Telecomms Operators are moving virtualization beyond the Data Center to the ‘Telco Cloud’ to establish network wide Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Management, Orchestration and Services. As CSPs realize that “not all NFV service platforms and VNFs are created equal” they are beginning to identify which elements of the ecosystem are ‘dead-ends’ and which will take them forward.

CSPs need high performance service platforms for ‘Agile Services’ and ‘best of breed’ VNFs without ‘Vendor Lock In’. To achieve this they must have VNF functionality and management tools across the ecosystem at every layer - from configurable access transport to layer 2 VPNs on demand and all the way up to user triggered service combinations and APIs for 3^rd. party applications.

Architecture plays a key role in the configurability, flexibility and performance of the entire NFV/VNF ecosystem but building the ‘functional blocks’ of ETSI diagrams does not create high performance manageable system level solutions. CSPs like AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone and Telefonica - leveraged by 5G-PPP and the EU’s Horizon 2020 SONATA initiative - are now driving the theory of ETSI’s NFV into real systems solutions with Service Programming and Orchestration for Virtualized Software Networks’..

• NFV Gets Real
• NFV Systems Evolving beyond ‘Functional Boxes’
• State of NFV Platforms and the VNF Ecosystem
• 5G-PPP - Bringing Service Provider Systems level architecture together
• VNF Ecosystem Evolution Timeline is Needed
• Conclusion

Charts

• Chart I. NFV Journey Toward a more Agile, Efficient Network (Source: HPE)
• Chart II. Comparison of ETSI MANO and AT&T ECOMP Architectures (Source: AT&T)
• Chart III. SONATA combines the flexible programmability of software networks with the optimization of NFV deployments for future networking including 5G (Source: Telefonica/SONATA)
• Chart IV. Stages of CSPs NFV Migration Plan - VNF Ecosystem Evolution