtualized Environment

Figure 3: PoC solution logical network view – virtualized Gi/SGi-LAN

Figure 3 depicts the logical network view of the Gi/SGi-LAN that is implemented in this PoC. From a network logical perspective the PoC simulates a full SGi LAN environment. The PoC simulates all the logical elements depicted in this diagram. Subscribers connect to the system using smart phones. However the smart phones are connected to a WiFi Access Point (AP) instead of an eNB.

ETSI

TCP OptimizerVNF

OpenFlow

Subscriber A

Subscriber B

Subscriber C

SDN N/W

Simulated for PoC

SGiP-GWVNF

Router/ Firewall

VNF

RANEmulation

ContexNet VNF

SkyFire VideoOptimizer

VNF Web ServerVNF

URL Filter VNFURL Filter VNF

Switch

ToR SW SwitchVM

GuavusAnalytics

VNF

Internet

Red HatOpenStack

Self Service Portal

ContexNet Controller

Subscriber Sessions

Simulator

Figure 4: PoC logical network view mapped to VNFs

Figure 4 shows how the logical functions are mapped into Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). The PDN Gateway (PGW) is hosted in a VNF together with a SW that emulates the RAN environments. At the other end a VNF implements a Firewall (FW). This serves as the connection point to the Internet. The area in between the PGW and the FW is the simulated virtualized SGi LAN. The service chaining is implemented by ContexNet. Several service VNFs are included.

Components The Subscriber Aware SGi LAN service chaining PoC includes several components:

• ConteXtream components o ContexNet Controller – responsible for establishing the per subscriber service chains, load balancing

between the VNF instances and for failure handling o Portal – The default portal subscribers are directed to when they are not signed up for service by any

of the functions that are provided in the Gi-LAN o ContexNet VNF – a VNF with several functions, including:

TCP Optimization - performs TCP optimization service, improving the subscriber TCP connection utilization, compensating for the RAN access network behavior

Header Enrichment – attaches subscriber info to the flow Video Optimization steering

o ContexNet Management – manages the ConteXtream VNFs o ConteXtream Portal – allows for subscriber service configuration

• SkyFire components o SkyFire Controller o SkyFire Optimizer

• Guavus o Guavus collector – responsible for collecting streaming data records(IPFIX) from Gi/SGi links o Guavus compute – responsible for aggregating and correlating information and sending that to the

SAP for further analytics • Red Hat Components

o OpenStack – an orchestration software for managing the virtualized environment • Miscellaneous components

o URL Filter – a parental control service, based on an open source project. The URL filter service has 3 different profiles: “Child”, “Youth” and “Adult”.

ETSI

o Web Server – a web server based an open source project. Two web servers are included, one is a local web server and the other simulates a remote web server with longer delay and lower QoS.

B.2.1 PoC Scenario Report

1) Test #1 Objective Id Network Programmability driven from self-service subscriber portal

Description Subscriber aware steering to functions – will be driven from a self-service portal Pre-conditions Subscriber can access from device a portal hosted in the SGi/Gi network (i.e. has the required

credentials for access) Procedure Test

Steps Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

Step 1 Connect a smart phone to the WiFi AP

New subscriber gets an IP from the PGW

Done 192.168.52.12 was allocated

Step 2 Subscriber opens a browser and tries to access the Internet. New subscriber not yet registered to any service.

Subscriber gets default service. Subscriber is not allowed to browse the Internet, redirected to service provider portal.

Done Redirected to portal

Step 3 Using self-management portal, subscriber selects service profile that allows Internet access.

Portal allows selection of services. Selected service profile provides Internet access and includes analytics and header enrichment.

Done

Step 4 Subscriber opens a browser and tries again to access the Internet.

Browser opens at required Internet web page.

Done Access to CNN.com is successful

Step 5 The subscriber opens a local web site.

The local web site receives the subscriber ID from the header enrichment service. The local web page shows the subscriber name in it.

Access to a service in operator controlled PDN 192.168.55.133

Results Details:

Done

Lessons Learnt & Recom.

SDN and NFV infrastructure can enable automated operations driven by self-service portals. This can simplify operational processes for operators, which directly translates to cost reduction. Further, this enables the operators to be in par with the OTTs, providing communications services (e.g. Google/Facebook). A clear advantage of this networking infrastructure is greater visibility as it provides a per customer granularity.

2) Test #2

Objective Id: Virtualized software only functions in Gi/SGi-LAN environments delivering compute intensive services Description: Compute heavy functions like video optimization traditionally delivered using PNFs can be delivered

from a virtualized environments. Subscriber aware steering helps by keeping networking and compute resource requirements limited to users actually requesting and needing functionality provided.

