Cloud computing

The present document presents an architectural description of the compute (& storage) domain of the infrastructure which supports virtualised network functions (VNFs). The compute domain includes the network & I/O interfaces required to interface to the infrastructure network and the storage network, if any.
 
It sets out the scope of the infrastructure domain acknowledging the potential for overlap between infrastructure domains, and between the infrastructure and the virtualised network functions. It also sets out the nature of interfaces needed between infrastructure domains and within the compute domain.
 
The present document does not provide any detailed specification but makes reference to specifications developed by other bodies and to potential specifications, which, in the opinion of the NFV ISG could be usefully developed by an appropriate Standards Developing Organisation (SDO).

The present document presents an overview of the architecture of the NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) which supports deployment and execution of Virtualised Network Functions (VNFs).
 
As well as presenting a general overview description of the NFV Infrastructure, the present document sets the NFV infrastructure and all the documents which describe it in the context of all the documents of the NFV. It also describes how the documents which describe the NFV infrastructure relate to each other.
 
The present document does not provide any detailed specification but makes reference to specifications developed by other bodies and to potential specifications, which, in the opinion of the NFV ISG could be usefully developed by an appropriate Standards Developing Organisation (SDO).
 
The overall objectives of the ISG NFV were set out in the white paper "Network Function Virtualization", issue 1, 2012 (http://portal.etsi.org/NFV/NFV_White_Paper.pdf) that led to the founding of the ISG and updated in the white paper update "Network Function Virtualization - Update White Paper", issue 2, 2013 (http://portal.etsi.org/NFV/NFV_White_Paper2.pdf).

Recommendation ITU-T M.3371 defines the general and functional management requirements that support service management in a cloud-aware telecommunication management system (see Recommendation ITU-T M.3070) and provides a functional framework for service management in a cloud-aware telecommunication management system.

Recommendation ITU-T M.3372 introduces a functional framework and functional requirements for resource management in cloud-aware telecommunication management systems. It provides the composition of the functional framework and the functions of each component in the framework. In this Recommendation, the general background and status of cloud computing management are also analysed. The benefit of introducing a functional framework and functional requirements for resource management in cloud-aware telecommunication management systems is also explained.

The present document describes the management and orchestration framework required for the provisioning of virtualised network functions (VNF), and the related operations, such as the configuration of the virtualised network functions and the infrastructure these functions run on. The objectives are to define this framework, provide requirements for management and orchestration, identify topics that may serve in later gap analysis against current standards, identify best practices and provide guidance on how to address identified new topics. The focus of the present document is on aspects of management and orchestration that are specific to NFV.
 
The present document addresses the following topics of management and orchestration: architecture framework for management and orchestration of NFV, information elements, interfaces, provisioning, configuration, and operational management, including interworking with existing operations and management systems.

The present document objective is to identify the most common and relevant software architectural patterns present when virtualising network functions and therefore to identify and specify functional requirements necessary to enable such patterns. The information consolidated is reflecting the experience from vendors and operators going through virtualisation of a number of network functions, with a focus on the use case list provided by the NFV Use Cases GS document     ETSI GS NFV 001 (V1.1.1): "Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Use Cases”.
 
The present document describes the Network Function Virtualisation abstract software architecture comprising of the following topics:

• Defining the functions, and interfaces of software architecture relative to the NFV overall architecture.
• Supporting Management and Orchestration Functional requirements.
• Supporting Infrastructure requirements.
• Describing best practices for NFV Design.
• Functional Decomposition types and use cases.

The present document does not provide any detailed specification. However, the present document makes reference to specifications developed by other bodies, gap, and to potential specifications.

The present document specifies the structure and format of a VNF package file and its constituents, fulfilling the requirements specified in ETSI GS NFV-IFA 011 for a VNF package.
 
The present document also specifies the structure and format of a PNFD archive file and its constituents, fulfilling the requirements specified in ETSI GS NFV-IFA 014 for a PNFD archive.

The present document specifies the YANG models for representing Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) descriptors, fulfilling the requirements specified in ETSI GS NFV-IFA 011 and ETSI GS NFV-IFA 014 applicable to a Virtualised Network Function Descriptor (VNFD), a Physical Network Functions Descriptor (PNFD) and a Network Service Descriptor (NSD).

The present document defines the protocol and data model for the following interfaces used over the Or-Vnfm reference point, in the form of RESTful Application Programming Interface (APIs) specifications:

• VNF Lifecycle Management interface (as produced by the VNFM towards the NFVO).
• VNF Performance Management interface (as produced by the VNFM towards the NFVO).
• VNF Fault Management interface (as produced by the VNFM towards the NFVO).
• VNF Indicator interface (as produced by the VNFM towards the NFVO).
• VNF Lifecycle Operation Granting interface (as produced by the NFVO towards the VNFM).
• VNF Package Management interface (as produced by the NFVO towards the VNFM).
• Virtualised Resources Quota Available Notification interface (as produced by the NFVO towards the VNFM).

The present document specifies common aspects of RESTful protocols and data models for ETSI NFV management and orchestration (MANO) interfaces.

The present document defines the protocol and data model for the following interfaces used over the Ve-Vnfm reference point, in the form of RESTful Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) specifications:

• VNF Lifecycle Management interface (as produced by the VNFM towards the EM/VNF).
• VNF Performance Management interface (as produced by the VNFM towards the EM).
• VNF Fault Management interface (as produced by the VNFM towards the EM).
• VNF Indicator interface (as produced by the EM/VNF towards the VNFM).
• VNF Configuration interface (as produced by the VNF towards the VNFM).