NFV isn’t just a concept– now it’s getting serious

Dec 2014 / Jan 2015Volume 16 Issue 6

ISSN 1745-1736

■ TALKING HEADSJDSU's Sue Spradley explainshow NFV demands a new approach

■ ORCHESTRATION Why NFV needs the structureorchestration can provide

■ CAPACITY PLANNINGHow will CSPs deliver bestpractice in virtual networks?

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t’s important to understand that, for CSPs, although virtualisationhas existed in the enterprise and the data centre for many years,this is new ground. Added to that, CSPs face differentchallenges because they will be relying on NFV and SDN to runcritical infrastructure such as packet voice services. The stakesare higher and the demands are different.

That requires a new approach which begins right at the start with testand assurance functions, argues Sue Spradley on page C4. Shepoints out that virtualised networks will require at least the same levelof testing and assurance visibility as physical networks.

She also emphasises that having an NFV orchestrator that is able torequest good network configuration and reconfiguration decisions is avital enabler for virtualised service provision by CSPs. Orchestration isthe management enabler for NFV and, as Kate O’Flaherty explores on

page C7, it is becoming the brain of the new network.

The challenges that CSPs must address in their deployments of NFVare mounting as plans move from concept to reality. It is still early daysfor the technology and the good news is a significant amount ofresearch, standardisation and trialling is underway. The end of thejourney is far from being in sight but there is a clearer sense that we atleast have a destination in mind.

Earlier it was more a case of jumping on the passing NFV bandwagonin the hope it was the right vehicle, heading in the right direction. Now,CSPs are looking out for the correct vehicle to transport their businessinto the virtualised era. Their not looking to hitch a ride on the firstscooter that passes them anymore.

George Malim

C4 TALKING HEADS JDSU’s Sue Spradley explains why virtualisation requires a new approach – both for CSPs and the vendors that support their transformations

C7 ORCHESTRATION Kate O’Flaherty points out that a virtualised network is useless on it’s own. It needs the structure provided by orchestration

C10 EXPERT OPINION NFV requires the right implementation in order for CSPs to realize the benefits to the full, writes Guy Daley

C12 CAPACITY PLANNING Dr Jay Perrett highlights the issue of how CSPs can deliver the best SDN experience

C14 EXPERT OPINION Network and service enablement tools will need to transform for NFV, writes Ronnie Neil

Network functions virtualisation (NFV) is less of a subject for debate and excitement than it was two months agowhen we published the VanillaPlus CEO Guide to NFV Part One. As is entirely usual with introduction of a disruptivenew technology that promises much, the debate has moved on from CSPs assessing whether they should adopt NFVand the concentration now is on how they will adopt NFV

C O N T E N T S

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IN THIS ISSUETALKING HEADSSue Spradley

VANILLAPLUS NFV SUPPLEMENT I DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015

Introduction

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ORCHESTRATION

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T A L K I N G H E A D S

Sue Spradley is vice president and general manager of the Network and Service Enablement (NSE)business at JDSU. She joined the company in January, 2013 as leader for NSE global product linemanagement with responsibility for all NSE businesses. These encompass broadband networking,mobility, network visibility and control, and cloud and data centre offerings. Previously, Spradley waspresident of the North America region and executive board member of the Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN)joint venture.

Prior to NSN, Spradley was a senior executive at network equipment vendor Nortel, during which sheserved many roles including sales, global services and operations, with responsibility for services forenterprises and carriers, as well as for supply chain and manufacturing. As president for Nortel’s globalproduct line management and North American sales, she restored profitability to the $2 billion businessunit. As vice president for customer service and operations for wireless networks, she successfully led ateam providing field-based project management, engineering, design, implementation and support forNorth American tier one accounts. Spradley currently serves as chair for US Ignite and ATIS, andpreviously served on the board of directors for Exfo, and was a member of the National SecurityTelecommunications Advisory Committee reporting to the President of the United States.