Pre-conditions Subscriber has selected the video and TCP optimization functions Procedure (1) Video Optimization Test Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

ETSI

Steps Step 1 Use the smart phone open

a high quality video stream from a local site and watch. RAN emulation is set emulate congested RAN behavior.

High quality video should start but video freezes due to bad RAN conditions.

Done Ok. Observed that video stalls when video is seen with Chrome Browser. High Quality Video MP4 clip file – 222 MB to be delivered at 24Mbps. RAN Emulation is set for 20ms delay in either direction. Drop 0.1% of packets towards client

Step 2 Using the portal activate TCP optimization and video optimization services

Portal opens and allows configuration of TCP optimization and video optimization services

Done

Step 3 Watch the high quality video again

Optimized video should work fine in lower quality suitable for RAN conditions

Done

Step 4 Use ConteXtream GUI to monitor subscriber download rate

Subscriber download rate should be lower when video and TCP optimization are activated

Done Movie file was transcoded on the fly to 10MB from 222MB

(2) TCP Optimization Test Steps

Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

Step 1 Using the portal activate TCP optimization service for selected subscriber flows (this stage can be skipped if already done in previous test)

Portal opens and optimization service.

TCP optimization service is set not optimize TCP port 8080 (an example for an operator TCP optimization profile)

Done

Step 2 Run file download compare utility on the smart phone. The utility performs http file download from a simulated remote site, using a non TCP optimized flow, over port 8080.

RAN emulation is set to emulate congested RAN behavior

Http file download should be working. File download compare utility should show low download rate.

Done Measurement #1 - 1MB file took 3292 ms for download

Measurement #2 - 1MB file took 2292 ms

Step 3 In parallel, the utility also performs http file download from a simulated remote site, using a TCP optimized flow over port 80

RAN emulation is set to emulate congested RAN behavior.

http file download should be working for both TCP optimized and non TCP optimized flows.

Done Measurement #1 - 1MB file took 2250 ms for download

Measurement #1 - 1MB file took 4958 ms for download

ETSI

Step 4 Using the file download compare utility, compare the download rates of the 2 flows.

The utility should show that the download rate of the TCP optimized flow is better than the download rate of the non-optimized flow.

Measurement is 116%

Results Details:

Success. Screen shots are provided below.

Lessons Learnt & Recom.

Virtualized functions can be used to deliver optimization functions in a mobile environment. Per subscriber steering coupled with the appropriate optimization solution can be used to deliver QoE for subscribers even if they are in congested cells.

Self-service portal with Speed Boost and Video Optimization selected from portal.

When enabled TCP optimization provides faster download to user device under same radio and network conditions

3) Test #3 Objective Id: Examples of new services that can be created within NFV framework (on Gi-LAN)

Description: Demonstrate the content Filtering service, using a single content filtering VNF that can be scaled using NFVI inherent capabilities like load balancing, HA and chaining. The content filtering SW used was an open source unmodified component that was downloaded and provisioned as a VNF.

ETSI

Pre-conditions None

Procedure Test Steps

Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

Step 1 Using the self-registration portal, a subscriber registers his child’s smart phone to content filtering service with “Child” profile.

Subscriber uses service for this.

Subscriber accesses the service registration portal. Subscriber is allowed to activate content filtering service and select between “Child”, “Youth” and “Adult” profiles.

Done

Step 2 Subscriber child opens a browser session and tries to access a site that is not permitted.

Unpermitted web page should be blocked. Subscriber should be redirected to a permitted site.

Done Subscriber tried to connect to a restricted website and was redirected to disney.com

Results Details:

Success

Lessons Learnt & Recom.

"By providing capabilities for scalability within the NFVI the adoption cycle for new functions can be made much faster.

4) Test #4

Objective Id: Auto steering by Virtual Network Infrastructure to load balance across instances of VNFs

Description: Adding another content filtering VNF instance. New subscribers should be load balanced between VNF instances.

Pre-conditions Subscribers are added along with VNF instances. Procedure Test

Steps Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

Step 1 Open OpenStack console. Check the number of content filtering “Child” VNF instances.

There should be a single instance of content filtering “Child” VNF.

Done

Step 2 Using a script, configure OpenStack to add another 2 VM running a content filtering “Child” VNF instance.

VM1, VM2 and VM3 for content filtering “Child” VNF instance should be shown to be up and running.

Done Displayed the loading of two new VNFs in OpenStack. Displayed the success of putting up new services in Contextream Service Delivery Grid.

Step 3 Using a script to activate content filtering service with “Child” profile for 15 more subscribers.

Activate subscriber sessions simulator tool. Simulate browser sessions of 15 subscriber devices browsing to an unpermitted web page.

