Network functions virtualization (NFV) is making big waves in the telecom industry, but the shift lacks proper oversight. Consequently, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) defined management and orchestration (MANO) as the architectural framework for overseeing the surge of network functions flooding virtual devices.
At its inception, network functions, like network adword translations (NAT), domain name services (DNS), firewalls and encryption, were set up on proprietary hardware at user homes. Consumers had to order a piece of equipment and hire a technician to install it. The process was tedious, long and expensive. As a result, service providers began looking into NFV as a potential way to save time and money.
The central idea of NFV is decoupling hardware from software. Severing ties between network functions and physical hardware provides several advantages. Whenever a customer requested a network function to be installed or updated, the service provider could use inexpensive switches, storage and servers to provide a virtual machine that performed the desired function automatically.
Network functions can be installed on virtual machines in hours instead of months. Nevertheless, the evolution of physical network functions (PNF) into virtual network functions (VNF) may take years, and some virtual functions may never come to fruition. Due to this, a unified network management system that can manage both physical and virtual network functions is needed.
MANO provides the architectural framework to allocate resources in the cloud data center, including compute, network, storage, virtual machines and network services. As ETSI’s Open Source Mano (OSM) group explains:
ETSI’s Open Source Mano group, is developing an open source NFV Management and Orchestration stack using well established open source tools and working procedures. The activity is closely aligned with the evolution of ETSI NFV and will provide a regularly updated reference implementation of NFV MANO. OSM aims at enabling an eco-system of NFV solution vendors to rapidly and cost-effectively deliver solutions to their users.
The functional blocks within the framework consist of three main parts, which work together to connect and establish functions throughout the network. These include the NFV orchestrator (NFVO), VNF manager (VNFM) and virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM). NFVO oversees resource and service orchestration; VNFM manages the creation, maintenance and termination of VNF instances; and VIM presides over the physical and virtual resources in a NFV infrastructure domain.
Other features of MANO include fault and performance management, as well as fault correlation and resolution. Fault notifications may be related to the physical infrastructure, virtualized infrastructure and application logic.
Speaking on how MANO relates to and benefits NFV, ETSI notes:
ETSI OSM complements the work of ETSI NFV and vice versa. In particular, ETSI OSM provides an opportunity to capitalize on the synergy between standardization and open source approaches by accessing a greater and more diverse set of contributors and developers than would normally be possible.
This approach maximizes innovation, efficiency and time to market and ensures a continuing series of true (conformant) reference implementations.
While there are many benefits to be reaped from MANO, like any burgeoning software, it has plenty of challenges to overcome and details to fill. In particular, MANO does not provide all the features necessary to ensure a smooth transition to NFV. Nor does MANO specify software defined networking (SDN) in its architecture. Rather, it presumes transport infrastructure and services are in place. To ensure the migration to NFV is a success, service providers will have to consider automation, orchestration, policies and management.