As JDSU plans to spin-off its NSE unit into a new company to better meet the needs of communicationsservice providers as they migrate to virtualised and cloud-based technologies, she tells VanillaPlus thatCSPs need to make sure they have the right test and assurance capabilities to support NFV deploymentsincluding the ability to support the NFV orchestrator in requesting good network configuration andreconfiguration.

anillaPlus: What does JDSU view asbeing critical to the business successof virtualised networks and services?

Sue Spradley: While not under-estimatingthe challenges involved in implementing

the basic virtualisation infrastructure and functions, Iwould highlight two key enablement activities forcommunications service providers (CSPs) to focus on.The first is to ensure they have the ability to provideappropriate test and assurance functions in the NFVenvironment. Virtualised networks will require at leastthe same level of testing and assurance visibility asphysical networks require, if not more. CSPs will notbe prepared to release NFV network capacity into

commercial service without having the ability toconduct pre-release testing and monitor andtroubleshoot the network when in operation. However,most of today’s test and assurance solutions are notcapable of operating in a virtualised environment, soavailability of test and assurance solutions that can beused within an NFV network will be a key gating factorin the commercial launch of virtualised networks andservices. The good news is that the technology is nowbecoming available.

The second enablement activity I’d emphasise is theability for the NFV orchestrator to request goodnetwork configuration and re-configuration decisions.It is fine to confirm that the NFV environment can

Virtualisation requires a new approach – both for CSPs and for the vendors thatsupport their transformations

For CSPs it’s time to change– or be changed

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effectively implement network configurations, but if the proposeddecisions do not deliver either a better Quality of Experience(QoE) for subscribers, and/or lower operating costs, then theNFV network will not deliver the expected business enhancingresults. So a second critical factor will be the provision of theappropriate analytics – supported by the collection of theappropriate data – to enable the orchestrator to propose‘good’ configuration decisions.

We believe that JDSU solutions will play a key role indelivering on both the above critical factors.

VP: What role will JDSU Network & ServiceEnablement (NSE) solutions fulfill in a virtualisedenvironment and how does this differ from their rolein traditional physical networks?

SS: JDSU provides solutions that cover the whole lifecycleof networks and services, and this will continue in the era ofvirtualised environments. Specifically for a CSP, JDSUsolutions will provide performance testing of networkcapacity and services before these are released intoservice. In addition JDSU will provide monitoring andtrouble-shooting of the network and serviceswhile they are in commercial operation. Todo this, our solutions will obviously haveto be able to operate in a virtualisedenvironment, including the ability toinsert and access traffic at virtualnetwork interfaces. However,compared to their use in physicalnetworks, there is another verysignificant difference – invirtualised networks our testand assurance solutions needto be able to configure andexecute their functionsautomatically and inreal-time.

When an NFV networkreconfiguration isrequested, oursolutions must beable toautomatically testthe newconfigurationand immediatelystart monitoringthis newconfiguration

JDSU provides solutions that coverthe whole lifecycle of networks andservices, and this will continue in theera of virtualised environments“ ”

Sue Spradley, vice president andgeneral manager of the Networkand Service Enablement (NSE)business at JDSU

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when it is released. What this means is that oursolutions become part of the operational equipment –a substantial change.

VP: We’ve heard that JDSU is involved in avirtualisation-related TM Forum Catalyst Project.What does that involve?

SS: As you may know, every TM Forum catalystproject is sponsored by a service provider and AT&T isthe sponsor of this project. The project name is‘Business-Agile NFV Orchestration’ and the projectobjective is to illustrate how service providers need toharness appropriate analytics and dynamically definedpolicies to optimise the business value delivered byNFV orchestration. In this sense, it is a confirmation ofthe critical success factor of the ability for the NFVorchestrator to request good network configurationand re-configuration decisions that I described above.In addition to AT&T, the other companies involved inthe project are JDSU, Microsoft and Ericsson. Theproject outline was described at the TM Forum DigitalDisruption event in December 2014 and the maindemonstration is planned for the TM Forum Worldevent in June 2015 in Nice, France.

VP: Can you summarise why JDSU believes it isthe right NSE partner for CSPs planning tointroduce virtualised networks and services?

