Abstract
The present document develops specifications for packaging of VNFs to be delivered to service providers, focusing on the holistic end-to-end view of the VNF Package lifecycle, from design to runtime, capturing development as well as operational views. The present document provides an analysis of end-to-end VNF Package lifecycle management operations based on use-cases and NFV Architectural Framework functional blocks.
A VNF Package contains all of the required files and meta-data descriptors required to validate and instantiate a VNF.
Standardized meta-data descriptors are required to:
- describe the NFV infrastructure resource requirements for a VNF in a service provider environment;
- describe design constraints and other dependencies in order for the VNF to successfully install, instantiate and terminate; and
- describe VNF operational behaviour including VNF lifecycle events (e.g. scaling, upgrading).
Standardized packaging and validation of VNFs is required to:
- provide a consistent, documented method for VNF providers to package VNFs;
- harmonize the service provider on-boarding process for VNFs coming from different VNF providers;
- ensure integrity, trust and auditability of a VNF Package;
- allow for a flexible and extensible VNF packaging structure that accommodates a wide variety of NFV infrastructure scenarios; and
- allow the packaged VNF-related meta-data to be interpreted and the packaged VNF to be instantiated in a wide variety of orchestration systems irrespective of technology choice or infrastructure environment.
General Information
Publication date: 02 September 2019
Working groups: https://www.etsi.org/committee/1427-nfv
ICT rolling plan topic: Cloud computing
SDO: ETSI
Latest publishied version: https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/NFV-IFA/001_099/011/03.03.01_60/gs_NFV-IFA011v030301p.pdf