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Beyond VNFM: Filling the gaps of the ETSI VNF manager to fully support VNF life cycle operations
Author(s) -
Venâncio Giovanni,
Garcia Vinícius Fulber,
Cruz Marcuzzo Leonardo,
Tavares Thales Nicolai,
Franco Muriel Figueredo,
Bondan Lucas,
SchaefferFilho Alberto Egon,
Paula dos Santos Carlos Raniery,
Granville Lisandro Zambenedetti,
P. Duarte Elias
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international journal of network management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1099-1190
pISSN - 1055-7148
DOI - 10.1002/nem.2068
Subject(s) - computer science , overhead (engineering) , set (abstract data type) , virtualization , distributed computing , computer network , operating system , cloud computing , programming language
Summary One of the main challenges to use network functions virtualization (NFV) is to properly manage the life cycle of the virtualized network functions (VNFs). Current solutions based on the ETSI standard NFV architectural framework are complex and require the knowledge of a myriad of details of the underlying infrastructure. This work proposes a VNF manager (VNFM) specification that supports different platforms and VNF utilization scenarios. The proposed VNFM specification defines a set of APIs, modules, and components, for both the end user and the back‐end that provide the fundamental set of operations required to fully manage the VNF life cycle. Our primary goal is to simplify the operations, in particular reducing the need for the network operator to know the details of the virtualized infrastructure. Note that the proposed solution fills a gap and complements the ETSI VNFM module. A prototype was implemented, and experimental results show the effectiveness and low overhead of the proposed solution.