SS: There are two main reasons why we believe thatJDSU is an optimum partner for CSPs planning tointroduce virtualised networks and services – thereadiness of our solutions to support NFV environmentsand the NFV domain expertise and experience providedby our staff. The latter factor is in many ways a directconsequence of the first, since the industry-leadingreadiness of our solutions to support virtualisedenvironments has enabled our staff to proactivelyparticipate in early NFV trials and industry forums.

Let me give you some examples of both these factors.We recently launched a virtualised version ofTrueSpeed, our leading RFC 6349 based TCP(Transmission Control Protocol) throughput test

solution. The traffic analysis agents within our xSIGHTCustomer Experience Assurance solution aresoftware-only agents that we have already deployed invirtualised form in early NFV proof of concept trials. Aswell as engaging with CSPs in some of the earliestNFV trials, our staff are actively involved in key NFVindustry forums, including the ETSI NFV IndustrySpecification Group (ISG) and the TM Forum ZOOM(Zero-touch Orchestration, Operations andManagement) programme.

I talked before about our involvement in a TM ForumNFV catalyst project, but a network equipment ‘NFVMaturity Model’ proposed by JDSU is expected tobe adopted shortly within the ZOOM programme.So, in summary, it is the combination of our solutionsand our people that make JDSU an ideal NFVenablement partner.

VP: We saw the recent announcement that JDSUwill soon split into two companies. How will thissplit generally impact your plans to addressvirtualized environments?

SS: Splitting JDSU in two will obviously provide bothnew companies with an increased focus on theirrespective target markets. In NewCo, the interimname for the NSE spin-off, we are also transformingthe culture and strategy of our company. In particular,we plan to become much more agile in our execution– the rate of change in communications has becomemuch faster over recent years and this new businessenvironment will require companies able to executestrategy faster, with more flexibility and adaptability.We plan to be such a company.

As our CSP customers around the world are re-engineering their networks around the cloud, involvingnew technologies such as NFV, SDN and CloudRANs, we in NewCo will pursue a cloud-centric testand assurance strategy to meet their evolving needs.JDSU is the number one network and serviceenablement company today and we intend to ensurethat the new company will retain that industryleadership position in this brave new cloud-based world.

T A L K I N G H E A D S

www.jdsu.com/NFV

Splitting JDSU in two will obviouslyprovide both new companies with anincreased focus on their respectivetarget markets“ ”

O R C H E S T R A T I O N

NFV allows CSPs to increase efficiency and lower costs, but it requires a transformation in the waynetworks are run, writes Kate O’Flaherty

virtualised network is useless on its own: itneeds the structure provided byorchestration. But NFV (network functionsvirtualisation) orchestration requires aradically different approach to traditionalCSP network management. This is seeing

network and IT departments converge in order tomeet evolving data and analytics needs.

In the NFV environment, network equipment is nolonger dedicated hardware and instead comprisesservers and switches. The technology therefore needsto use the capabilities developed in cloud computing,such as automated provisioning of compute and

storage, automation of network provisioning andservice chaining in the data centre.

It is not a simple transition, but the benefits of NFVorchestration are worth the complexity. Like cloud,NFV is easy to scale, removing the risk of serviceunavailability due to capacity shortage. ThereforeCSPs do not have to provision large, spare capacities;this can instead be allocated on demand.

Orchestration frees up capacity, which can then beused for other services, by mapping the instantiationof virtual network functions against real-time demand,says Joachim Mason, head of data centre, UK and

Orchestration is themanagement enabler for NFV

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Ireland at Cisco Systems: "CSPs can also achieve amore predictable and optimised return on investmentby deploying additional network services withoutunnecessary equipment costs."

When used in the right way, virtual tools can beconfigured to perform any network function, saysRonnie Neil, customer experience assurance productmarketing manager at JDSU. "We can quicklyintroduce capacity when required or launch a newservice. This adds efficiency, as well as lowering costand increasing agility in terms of doing things faster."