GUI should show content filtering service with “Child” profile for 15 more subscribers. Subscribers should be load balanced between “Child” content filtering VNF instances. Unpermitted web page should be blocked.

Done Monitored the subscribers being active and load balanced between the “Child” VNFs.

Ran script for subscribers to access cnn.com

Subscribers were blocked from accessing cnn.com and redirected to Disney.com. Wireshark captured. The

ETSI

Subscribers should be redirected to a permitted site. Use the simulator tool logs to view re-direction.

subscribers were load balanced across VNFs.

Results Details:

Success. Screen shots below show new VNFs being brought up and traffic being distributed across available resources.

Lessons Learnt & Recom.

Load balancing across components (elastically created within a virtual infrastructure) can be provided by the infrastructure, as described by SWA.

ETSI

5) Test #5

Objective Id: Auto steering by Virtual Network Infrastructure across HA instances of VNFs and components within VNFs

Description: Instances of Content Filtering VNF failure and Video Optimization Controller failure and recovery in HA scenario are demonstrated

Pre-conditions Appropriate instances available Procedure 1) Test

Steps Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

Note This test was done after Elasticity and LB test. The

ETSI

distribution of subscribers was: 8 – child-161 7 – child-164 6 – child-165

Step 1 Using OpenStack stop one of the content filtering VMs.

Subscribers from failed content filtering VNF instance should be moved to other content filtering VNF instance

Done Instance of child VNF (child-164) was turned off. Subscribers redirected to 161 and 165. Child-161 moved to 11 Child-164 moved to1 Child-165 moved to 9

Test Steps

Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

Step 1 Open OpenStack console. Check the number of video controller VNF instances.

There should be two instances of video controller VNF instances.

Done 2 instances of SkyFire Video Controller VNFs running

Step 2 Using a script configure 15 subscribers with TCP optimization and video optimization services.

Activate subscriber sessions simulator tool. Simulate 15 subscriber devices watching video.

GUI should show video service requests from 15 more. Video service requests should be load balanced between the two video controller VNF instances.

Done

Step 3 Using OpenStack stop one of the VMs running video controller VNF instance.

Video service requests should continue to get service. Video service requests should now be addressed by the single working video controller VNF instance.

Done Reboot of SkyFire Controller #1

Results Details:

Success

Lessons Learnt & Recom.

6) Test #6

Objective Id: Analytics collection for traffic

Description: IP Flow traffic records are generated and then sent to process in Redwood City Data center. Pre-conditions None Procedure Test

Steps Step Description Expected Results Pass Remarks

Step 1 Using the portal activate analytics collection (if analytics is already configured, this step can

Portal opens and allows configuration of analytics collection.

Done

ETSI

be skipped).

Step 2 Show network analytics in ConteXview.

Show history graphs of: traffic, RTT, # of subscribers, retransmissions, number of TCP connections and more.

Done Displayed list of ipfixes and drilled down to the ipfix data with WireShark to specific subscriber.

Step 3 Show analytics in Guavus

Detailed views of subscriber usage patterns, devices etc

Done

Results Details:

Success

Lessons Learnt & Recom.

B.2.2 PoC Contribution to NFV ISG

Contribution WG/EG Work Item (WI)

Comments

TBD Contribution validates distributed load balancer in NFVI for chaining (infrastructure mode as identified by SWA) Service chaining is best done by leveraging a distributed controller that are federated by means of a mapping service. The forwarding decisions are implemented on a hop by hop basis

High availability can be maintained during VNF instance failures.

REL, INF Methods used in this PoC provides proof that service high availability can be maintained in NFV environment based on open source.

Elasticity was demonstrated

INF The PoC demonstrated elasticity. New VNF instances were brought up and subscribers were distributed between all VNF instances.

B.2.3 Gaps identified in NFV standardization Use the table below to indicate Gaps in standardization identified by this PoC Team including which forum(s) would be most relevant to work on closing the gap(s).Where applicable, outline any action(s) the NFV ISG should take.

Gap Identified Forum (NFV ISG, Other)

Affected WG/EG

WI/Document Ref

Gap details and Status

NFVI should be able to interface with necessary systems that enable them to implement policy in the virtual networking layer (e.g. Gx interface)

B.2.4 PoC Suggested Action Items

B.2.5 Any Additional messages the PoC Team wishes to convey to the NFV ISG as a whole?

• Demo is the first implementation of subscriber aware virtual network infrastructure

ETSI

B.2.6 Any Additional messages the PoC Team wishes to convey to Network Operators and Service Providers?

The PoC shows how capabilities like LB, steering path, customer level monitoring, forwarding can be built into the NFVI that can be leveraged across VNFs

ETSI

History

Document history V1.1.1 October 2013 Publication