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Virtualization is only the first step towards introducing network functions virtualization into a service provider’s network. More critical will be the “operationalization” of NFV that will make it successful.
The figure below summarizes the leading drivers and the expected benefits of NFV.
Figure 1 – NFV drivers and expected benefits to the operators.
In this article, I’ll address how to introduce NFV into a service provider’s network in a phased manner, with operational considerations being the focus.
NFV enablers and the service provider path to NFV
As networks have evolved and matured over time, service providers have followed a path of consolidation and convergence of network elements and functions in order to profitably expand their networks and also to find and extract new capabilities that they can use to deliver value to their customers and differentiate themselves from competitors.
As a logical progression of convergence and consolidation, service providers are now looking for value further up the OSI stack by virtualization of services and applications from Layer 4 through 7, and are looking to leverage applications, content and services to differentiate their offerings. NFV is an architecture that enables application delivery networking, and the transition of virtualized services to the cloud. NFV is based on four key pillars of which virtualization is only the first step. In order to reap the full potential of NFV, “operationalization” becomes critical and one has to consider the three key pillars in operationalizing NFV namely – abstraction, programmability and orchestration.
As a consequence of considering the four key pillars of NFV, one can view the logical progression of deploying NFV within a mobile network in a meaningful manner. A phased introduction of NFV into a mobile operator network as shown below is pragmatic as well as foundational for reaping the full suite of envisioned benefits of NFV.
Service providers will likely begin introducing NFV in the services plane first, then move to the control/signaling plane, and eventually culminate with NFV in the data (EPC/RAN) plane. It is possible that in some cases, NFV could be introduced across multiple layers in the network depending on the aggressiveness of the operator to transition to NFV, while factoring the depreciation of their legacy hardware.
Once fully evolved to NFV architectures, the mobile operator network will become a truly dynamic, flexible and automated self-adapting ecosystem, taking us one step closer to “NFV nirvana.”
Summary of benefits of migration to NFV
With NFV, operators can future-proof their investments with flexible and adaptive platforms and meet the challenges of explosive traffic growth head-on with extensible on-demand scalability and performance. They also can gain more application layer visibility and control for effective intelligent traffic steering, policy enforcement and service chaining. In addition to these NFV key benefits, operators can also implement dynamic multi-layered security and protect their networks efficiently, in turn increasing the availability and dependability.
In summary, key benefits of NFV include:
–Operating expense and capital expense savings.
–Service/network function deployment flexibility.
–On demand elastic capacity and performance scalability.
–Service velocity.