According to Shaul Rozen, director of product strategyat Amdocs, orchestration is "the brain of the newnetwork". He says: "Think about what would happen ifyou just virtualised the network and did notorchestrate it: the end point would be just thenetwork, but virtualised - which is no good."

Orchestration challengeHowever, orchestration faces multiple challenges.Services are not currently joined up and sit acrossmultiple vendors and standards. Rozen says: "One ofthe key challenges is creating an ecosystem that canbe applied and certified on top of orchestration.Another is the current lack of standards: differentvendors offer varying templates depending on theirown functions and capabilities."

There is also a lack of definition of what a virtualnetwork manager should do, says Rozen. On top ofthis, no decision has been made on how manyorchestrators are needed and whether there shouldbe a hierarchy such as global and local variants ofthe function.

Appropriate data and analytics is essential for makingconfiguration decisions. According to Rozen, there arethree types of analytics needed for smartorchestration: network analytics to deal withcongestion and predict traffic flows; compute powerto assess availability of resources around data centres;and customer analytics to use information for betterbusiness decisions when orchestrating.

For example, Rozen says: "If you need to prioritise oneof two services, one way to go about it is to look atcustomers that are high value or pay more."

Without the right tools, operators do not havetransparency and control over a distributed NFVplatform, says Andreas Lemke, the senior marketingmanager for cloud at Alcatel-Lucent. "With NFVanalytics, service providers can detect potential issuesbefore they become critical. For example, byobserving resource utilisation trends, an NFV platformcan raise alarms and take proactive measures to avoidbottlenecks."

IT transformation The technology is proving increasingly beneficial, butin order to take advantage, CSPs must transform theway they are structured. Whereas within traditionalCSPs, operations runs the network and IT handles theinfrastructure, a virtualised environment requires thetwo departments to work together.

IT departments are usually the pioneers of usingvirtualisation, so are in an ideal position to assist,Rozen points out. "There is a need to shift skills: ITcapabilities need to be transferred into network teams– and there should be a leakage of personnel betweenthose two departments."

Peter Christy, research director at 451 Research'snetworking practice agrees, saying: "Successful NFVsolutions are a blend of IT and network competences.Neither can succeed without the other."

This, combined with other issues, means NFVdeployments will take time. Due to a lack of standardsand the state of the technology, it will still be at leastfive years before NFV is in action.

In the meantime, many CSPs are looking at a phasedapproach to deployments, says Neil. "They don'texpect to have whole networks virtualised. It willcome in stages with the simplest parts first. Forexample, let's implement virtualisation for a singlenetwork element."

As the 'brain' of the network, there is no doubt thatorchestration is integral to NFV's success. However,the scale of transformation should not beunderestimated. As Neil points out: "If you comparethe introduction of virtualisation to 2G, going to 3G,to 4G, it is an order of magnitude bigger. It's adramatic change."

Joachim Mason:Orchestration frees upcapacity which canthen be used for otherservices

Ronnie Neil: Used inthe right way, virtualtools can beconfigured to performany network function

Shaul Rozen:Orchestration is thebrain of the newnetwork. Without out ityou just have avirtualised network

O R C H E S T R A T I O N

ROUNDTABLE:NFV

THE GLOBAL VOICE OF B/OSSPRESENTS

Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) is an elegant concept thatunderstandably has gained a lot of CSP attention. Join us for anin-depth guide to NFV with specialists and analysts who candeliver the answers.

The Panellists:

Glen Ragoonanan, lead analyst for Analysys Mason's Infrastructure Solutions, ServiceDelivery Platforms and Software-Controlled Networking research programmes

Ken Dilbeck, NFV catalyst lead - TM Forum

Sameh Yamany, CTO and VP of Mobile Assurance & Analytics - JDSU

Tom Conklin, Consulting Managing Director – Cloud / NFV - Ericsson

Guy Daley, Director and CTO of Product Management - Cisco

Rob Marson, VP Marketing - Nakina Systems

George Malim, editor - VanillaPlus

Wednesday 21st January, 20154pm-6pm GMT

vanillaplus.com

Panellists

As with any new technology, NFV requires the right implementation in order for CSPs to realizethe benefits to the full, writes Guy Daley

he goal of network functions virtualisation(NFV) is to migrate, where it makes sense,the network functions away from specialisedarchitectures to an environment that allowsthese network services to be supported onindustry standard servers and storage, and

managed using IT oriented virtualisation technology. Indoing so, the CSP’s agility increases since networkservices can be dynamically placed, instantiated, ormoved across various locations in the network asrequired, without the need for installation of purposebuilt appliances.

