nfvrg                                                            Y. Long
Internet-Draft                                                   Y. Song
Intended status: Informational                                   Z. Tang
Expires: December 27, 2019                                           BII
                                                           June 25, 2019


                  The practice of NFV decoupling test
                draft-long-nfvrg-nfv-decoupling-test-01

Abstract

   This document mainly introduces the practice of NFV decoupling test.
   Based on the product development situation of the current vendors,
   the decoupling test is carried out between NFVI&VIM, VNFM&VNF and
   NFVO.  Through a series of tests to explore some of the problems
   encountered in the current stage of NFV decoupling testing, provide
   ideas for the subsequent development of NFV products.

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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Decoupling test of NFV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.1.  Introduce of NFV decoupling test  . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     3.2.  NFV decoupling test architecture  . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   4.  Decoupling test of NFV  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   5.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7

1.  Introduction

   3GPP has adopted the R15 standard and the SBA (Service Based
   Architecture) architecture, which further splits multiple NFs(Network
   Functions) in the 5G core network into multiple NFS (Network Function
   Service), each NFS has the characteristics of independent autonomy.
   But the existence of multiple NFSs in the clouded NFV also brings
   compatibility problems.  Therefore, one of the key requirements of
   the 5G core network for the clouded NFV platform is open.  The cloud
   platform needs to implement decoupling deployment and network
   resource sharing, thus not only avoiding the lock-up of single-
   vendors but also can build an open ecosystem based on open source
   projects.

   But, there are still many problems in the decoupling of the clouded
   NFV platform.  The interfaces of different vendors are not
   standardized and are not unified, which makes it difficult for the
   components of the NFV platform to properly connect and provide
   complete services.  According to the [ETSI_GS_NFV_002], it divides
   the NFV into multiple modules as shown in Figure 1.

   o  Virtualized Network Function (VNF).

   o  Element Management (EM).

   o  NFV Infrastructure, including: Hardware and virtualized resources,
      and Virtualization Layer.

   o  Virtualized Infrastructure Manager(s) (VIM).

   o  NFV Orchestrator.

   o  VNF Manager(s).




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   o  Service, VNF and Infrastructure Description.  Operations and
      Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS).

                                                  +--------------------+
   +-------------------------------------------+  | +--------------+   |
   |                 OSS/BSS                   |  | | NFV          |   |
   +-------------------------------------------+  | | Orchestrator +-+ |
                                                  | +--+-----------+ | |
   +-------------------------------------------+  |    |             | |
   |  +-------+     +-------+     +-------+    |  |    |             | |
   |  | EM 1  |     | EM 2  |     | EM 3  |    |  |    |             | |
   |  +---+---+     +---+---+     +---+---+    |  | +--+---------+   | |
   |      |             |             |        +----+    VNF     |   | |
   |  +---+---+     +---+---+     +---+---+    |  | | manager(s) |   | |
   |  | VNF 1 |     | VNF 2 |     | VNF 3 |    |  | +--+---------+   | |
   |  +---+---+     +---+---+     +---+---+    |  |    |             | |
   +------|-------------|-------------|--------+  |    |             | |
          |             |             |           |    |             | |
   +------+-------------+-------------+--------+  |    |             | |
   |         NFV Infrastructure (NFVI)         |  |    |             | |
   | +---------+    +---------+    +---------+ |  |    |             | |
   | | Virtual |    | Virtual |    | Virtual | |  |    |             | |
   | | Compute |    | Storage |    | Network | |  |    |             | |
   | +---------+    +---------+    +---------+ |  | +--+-----+       | |
   | +---------------------------------------+ |  | |        |       | |
   | |         Virtualization Layer          | |--|-| VIM(s) +-------+ |
   | +---------------------------------------+ |  | |        |         |
   | +---------------------------------------+ |  | +--------+         |
   | | +---------+  +---------+  +---------+ | |  |                    |
   | | | Compute |  | Storage |  | Network | | |  |                    |
   | | | hardware|  | hardware|  | hardware| | |  |                    |
   | | +----------  +---------+  +---------+ | |  |                    |
   | |          Hardware resources           | |  |  NFV Management    |
   | +---------------------------------------+ |  | and Orchestration  |
   +-------------------------------------------+  +--------------------+
                       Figure 1: ETSI NFV architecture

2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC8174].

   NFVI&VIM, NFV Infrastructure and VIM.

   VNFM, VNF Manager.

   NFVO, NFV Orchestrator.



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3.  Decoupling test of NFV

3.1.  Introduce of NFV decoupling test

   In the ETSI NFV architecture, there are corresponding interfaces
   between each modules.  There will be a problem of interface
   compatibility between the components as shown in the figure 1.
   Decoupling tests are required to ensure that the decoupled components
   can be properly integrated.  According to the current vendors'
   development, the main decoupling are between NFVI&VIM, VNFM&VNF and
   NFVO.

   Operators will generally develop NFVO to ensure compatibility with
   existing OSS/BSS, VNF vendors trend to better control VNF, so they
   will provide VNFM with VNF, and the underlying virtualization
   management VIM vendors will also provide self-developed or generic
   x86 servers as a whole NFV resource pool cloud solution.  Therefore,
   the decoupling of clouded NFV is simplified to the following figure
   2.

