SDNRG R. Gu, Ed. Internet-Draft C. Li Intended status: Informational R. Wang Expires: January 1, 2016 China Mobile June 30, 2015 Problem statement of SDN and NFV co-deployment in cloud datacenters draft-gu-sdnrg-problem-statement-of-sdn-nfv-in-dc-00 Abstract With the development of cloud computing technology, cloud datacenters have been influenced. Co-deployment of SDN and NFV technology shows its distinct advantages of vitalizing network resources in providing VPC services and SFC services.In order to deploy SDN and NFV in cloud datacenters, a resolution test has been conducted. According to the resolution test, SDN and NFV technology has been mature already for the commercial deployment in operators' network. However, there are some key problems on network architecture, virtualized platform, standard interfaces and so on to be working out in practical practice. Status of This Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." This Internet-Draft will expire on January 1, 2016. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of Gu, et al. Expires January 1, 2016 [Page 1] Internet-Draft problem-statement-of-sdn-nfv-in-dc-00 June 2015 publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. Definition of terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. SDN and NFV usecase in cloud datacenters . . . . . . . . . . 3 5. Resolution test of SDN and NFV in cloud datacenters . . . . . 4 6. Problems and aspects to be considered in the trail deployment 5 7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 8. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 9. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 10. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1. Introduction Datacenters have been heavily impacted due to the development and large-scale deployment of cloud computing technology. Co-deployment of SDN and NFV technology shows its distinct advantages of virtualizing network resources in the scenario of cloud datacenter such as convenient and elastic. SDN technology helps the cloud datacenters with central-management and resource efficiency. NFV brings up virtual machines instead of physical firewall, load balancer, and VPN gateway devices. Thus VPC services and service functions are provided with the SDN architecture, NFV elements, standard interfaces and the designing flow table. In order to deploy SDN and NFV in cloud datacenters, we have conducted a resolution test aiming at co-deployment of SDN and NFV. According to the resolution test, SDN and NFV technology have been mature already for the commercial deployment in operators' network. However, there are some key problems on network architecture, virtualized platform, standard interfaces and so on to be working out in practical practice. 2. Terminology The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. Gu, et al. Expires January 1, 2016 [Page 2] Internet-Draft problem-statement-of-sdn-nfv-in-dc-00 June 2015 3. Definition of terms NAT: network address translation NFV: network function virtualization SDN: software defined network SF: service function SFC: service function chaining VAS: value-added service VFW: virtual firewall VLB: virtual load balancer VM: virtual machine VPC: virtual private cloud 4. SDN and NFV usecase in cloud datacenters In cloud datacenters, the SDN and NFV architecture includes the applications to tenants, SDN controller, network function virtualized manager (NFVM), SFC controller and the service function node. With the orchestration, the SDN controller, SFC controller and the NFV manager work in coordination to provide the auto-deployed services such as VPC, VAS of layer 4 - layer 7 and so on. Tenants make the requirement of services in the service applications. Service application records tenants' network and service requirements and translates them into the SDN controller, SFC controller and the NFV managers with the logical network mapping to the physical network. The orchestrator including the virtualized platform is in charge of the orchestration and management of NFV infrastructure and software resources, and realizing network services. The SDN controller is a logically centralized entity with a general view of the network and in charge of SDN data paths, while the SFC controller is in central control of the service function chain according to the requirements from the service applications. The NFV manager is responsible for NFV lifecycle management such as installation, update, query, scaling and termination. In the bottom, network elements are the resource instances which can be a virtual instance such as a virtual machine or be embedded in a physical network element such as the virtual load balance instances or the physical firewall located in the resource pool. Gu, et al. Expires January 1, 2016 [Page 3] Internet-Draft problem-statement-of-sdn-nfv-in-dc-00 June 2015 -------------------------- | | | Service Application +--------------------------- | | | ----+--------------+------ | | | | | | | | ---------+------- | | | | | | | Orchestrator +---------------------- | | | | | | | ----+---------+-- | | | | | | | | | | | | ---+---------+---- --+--------------- -----+---+------ | | | | | | | SDN Controller | | SFC Controller | | NFV manager | | | | | | | ---+-------------- ---------+-------- ---------------- | | -----+--------------------------+--------------------------- | | | ----- ----- ----- ------ | | |VSW| |VSW| |VSW| | VR | | | ----- ----- ----- ------ | | | | ------ ------ ------ ------ ------- | | | VM | | VM | | VLB| | VFW| | DPI | | | ------ ------ ------ ------ ------- | | | | network element | ------------------------------------------------------------ Figure 1: SDN and NFV usecase in cloud datacenters 5. Resolution test of SDN and NFV in cloud datacenters The resolution test is based on the architecture introduced with the KVM virtualized platform, and Openstack as the orchestrator. In the resolution test, the whole systems, network architecture, SDN controller, and forwarding devices are tested of functions, performances and security under normal and stress conditions. Gu, et al. Expires January 1, 2016 [Page 4] Internet-Draft problem-statement-of-sdn-nfv-in-dc-00 June 2015 6. Problems and aspects to be considered in the trail deployment It's found out that some key problems exist when introducing SDN and NFV technology into cloud datacenters under the resolution tests and the practical trail. Problems rely on aspects such as virtualized platforms, network architectures, interface standardization, and some others listed as follows. (1)Virtualized platforms KVM virtualized platform is adopted in our test. However, other virtualized platforms are not well supported by Openstack. The main reason relies on that Openstack is an open-source cloud operating system developing based on KVM platform, which is widely used in public cloud datacenters. Actually in the private cloud datacenters, other virtualized platforms such as VMware and XEN are widely adopted. Thus more work needs to be focused on other virtualized platforms carrying on SDN technology with platforms of much more open interfaces and more interface docking attempts. (2) Network architecture The network architecture of SDN is clear according to other standardization organizations with hierarchical layers of application layer, orchestrator, controlling layer and forwarding layer. When adding the virtualized network elements into the SDN architecture, problems arise around the network architecture of SDN and NFV co- deployed in the cloud datacenters. How can the orchestration layer, SDN controller, SFC controller, NFV manager co-operate in order to provide the VPC services and SFC services. What's the relationship and specific role-taking between the service application, orchestration layer, SDN controller, SFC controller and NFV manager. The specific interfaces between these related parts are obscure as well. (3) Interface standardization Due to the incomplete interface of Openstack, interface standardization should be taking into consideration. Nowadays, physical servers are out of the management scope of Openstack. Besides, the FW and LB plug-ins are limited into only one vendor. Service function chaining interfaces are still under discussion without being published. The specific interfaces between SDN controller, SFC controller and NFV manager are obscure as well. Above all, the interface standardizations should be kept researching on. (4) Virtualization high availability Gu, et al. Expires January 1, 2016 [Page 5] Internet-Draft problem-statement-of-sdn-nfv-in-dc-00 June 2015 As virtual machines and virtualized platforms are brought in, reliability can be a problem. Reliability can be divided into several layers: the virtual network elements, Openstack, controller, virtual link and so on. Up to now, Openstack has no ability of high availability of its database. High availability of virtual network elements integrated in the SDN architectures are without standardization. (5) Benchmark standardization In the resolution test, it works out that the benchmark standardization should be focused on. In actual test, both encapsulation technology of VxLAN and MPLSoGRE exist in the SDN overlay resolution with difficult comparison. Besides, there are two realization mechanisms of active and passive trigger mode when SDN controller communicates with the forwarding devices. Thus the benchmark of SDN controller performance runs to a problem. (6) Practical practice experience The technology of NFV and SDN is still in the trial stage which is lack of practical practice experience. According to the scenarios, NFV elements can be deployed behind the gateway or in a hang-on mode next to the core switch. Besides, centralized and distributed deployments of NAT devices are alternated. The deployment guidance of practical practice is eager. to be shared. 7. Conclusion SDN and NFV technology has been planned to be co-deployed in the cloud datacenters in providing services such as VPC and VAS of layer4-layer7.Through the resolution test, we have found out that key problems on network architecture, virtualized platform, standard interfaces, high availability and practice guidance exist.More tests, trails and standardization work need to be conducted in preparing the large-scale commercial deployment of SDN and NFV technology in cloud datacenters. 8. Security Considerations None. 9. IANA Considerations None. Gu, et al. Expires January 1, 2016 [Page 6] Internet-Draft problem-statement-of-sdn-nfv-in-dc-00 June 2015 10. Normative References [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. [RFC2234] Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997. Authors' Addresses Rong Gu (editor) China Mobile 32 Xuanwumen West Ave, Xicheng District Beijing 100053 China Email: gurong_cmcc@outlook.com Chen Li China Mobile 32 Xuanwumen West Ave, Xicheng District Beijing 100053 China Email: lichenyj@chinamobile.com Ruixue Wang China Mobile 32 Xuanwumen West Ave, Xicheng District Beijing 100053 China Gu, et al. Expires January 1, 2016 [Page 7]