Implementation considerationsFirst, the operational model needs to adapt from thecurrent model, which supports physical networkentities, to a model supporting virtual network entities.Today, an NF (network function) is generally associatedwith a discrete piece of hardware. This makes an NFeasy to identify and determine its current state basedon physical indicators. With the move to a virtualisedenvironment, these simple assumptions changedramatically. VNFs (virtual network functions) executeon virtual machines (VMs) that may be distributed overa number of servers, making neither them easilyidentified nor the physical indicators used to determinestatus of physical equipment.

In addition, VNFs may be scaled up based on thenetwork load. In some instances, altering theresources associated with the VNF will do this. In othercases it may involve altering the number of VNFsperforming the function and as a result VNFs mayappear and disappear from the network topologybased on load. Moreover, these VNFs may form partof a CSPs critical infrastructure.

Service chainingAnother frequent requirement of NFV is servicechaining. A service chain steers traffic through a set offunctions in a pre-set order. With NFV, a networkservice may be composed of such chains and may

consist of a set of VNFs, standard NFs or acombination of both. Service chains can vary fromsimple to very complex. An example of a simple chainis a firewall and a load balancer sitting in front of anumber of DNS servers. A complex service chainmight be the service infrastructure sitting behind amobile gateway device.

Service chains can be built using a variety oftechniques ranging from virtually connecting NFs andVNFs together and routing traffic through them, orplacing metadata in the user packet, which is used tosteer traffic through the VNFs.

All these new demands mean we need newfunctionality in network management solutions andchanges in operational procedures supported by anorchestration system capable of building the virtualenvironment, provisioning service chains, loading andconfiguring the VNFs, and monitoring their health andthat of their underlying virtual infrastructure.

NFV orchestrationThe management of virtual network environmentsrequires orchestration. This sets it apart from themanagement of traditional CSP networks. NFV willneed to use and adapt many of the capabilitiesdeveloped in the cloud-computing arena, such asautomated provisioning of compute and storage,automation of the network provisioning and servicechaining in the data centre.

Examples of orchestration adapted for NFV use include:• Rapid configuration, provisioning and chaining of virtual network functions and other resources required for a given service.• Intelligent service placement. A CSP may have a variety of small and medium-sized data centres or dispersed equipment racks that can house server hardware. This may provide the opportunity to physically place the VNFs where they will be least costly, yet most effective in meeting the service

NFV orchestration must be capableof managing and sustainingvirtualised critical infrastructure

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requirement. A VNF can be placed anywhere in the network, at the data centre, at a network node, or even close to the customer premises.• Dynamic and elastic scaling of services. A VNF is allocated physical and virtual resources only when needed, impacting CSP capex and opex. CSPs can also achieve a more predictable and optimised return-on-investment (ROI) by deploying additional network services without unnecessary equipment costs. This is especially beneficial for service providers with limited subscriber populations faced with having to add hardware that may significantly exceed the foreseeable demand in services.• Full lifecycle management of the VNFs. This includes the creation, instantiation, and monitoring of the VNF until it is decommissioned.

Cisco’s approach to NFVmanagement and orchestrationCisco provides CSPs with open and flexible solutionsbringing together the functionalities required forresource orchestration and network control. It alsoprovides CSPs the ability to transition towardsvirtualisation at their own pace through solutions thatseamlessly support both physical and virtual servicecomponents.

