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This article provides an overview of ETSI NFV MANO and the opensource landscape in this area.
MANO stands for Management and Orchestration and it is the functional block that has been
defined by ETSI NFV as part of the NFV Architectural Framework. OSM stands for opensource
MANO.
The VIM, Virtualized Infrastructure Manager, manages the NFVI (Network Function
Virtualized Infrastructure). This is typically where you find elements like OpenStack.
The VNMF(s), VNF Manager(s) which manages the lifecycle management of the VNF (e.g.
instantiation, update, query, scaling, termination). They may be multiple VNF Manager in
charge of one or multiple VNF, or a set of generic VNF Manager that can be configured to
manage multiple VNF, or a single generic VNF Manager that would be configured to manage
the lifecycle of all the VNF. ETSI NFV is open to those different options defined in GS/NFVIFA009, MANO architectural options report.
The NFVO, NFV Orchestrator that is in charge of the orchestration and management of NFV
infrastructure and software resources, and realizing network services on NFVI.
But besides these functional blocks, ETSI NFV has defined open interfaces between those blocks,
typically:
- Nf-Vi: between the VIM and the NFVI
- Or-Vi: between the NFVO and the VIM => ETSI GS NFV-IFA 005
- Vi-Vnfm: between the VNFM and the VIM => ETSI GS NFV-IFA 006
- Or-Vnfm: between the VNF Manager(s) and the NFVO => ETSI GS NFV-IFA 007
- Ve-Vnfm: between the [VNF-EM] network functions and the VNFM(s) => ETSI GS NFV-IFA 008
- Os-Ma: between NFVO and OSS/BSS => ETSI GS NFV-IFA 0013/0012
- Some of these interfaces are being specified in different specifications that are being issued by
ETSI NFV as part of Release 2 and are made publicly available on the ETSI NFV portal. Work in
progress is actually also publicly available in the ETSI NFV open area portal.
Also before diving into this topic, it is important to understand that these projects started in parallel to
ETSI NFV release 2 specifications, so most of them, if not all, have based their work on ETSI NFV
phase 1 released specifications--meaning functional architecture, reference points high level
definition and general concepts. They also have different operational modes, typically among the 3
categories described below, knowing that ETSI OSM seems to evolve to model #1 with a more open
community governance, while Open-o may pick some existing components like ETSI OSM did and
start with a model #2 also before opening up to the model #1.
OpenStack Tacker
OpenStack Tacker has been around for a few years now. It started as a spinoff from Neutron called
ServiceVM and was renamed Tacker and promoted in Vancouver OpenStack Summit in 2015.
Initially defined by a handful of people including HP, it was pretty quiet until OPNFV and couple other
projects started to look into this code as a tool to exercise the infrastructure for other projects they
were working on, i.e. SFC in OPNFV, and map to ETSI NFV VNFM functions.
Tacker is managed under the OpenStack umbrella so it follows the OpenStack community project
guidelines and governance model. Step by Step Tacker has moved from being an independent
project in OpenStack, to the big tent and now part of the Mitaka release.
VNF Instantiation and Termination using Heat using TOSCA to Heat translation in Tacker
VNF Configuration injection during instantiation, update and restart using the Loadable VNF
specific management-driver
Open-o
Open-o is a community project launched by Linux Foundation with a kick off in June 2016. It is a very
recent initiative and somewhat surprising to see in parallel to OpenStack Tacker also hosted by Linux
Foundation, but there are other topics like SDN controller where Linux Foundation is hosting multiple
projects , ie OpenDaylight and ONOS. Anyway, open-o is defining a blueprint and has signed up 15
members, including a number of existing opensource players like Gigaspaces with Cloudify. The
current blueprint is a draft proposal that will be discussed, reviewed, potentially updated by the
members before approval. Open-o is also calling for code contributions so different players and new
players may come to the table, including individual contributors, with code.
some missing areas. It is still very early stage on the MANO opensource space though as we can
see with the maturity stage of these different projects.
The table below provides some highlights of the main common elements and differentiators:
Tacker
TENOR
Community Governance
Mainly but
also Boost
license*
Release
multiple
Rel 0
1st version
Not yet
1st
incomplete
NFVO
Generic VNFM
OpenStack
Multiple OpenStack
Other VIM
TOSCA
Yang
Dashboard
Portal (?)
Service Orchestrator
Marie-Paule Odini holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Utah State
University. Her experience in telecom experience including voice and data. After managing the HP
worldwide VoIP program, HP wireless LAN program and HP Service Delivery program, she is now
HP CMS CTO for EMEA and also a Distinguished Technologist, NFV, SDN at Hewlett-Packard.
Since joining HP in 1987, Odini has held positions in technical consulting, sales development and
marketing within different HP organizations in France and the U.S. All of her roles have focused on
networking or the service provider business, either in solutions for the network infrastructure or for
the operation.
Editor:
Laurent Ciavaglia is currently senior research manager at Nokia Bell Labs where
he coordinates a team specialized in autonomic and distributed systems management, inventing
future network management solutions based on artificial intelligence.
In recent years, Laurent led the European research project UNIVERSELF (www.universelfproject.eu) developing a unified management framework for autonomic network functions. , has
worked on the design, specification and evaluation of carrier-grade networks including several
European research projects dealing with network control and management.
As part of his activities in standardization, Laurent participates in several working groups of the IETF
OPS area and is co-chair of the Network Management Research Group (NRMG) of the IRTF,
member of the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). Previously, Laurent was also vice-chair of
the ETSI Industry Specification Group on Autonomics for Future Internet (AFI), working on the
definition of standards for self-managing networks.
Laurent has co-authored more than 80 publications and holds 35 patents in the field of
communication systems. Laurent also acts as member of the technical committee of several IEEE,
ACM and IFIP conferences and workshops, and as reviewers of referenced international journals,
and magazines.