Cloud NFV – aiming to make all clouds just `the cloud’

Despite the best efforts of some in and around the IT industry in general and the cloud industry in particular to `divide and rule’ developments in the cloud so that it remains portrayed as a fiercely complex set of often competing technological offerings, some elements of the industry are looking beyond that and a time when `cloud’ is just cloud, so users can become more interested in what they can do with it.

An example of this can be seen in the launch, earlier this year, of CloudNFV, a coming together of like-minded businesses in and around the cloud marketplace. This is a not-for-profit, voluntary and collaborative activity aimed at advancing Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) using proven cloud principles and techniques. The activity is not sanctioned by, or associated with, the NFV Industry Specifications Group (ISG) or ETSI, although CloudNFV participants are required to be members of NFV ISG.

In the same way that the `public’ and `private’ division in cloud service delivery are nowhere near as significant as many vendors would have users believe, and that `hybrid’ cloud will be the basis of all cloud implementations, the particpants in CloudNFV share a view that the divisions between the cloud, Software Defined Networking and Network Functions Virtualisation are artificial, and that networking and applications are not just equal but the same in the cloud.    

To help prove that such thoughts are more than hot air, one of the founding member companies, Overture, has worked with partners to integrate the Ensemble Service Orchestrator (ESO) and Ensemble Network Controller (ENC) software with Carrier Ethernet platforms to help create a multi-vendor NFV Demonstration Platform.

This is aimed at creating an open, multi-vendor cloud platform to implement Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) based on established cloud computing and Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies. The vendor companies working with Overture on the demonstrator project, and advance the work of the ETSI NFV ISG,  are 6WIND, Dell, EnterpriseWeb, and Qosmos.

Overture, which provides tools and services for network and service providers operating at the ntwork edge, is contributing its Ensemble Service Orchestrator (ESO), Ensemble Network Controller (ENC) along with the Overture 6500 and 65 metro service edge platforms.

ESO is a high-availability, open and field extensible platform for managing the entire cycle of VNF onboarding, chaining, federation and operations. Works with the OpenStack cloud management system and the Ensemble Network Controller to commission the VNFs, physical elements and the network connectivity between them and the end users. The Ensemble Network Controller (ENC) serves as the WAN infrastructure SDN controller, bridging the virtual network overlay and the physical network worlds. It is a fully MEF-compliant controller extensible to MPLS and IP networks.

6Wind is providing high-performance data plane software that accelerates the performance of NFV deployments. Within CloudNFV, the 6WINDGate software is used in two places. First, it accelerates the Open vSwitch (OVS) that switches network traffic to the Virtual Networking Functions (VNFs). Second, it accelerates the VNFs themselves.

As primary arctitect ofthe CloudNFV concept, CIMI Corporation is the source of the high-level design and the assembler of the team.

Dell’s primary role is the provider of the server systems, the datacentre SDN switches, the Active Fabric Manager and OpenStack Neutron plugin, while also providing the lab space used for testing and demonstration. Dell has also been the systems integrator for CloudNFV, the test bed for virtual function and cloud verification, and co-ordinator for the hosting of virtual functions for the demo.

An entirely new framework to abstract information and processes and then define and connect the elements through a series of interconnected, loosely coupled, semantics, has been the contribution from EnterpriseWeb. In CloudNFV, this provides `Active Virtualization’, the encompassing data/logic model that binds services and resources and provides the optimisation and management framework. Most with new partners will come about through connections EnterpriseWeb supports.

Qosmos plays two roles in CloudNFV. First, its traffic probes provide monitoring of the critical flows that network utilisation and performance optimisation. Second, its `DPI-as-a-Service’ capability is used in demonstrations to illustrate the NFV concept of Service Chaining.

Last but  not lreast Metaswitch Networks, while not numbered as afounding firm, is providing its open-source IMS `Project Clearwater’, a cloud-ready virtual function resource. Clearwater already enjoys operator support and is in trial in various regions of the world, and is acting as a test-bed in integrating virtual functions into an operating demonstration.

“No single company can make this happen on their own,” said Mike Aquino, president and CEO, Overture. “We are committed to work cooperatively towards advancing NFV and SDN at the metro edge to ultimately bring direct benefit to service providers and network operators around the world.”