The key characteristics of the solution are:• An orchestration architecture capable of addressing the spectrum of CSP NFV requirements • Hypervisor and virtual machine manager agnostic • Software solution that is independent of underlying hardware providing ability to blend current physical capabilities with new virtual service components to create rich service offerings.• A modular architecture leveraging open interfaces and open source software where pertinent • Flexibility to support the rapid on-boarding of new services through configuration and customisation rather than development • Extensible architecture enabling rapid integration of third party infrastructure, services and capabilities • Ability to scale up or down to address both value services and volume services • Ability to provide SLA guarantees through real-time network aware service admission and placement

• Open standard APIs northbound and southbound, facilitating integration into existing OSS/BSS environments

Cisco solutions enable and supports the workflow tomodel the CSP business processes seamlessly. Animportant benefit resulting from the orchestrationsystem’s characteristics is that it makes both virtualand physical network infrastructure easy to use, thusallowing for a transformation at the businessmanagement layer, where customers can interact withthe technical catalogue of network services via APIs orGUIs for service creation, composition, anddevelopment.

Orchestration is fundamental to the delivery ofcomplex services based on composite VNFs. Thearchitecture allows a user to specify the network rulesand policies for interconnecting service VNFs in aservice chain and to connect these service chains tothe service provider WAN. These tenant-specificservice chains need to be highly available and the andsolution provides the rules for creating dynamicservice chains and load balancing traffic betweenmultiple instances of VNFs in a service chain.

For CSPs, the solution must be capable of managingand sustaining virtualised critical infrastructure such asmobile voice and packet services. Cisco provides thiscapability. In addition, the solution is verycomprehensive, addressing the needs of deliveringelastic and dynamic cloud-based services with aguaranteed SLA in a CSP environment. It breaks downthe major challenges into logical modules andprovides an open standards-based approach toorchestration at each of its layers.

Cisco solutions for NFV management andorchestration can provide significant benefits to theservice providers in opex and capex savings byenabling a transformational opportunity created bygreater operational agility of the network. CSPs canachieve faster innovation rates that can lead toaddressing new business models and opportunitiesat lower risk through a more agile operation of theircore assets.

VANILLAPLUS NFV SUPPLEMENT I DECEMBER 2014 / JANUARY 2015 C 1 1

www.ciscosystems.com

The author, Guy Daley,is director of productmanagement, ChiefTechnology andArchitecture Office atCisco Systems

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C A P A C I T Y P L A N N I N G

As the demand for true network virtualisation is about to be met, a key issue is how CSPs candeliver the best SDN experience. The importance of capacity planning, management andorchestration is now being recognised in the journey towards end-to-end virtualisation, writesDr Jay Perrett

imilarly to software defined networking(SDN), network functions virtualisation (NFV)is one of the most established componentsof network virtualisation. Networkvirtualisation provides CSPs with theopportunity to derive more value from

operational and planned network and data centreassets. This is achieved when deployment andredeployment of network assets and functionality tomeet demand takes place through machine ratherthan human control. Virtualisation has becomeessential if new and emerging business models, whichare more data intensive than ever before, are to beeffectively supported.

Two different industries, each with a language of theirown, are facing the challenges of network virtualisationfrom two different angles. The first is the data centrecommunity, which has been moving toward reusableassets in the data centre to provide virtual machines tousers that can rapidly be configured. The second isthe CSPs, which need to provide new services andfunctions dynamically and to an aggressive timescale.Both have the same objective: to be able to deliver avirtual network that can be configured and

reconfigured dynamically without constraints ofgeography or hardware.

NFV and SDN provide a unique opportunity to bring ITand telecoms capacity planning together. Historically,IT and telecoms capacity planning functions haveexisted in very separate silos, using their ownprocesses and methodologies. With NFV, theconsolidation of IT and telecoms capacitymanagement functions is needed to match overallcapacity and business demands, as well as to be ableto obtain true end-to-end visibility of the networkingreal estate.

