Network Function Virtualization

Chapter 6Open Source and Research Activities

Network functions virtualization (NFV) has fundamentally changed the way telecom services are invented and deployed today. In the past, network equipment providers (NEPs) used to sell both the hardware and software. With NFV, the two can be sold separately. Network functions run as software on standardized IT servers. Such separation creates a more open environment for new services to be innovated. It allows communications service providers (CSPs) to be more agile and creative in delivering services, while lowering the cost of development and rollout.

Given the promising features that NFV can provide, CSPs are eager to try out and deploy NFVs in a faster pace. Given this trend, CSPs, NEPs, and NF vendors come together and form open source consortium to expedite this process using a collaborative manner. Open source projects such as OpenStack and OpenDayLight (ODL) are formed. It will encourage greater collaboration among the industry participants. In such open source projects, the basic technologies can be shared across the industry via the upstream projects. Companies can focus on higher-value functions and system integration, which leveraging the nondifferential functions from open source effort from both the CSP and the NEP's perspectives. For the NEPs, they do not need to spend huge time and development resources on the undifferentiated hardware and infrastructure layer, which can be handled by standardized IT and open source ...