Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization in the Digital Era

Abstract

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture philosophy, which offers a new way to design, deploy and manage networking services. NFV enables a new level of service agility and manageability, while also allowing better asset utilization. To achieve these and other goals NFV can be used in combination with Software Defined Networking, another technology that uses network abstraction. This article analyses Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV), an open source project, and its significance in providing for an open source reference platform to validate multivendor, interoperable NFV solutions. The OPNFV platform architecture and some of the components, integrated into OPNFV from upstream projects to build the NFV Infrastructure are also covered in the article. OPNFV is a carrier-grade platform, aimed at accelerating the deployment of new NFV products and services that meets the industry’s needs by introducing specific technology components, based on their use cases and deployment architectures. To ensure consistency, performance and interoperability among virtualized network infrastructures, OPNFV encourages an open ecosystem of participants and enables broad industry collaboration.