Capacity planningFrom a capacity management perspective, if thetransition to a virtualised network is to be realized,three key requirements must be addressed. First, ageneric representation of the network must bedeveloped that can be instantiated for the technologymix under consideration or operation. A data drivenrepresentation of capacity will also need to be created,so a clear definition can be described in reusabletemplates. Finally, there must be a flexible way tocreate a process flow.

The demand for virtualisation exists buthow will CSPs deliver best practice?

SThe author, Dr JayPerrett, is chieftechnology officer ofAria Networks.

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Capacity management is only one aspect of amanaged virtual network, but it is an importantrequirement in the orchestrator layer. Adaptability isthe key facet of a virtualised network. What this meansfrom a capacity management perspective is the abilityto respond to changes in network infrastructure. To remain competitive, the network needs to beabstracted from the technology – the network issimply a vehicle for the support of services andapplications and thus revenue. With this approach itbecomes simpler to configure and rapidly reconfigurethe network model simply by changing the datarequired to model it. This delivers a softwaredefined network.

The second key requirement, that a data drivendefinition of capacity facilitating a more detailed level ofcontrol, is required to effectively manage capacity on arapidly reconfiguring network. The capacity definitionand capacity requirements need to be data drivenalso. This has been achieved in the past throughtraditional intelligent networks, where service functionwas built from smaller building blocks, but theequipment those services ran on was still bespoke. The definition of capacity also needs to be abstractedfrom the equipment, which is essentially what NFVenables by abstracting the network function from thephysical equipment. Once capacity has beenabstracted, services or applications can then utilisethe capacity they require without being constrainedby how.

OrchestrationIn a network the orchestration layer is performing therole of network operating system. It is responsible forseparating the infrastructure from the applications byproviding a standard application programminginterface (API) to the applications in one direction andto the network in the other.

Vendors who provide management and orchestratorfunctionality for services and applications will need tomodel networks in a different way. Specifically they willneed to consider a data driven definition of both thenetwork and capacity. The former is really an SDNenabler. Once networks can be defined simply by data,any network architecture can be modelled or tweakedin real-time. How the network functionality changes isa defined by the second requirement, the NFV enabler.

Capacity management and orchestration are front andcentre of the evolution to a true service enabled virtualnetwork constructed on the principles of NFV andSDN. Network operators need to effectivelyorchestrate capacity to derive the best possible valuefrom infrastructure assets to deliver the most effectivecapacity management. Central to this objective iseffectively understanding the current and futuredemands on a network and enabling it to optimiseitself in real time to deliver to those demands.If CSPs are to remain competitive in an environmentwith eroding margins and rising service qualityexpectations, the virtualised network route with a SDNsupported by NFV really is the only option. Whilst thetechnology and business drivers to achieve this alreadyexist, two very different network communities need toconverge on a single view of the virtualised network.

A new approach is needed. An approach that thinks ofnetworks, capacities and consumption as enablers tothe provision of services and applications to apopulation of consumers who rarely consider thenetwork between them and their content and whoalso do not expect to pay much for it. In thisenvironment, understanding the cost of deliveringcapacity, maximising capacity from current networkassets and having a clear and transparent return oninvestment route from network investment areessential elements to delivering profitability.

Capacity managementand orchestration arefront and centre of theevolution to a trueservice enabled virtualnetwork constructedon the principles ofNFV and SDN

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In part one of the VanillaPlus Guide to NFV, Ronnie Neil discussed the ways in which NFV willprofoundly change how communication networks operate, unlocking dramatic, newoperational efficiencies and service-delivery benefits. He also highlighted the need tosignificantly transform network-associated OSS and BSS tools, including integrating them withNFV infrastructure to fully realize the benefits of virtualisation. Here, he takes a deeper look athow network and service enablement tools will need to transform

wo important network and serviceenablement functions are considered vitalto providing high customer quality ofexperience: Ethernet service activation testsand customer experience assurance, whichdetects and diagnoses customer-impacting

faults. With the greater complexity of the NFV world,network operators will require even higher levels ofinsight and performance from such test andassurance functions.

NFV challenges for network andservice enablement toolsFour key functionality changes will be required to letthe enablement tools mentioned above operateeffectively in NFV environments.

