NFV is picking up steam as more telecom and enterprise network operators recognize the scalability and flexibility of controlling their network functions via open source software and commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Operators are realizing that achieving rapid time-to-market for NFV systems requires a carrier-grade, end-to-end testing and integration platform such as OPNFV.
Open source cloud computing platform provider Openstack is investing heavily in NFV. In fact, OpenStack just released a white paper on NFV entitled “Accelerating NFV Delivery with OpenStack” that describes NFV and its business value in detail, and explains how OpenStack supports NFV and integrates with OPNFV. Drawing on the experience of several enterprise and carrier organizations—such as AT&T, Verizon, SK Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and Bloomberg—the white paper investigates specific use cases via real-world implementations of NFV with OpenStack, and explains how OpenStack and OPNFV are working in concert to define and support NFV deployments.
OPNFV, which provides a common integration and testing platform to facilitate NFV deployments, and defines a consistent, functional stack that developers are adopting as a de facto standard, is cited in the paper as a critical catalyst for the adoption of NFV. In the upcoming Brahmaputra release, which integrates OpenStack Liberty as the VIM, OPNFV will look to provide lab-readiness for testing and interoperability of NFV functionality and use cases. OPNFV has also contributed developers and code upstream to accelerate the features in OpenStack. Learn more about the integration between OPNFV projects like Doctor and Multisite, with upstream projects such as Nova and Cinder among several others on the OPNFV OpenStack Community page.
The white paper also investigates the role of SDN within NFV, telecom requirements for NFV with OpenStack, MANO, and what’s ahead for NFV. To learn more about OpenStack’s approach to NFV and how OPNFV and OpenStack work together, visit https://www.openstack.org/nfv/ to read the full paper.