                                               +--------------------+
                                               |                    |
                                               |  NFV Orchestrator  +--+
                                               |                    |  |
                                               +----------+---------+  |
                                                          |            |
+-------------------------------------------+  +----------+---------+  |
|  +-------+     +-------+     +-------+    |  |          |         |  |
|  | EM 1  |     | EM 2  |     | EM 3  |    |  |          |         |  |
|  +---+---+     +---+---+     +---+---+    |  |   +------+-----+   |  |
|      |             |             |        +--|---|    VNF     |   |  |
|  +---+----     +---+---+     +---+---+    |  |   | manager(s) |   |  |
|  | VNF 1 |     | VNF 2 |     | VNF 3 |    |  |   +------+-----+   |  |
|  +---+---+     +---+---+     +---+---+    |  |          |         |  |
+------|-------------|-------------|--------+  +----------|---------+  |
                     |                                    |            |
+--------------------+------------------------------------+---------+  |
|                                                                   |  |
|   +-----------------------------------------------------------+   |  |
|   |                         NFVI&VIM(s)                       +---+--+
|   +-----------------------------------------------------------+   |
|                                                                   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
                Figure 2: Simplified NFV decoupling architecture

   In addition, from the perspective of VNFM, the scheduling of VIM
   resources is divided into direct mode and indirect mode.  NFVO sends
   messages to VNFM and VNFM operates VIM to allocate VNF resources is



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   direct mode.  In contrast, the way NFVO directly operates the VIM to
   allocate the resources required by the VNF is considered an indirect
   mode.  This causes NFVO must to support different VNFM operating
   modes.

3.2.  NFV decoupling test architecture

   The NFV decoupling test practice selects NFVI&VIM, VNF&VNFM and NFVO
   vendors for interoperability tests.  The main test content is
   functional testing, such as: VNF lifecycle management (VNFD onboard,
   VNF instantiate, VNF scale in/out, VNF terminate), VNF self-healing,
   VNF update, VNF error management.

   The test specification and testcases are reference to ETSI's NFV
   standard [ETSI_NFV_TST_002] and [ETSI_NFV_TST_007].  The operator C's
   NFVO is used as the unified orchestration layer, the vendors F and
   H's VNF&VNFM as network elements and VNF management, and the vendor
   F's infrastructure is tested as the underlying virtualization
   infrastructure.  The decoupling test architecture is shown in figure
   3.

                                      +----------------+
                                      |    Vendor      +--+
                                      |      C         |  |
                                      +------+---------+  |
                                             |            |
                   +---------------+  +------+---------+  |
                   |    Vendor     +--+    Vendor      |  |
                   |      H        |  |      H         |  |
                   +------+--------+  +------+---------+  |
                          |                  |            |
                   +------+------------------+---------+  |
                   |              Vendor               +--+
                   |                F                  |
                   +-----------------------------------+
                 Figure 3: NFV decoupling test architecture

4.  Decoupling test of NFV

   The test results are shown in the following table 1.











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                +-------------------+----------+----------+
                | Testcases         | Vendor F | Vendor H |
                +-------------------+----------+----------+
                | Onboard           | PASS     | PASS     |
                | Instantiate       | PASS     | PASS     |
                | Scale in(manual)  | PASS     | PASS     |
                | Scale out(manual) | PASS     | PASS     |
                | Terminate         | PASS     | PASS     |
                +-------------------+----------+----------+

   The test results show that under the ETSI NFV standards, the basic
   interoperability tests such as VNF onboard, instantiate, manual scale
   in/out and terminate, can be executed successfully, while the VNF
   self-healing, VNF update, VNF error management are failed due to VNFM
   and NFVO unconformable interface.  The main reason is that the
   closure of the VNF vendors and the data exchange format reported by
   the state are inconsistent, usually only exchange data with their own
   NFVO.  This exclusivity makes it difficult for the vendor's VNFM&VNF
   to communicate with the different NFVO vendors, especially some
   advance features, this has led operators to develop a variety of ways
   to obtain VNF status, and also encounter many compatibility issues
   when integration multi-vendor VNFs and VNFMs.

5.  Informative References

   [ETSI_GS_NFV_002]
              ETSI NFV ISG, "ETSI GS NFV 002: "Network Functions
              Virtualisation (NFV); Architectural Framework"", December
              2014, <https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/
              NFV/001_099/002/01.02.01_60/gs_NFV002v010201p.pdf>.

   [ETSI_NFV_TST_002]
              ETSI NFV ISG, "ETSI GS NFV-TST 002: "Network Functions
              Virtualisation (NFV); Testing Methodology; Report on NFV
              Interoperability Testing Methodology."", October 2016,
              <https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/NFV-
              TST/001_099/002/01.01.01_60/gs_NFV-TST002v010101p.pdf>.

   [ETSI_NFV_TST_007]
              ETSI NFV ISG, "ETSI GR NFV-TST 007: "Testing; Guidelines
              on Interoperability Testing for MANO."", August 2018,
              <https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/NFV-
              TST/001_099/007/02.05.01_60/gr_NFV-TST007v020501p.pdf>.

   [RFC5440]  Vasseur, JP., Ed. and JL. Le Roux, Ed., "Path Computation
              Element (PCE) Communication Protocol (PCEP)", RFC 5440,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5440, March 2009,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5440>.



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   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

Authors' Addresses

   Yu Long
   BII Group Holdings Ltd.
   2nd Floor, Building 5, No.58 Jinghai Road, BDA, Beijing, China
   Beijing  101111
   P. R. China

   Email: ylong@biigroup.cn


   Yang Song
   BII Group Holdings Ltd.
   2nd Floor, Building 5, No.58 Jinghai Road, BDA, Beijing, China
   Beijing  101111
   P. R. China

   Email: ysong@biigroup.cn


   Zhijun Tang
   BII Group Holdings Ltd.
   2nd Floor, Building 5, No.58 Jinghai Road, BDA, Beijing, China
   Beijing  101111
   P. R. China

   Email: zjtang@biigroup.cn




















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