Software Defined Networking

The most common way to mange a network device is via the command line interface (CLI). One of the biggest flaws with managing a network this way is the possibility of misconfiguration through human error. There are number of pros and cons to a command line interface Pros can be that the command line interface…

Cisco Enterprise NFVIS is supported on the following Cisco x86 hosting platforms: Cisco Enterprise Network Compute System Cisco Cloud Services Platforms Cisco 4000 Series ISRs with a Cisco UCS E-Series Blade UCS C-Series The platform to choose depends on the requirements and features needed. For example, Voice over IP or 4G-LTE.

NFVIS is based on standard Linux packed with additional functions for virtualisation, VNF lifecycle management, monitoring, device programmability and hardware acceleration. The components of NFVIS are: Linux Linux drives the underlying hardware platforms and hosts the virtualisation layer for VNFs, virtual switching API interfaces, interface drivers, platform drivers and management Hypervisor The hypervisor for virtualisation…

The Cisco NFV solution provides an environment for the virtualisation of both network functions and applications in the enterprise branch. Both Cisco and third-party VNFs can be onboarded. Applications running in a Linux server or Windows server environment can be instantiated on top of NFVIS and supported by DNA centre. Cisco supported VNFs are: Cisco…

Cisco DNA Centre provides the management and orchestration functionality to the Cisco ENFV solution. It has a centralised dashboard and can provide the tools to design, provision, manage and monitor all branch sites across the enterprise. Two main functions inside of DNA Centre are to roll out new branch locations or deploy new VNFs Cisco…

Cisco Enterprise Network Functions Virtualisation delivers a virtualised solution for network and application services for branch offices. It consists of four main components: Management and Orchestration (MANO) Cisco DNA centre provides the VNF management and NFV orchestration capabilities. It allows for easy automation of the deployment of virtualised network services, consisting of multiple VNFs VNFs…

The Cisco ENFV solution is a Cisco solution based on the ETSI NFV architectural framework. It reduces the operational complexity of branch environments by running the require networking functions as virtual functions on standard x86 based hosts. It replaces physical firewalls, routers, WLC, load balancers with a single virtual device running on a x86 platform.…

Single-Root I/O Virtualisation is an enhancement to PCI passthrough that allows for multiple VNFs to share the same physical NIC. SR-IOV will emulate multiple PCIe devices on a single PCIe device such as a physical NIC. In SR-IOV the emulated PCIe devices are called virtual functions, the physical PCIe devices are called physical functions. The…

PCI passthrough allows VNFs to direct access to physical PCI devices. They appear and act as if they are physically attached to the VNF. This technology can be used to map a physical NIC directly to a single VNF. PCI passthrough can offer many performance advantages: Exclusive one to one mapping Bypass the hypervisor Direct…

OVS Data Plane Development kit is an enhanced Open vSwitch with Data Plane Development Kit libraries. The DPDK was included to try overcome the performance limitations due to CPU interrupts from the physical NIC. OVS with DPDK operates entirely in user space. The DPDK Poll Mode Driver (PMD) in OVS polls for data that comes…