ACSM
Future of Network Infrastructure on Cloud By Shantanu Bhattacharya
History and market pressures Some time ago, the primitive concept of Software Defined Networks (SDN) was brought to the fore. Proponents of SDN claimed that network device vendors were not equipped to handle the changing speed demanded by the industry. Programming the devices was only possible through the CLI or using the Simple Network Protocol; neither met the evolving requirements for easily accessible, flexible, and application-friendly interfaces. That led a few Stanford University engineers to create OpenFlow protocol, enabling an architecture comprised of a number of devices containing only data planes to respond to commands sent to them from a logically centralized controller that held the control plane. The controller was responsible for keeping track of all the network paths, as well as configuring all the network devices it controlled. These communications were the essence of the OpenFlow protocol. OpenFlow helped in conceptualising the SDN. OpenFlow could “transmogrify” these platforms to be any network device. E.g., firewalls or NAT. This dramatic shift in the networking industry was well documented. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), a related concept, has allowed commodity servers to accomplish the roles of the network devices. That significantly reduced cost and speed of service deployment. In an NFV, the virtualization layer operating system coordinates the compute and store. Further, it connects resources shared among the Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) that could then execute on the
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same physical server. The Management and Orchestration (MANO) component orchestrates and administers the VNFs. With ever-increasing demand for network bandwidth and services, virtual functions can be deployed on demand.
NFV and its evolution Network Function Virtualization (NFV) could be used for some basic and prime concepts of SDN. That included control/data plane separation, logical centralization, controllers, network virtualization (logical overlays), application awareness, application intent control, and many more on easily available (Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)) hardware platforms. NFV has enhanced the conceptualisation of new methods in support of service element interconnectivity, and techniques that can cope with its dynamic requirements and their upscaling and downscaling. The market pressure on network operators increased in 2013 and real challenges were posing their businesses. • What started as an Over-The-Top (OTT) video and social media into their broadband customer base, grew into OTT service offerings. The outsourcing of organisations’ IT to cloud providers turned these new competitors as more relevant IT partners. • Wireline operators, faced large and long-delayed transitions in copper-based services. • On another front, virtualization concepts evolved out of enterprise-centric virtual machine operations, to more composable and scalable components like containers