• Ability to connect to virtual interfaces Traditionally, enablement tools connect to physical interface points to insert and/or access

Network and serviceenablement tools will needto transform for NFV

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The author, RonnieNeil, is a strategic

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network traffic. In an NFV environment, most – if not all – of the required interfaces will be located in a virtual machine inside a single physical server. An enablement tool will therefore need to operate within the virtual machines, with virtual agents able to inject and/or access network traffic.

• Ability to collect network configuration information from an NFV orchestration function The ability to connect to virtual interface points is of limited use if the tool does not know which interfaces to connect to. To learn this, an enablement tool will need to connect to an NFV orchestration function via a virtual network function (VNF) manager. With appropriate information from an orchestrator, an enablement tool will know which virtual interfaces are which network interface points – for example, a 3G Gn or LTE S1-MME interface.

• Ability to re-configure and execute enablement functions very quickly Once an enablement tool knows what interfaces to connect to, it must be able to configure itself and start executing the test or assurance functions very quickly. Lateness will mean that the re-configured network is either delayed to being released to live operation or is operating with no assurance monitoring and troubleshooting functions.

• Ability to feed test and analysis results to the NFV policy control function To ensure that NFV network configuration decisions are good business decisions, test and analysis results need to be fed back into the NFV policy control function. This function will then use the results along with other data to formulate configuration decisions and forward these to the NFV orchestrator for implementation. To be effective, this feedback loop must happen in real time.

Standalone enablement toolsto operational equipmentIn addition to the four functionality challengesdescribed above, NFV introduces two fundamentaloperational differences for network and serviceenablement tools:

• The tools must operate autonomously. They must, without manual intervention, configure themselves, execute their functions, and forward results to appropriate applications.

• The tools must become part of the operational equipment. They interface with the NFV orchestrator to receive network configuration information and they supply information back to the NFV policy control unit.

These are major changes for enablement tools withconsequences reaching beyond the complex technicalaspects to include, for example, tool self-management, reliability and selling-model implications.

Industry recognition ofenablement tool importanceThe industry has been working on standards andguidelines for NFV networks for some years now. Asone would expect, the initial focus of this work was onthe practical implementation of the virtualisationfunctions. Recently, however, the scope of theresearch has expanded to cover associated aspectsof operating an NFV network such as how to makegood business decisions and the role andrequirements of enablement tools.

Two leading industry forums involved in this researchare the ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group (ISG)and the TM Forum Zero-touch Orchestration,Operations and Management (ZOOM) programme. Asan example of this broader focus, consider theBusiness-Agile NFV Orchestration project currently inprogress within the TM Forum. The project objective isto illustrate how NFV network operators need toharness appropriate analytics and dynamically definedpolicies to optimise the business value delivered byNFV orchestration decisions. The project is sponsoredby AT&T and ecosystem participants include JDSU(supplying real-time data collection and mediation),Ericsson (supplying policy analytics and serviceorchestration) and Microsoft (supplying NFVorchestration).

It is still relatively early in the development anddeployment of NFV networks, but a significant amountof research, standardisation, and trialling has alreadybeen conducted. However, more research is required.Critical to this work will be guidelines and standardsthat relate to the transformation that enablement toolsmust make to effectively support the introduction ofbusiness-successful NFV networks.

This transformation has already begun, as evidencedby the introduction of new enablement tools with thecapabilities to operate in NFV virtualised environments.For example, a virtualied version of the JDSU RFC6349-compliant TrueSpeed TCP throughput testsolution (TrueSpeed VNF) was recently introduced,and the JDSU xSIGHT customer experienceassurance solution has data collection agents provento operate with virtual network interfaces. This lattersolution has demonstrated the ability to monitor traffic,in real-time, in a virtualised environment in two trialswith tier-one communications service providers (CSPs).

The enablement tools required to successfullyintroduce and operate NFV networks are on their way.

Once anenablement toolknows whatinterfaces toconnect to, it mustbe able to configureitself and startexecuting the test orassurance functionsvery quickly

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