Cisco has multiple NFV Solutions

Cisco offers different NFV platforms to meet differing customer needs. Broadly, these solutions are designed to address enterprise branch requirements, enterprise datacenter, and service provider needs. Each allows the customer to instantiate one or more virtual functions on generic x86 compute hardware; the ability to host multiple functions on single platform yields a cost saving.

For example, in a branch environment, traditional network functionality such as routing, firewalls, and WAN optimization might be hosted on a single platform, alongside custom functions specific to the customer’s needs.

Virtualization is also associated with improved orchestration and management systems, as well as software defined network capabilities. Together these allow the customer to realize improved service delivery agility.

These benefits may only be fully realized if an open approach can be adopted; there is therefore a need for a multi-vendor approach to the implementation of an enterprise NFV solution.

Solution Components

The following building blocks comprise Cisco’s NFV solutions:

Host and Host Operating System

The host platform provides the hardware resources needed, compute, memory and storage. Cisco x86 platforms are supported: Cisco UCS, Cisco ISR routers with UCSe, and purpose-built NFV platforms, the CSP2100 and ENCS 5400.

These platforms run one of the following environments:

  • Cisco’s NFVIS operating system: optimized for the enterprise branch site; a KVM based Linux environment offering Plug-and-Play functionality, a local GUI, and lifecycle management capability. NFVIS is hosted on ENCS or UCS hardware.

  • Cisco’s CSP: primarily targeted at enterprise DC or Carrier Neutral Facility (CNF) use cases, also the enabler for Secure Agile Exchange (SAE). CSP is a KVM based Linux environment offering a local GUI, CLI, and lifecycle management capability. The CSP2100 is currently offered as the hardware host.

  • Cisco’s NFVI: OpenStack environment primarily targeted at service provider customers. In addition to the compute host, this solution also includes storage and switching components.

Virtualized Network Functions and Applications

The hosted functions can be categorized into

  • network functions such as routing, firewall, Load Balancer, etc.
  • WAN functions such as WAN optimization, caching, route selection, etc.
  • applications such as print servers, directory services, DHCP, etc.

Key to the solution is support for non-Cisco functions and applications.

Service Chaining

Virtualization enables network functionality to be more easily broken into smaller atomic functions. These functions can then be chained together to act on a packet flow in an arbitrary order (a service chain), achieving more granular and unique packet handling than was previously practical.

Orchestration & Management

NFV Solutions require orchestration and management of the VNF components, and service chains. Without strong management capability, the advantages of NFV in terms of platform reduction and improved agility would be easily eroded.

NFVIS

NFVIS offers a built-in management portal, providing GUI access, that enables the administrator to configure the system and hosted VNFs without needing CLI access (though this is also available) on a per device basis.

Primarily aimed at enterprise environments, Cisco’s DNA-C provides orchestration and management of NFVIS devices in larger deployments.

In Service Provider Environments NSO or NSO+VMS may be used to manage NFVIS based CPE. Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) is Cisco’s network orchestration and automation product (from Tail-f Systems) for both physical and virtual network functions. NSO can be used with or without Cisco Virtual Managed Services (VMS), a tool enabling Service Providers to offer, manage, and deliver virtualised network and security services via the cloud to their enterprise customers.

An important component of NSO-based orchestration is the Core Function Pack (CFP), which brings use-case specific smarts to an NSO or NSO/VMS deployment. For NFVIS, the vBranch CFP enables Service Providers to define customised catalogues of CPE profiles and VNF deployments. Service creation is simplified: elements, such as CPE, Network, Image/Flavour and VNF, can be created in a single commit. The CFP uses knowledge of the inter-dependencies among these entities to correctly stagger service creation or deletion. The vBranch CFP can instantiate unmanaged VNFs that are subsequently configured and managed by an external NMS or VNFs managed by NSO via a vendor specific NED.

NFVIS also provides REST and NetConf API access for use by other management platforms.

CSP

CSP platforms offer built-in management via a GUI or CLI, they may also be orchestrated and managed by Cisco NSO as described above. REST and NetConf APIs are also offered.

NFVI

NFVI uses Cisco UCS Director together with OpenStack management and Cisco NSO components.