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NFV > NFV Resources > What is an NFV Orchestrator (NFVO)? Definition

What is an NFV Orchestrator (NFVO)? Definition

The NFV orchestrator (NFVO) is a key component of the NFV-MANO (network functions virtualization management and orchestration) architectural framework, which helps standardize the functions of virtual networking to increase interoperability of  software-defined networking (SDN) elements. The NFVO performs resource orchestration and network service orchestration, as well as other functions.

The NFVO is a central component of an NFV-based solution. It binds together different functions to create an end-to-end, resource-coordinated service in an otherwise dispersed NFV environment.

Where Does NFV Orchestrator Fit Into NFV?

Network functions virtualization decouples software implementations of network functions from the compute, storage, and networking resources they use. It thereby expands options for both enterprises and service providers, enabling both to create new capabilities and new offers to customers.

With new opportunities come new challenges. Traditionally, network function implementations are packaged with the infrastructure they run on – but no longer. As the physical network is decoupled from the infrastructure and network services, it is necessary to create both new management tools and orchestration solutions for providers to realize the benefits of NFV-based solutions.

The Management and Organization Working Group of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has defined the NFV-MANO architecture to address these needs. It consists of three major functional blocks including virtual infrastructure manager (VIM), virtual network function manager (VNFM), and the NFV orchestrator.

NFV Architecture

NFV Architecture
Source: SDxCentral

Resource Orchestration and the NFVO

Resource orchestration is important to ensure there are adequate compute, storage, and network resources available to provide a network service. To meet that objective, the NFVO can work either with the VIM or directly with NFV infrastructure (NFVI) resources, depending on the requirements. It has the ability to coordinate, authorize, release, and engage NFVI resources independently of any specific VIM. It also provides governance of VNF instances sharing resources of the NFVI.

Why is this capability important? To solve the new challenges faced by network operators, it may be more effective to deploy NFV-based solutions across different points of presence (POPs) or within one POP but across multiple resources. Without NFV, this would not be possible. But with NFV MANO, service providers can build in this capability using an NFVO, which has the ability to engage the VIMs directly through their northbound APIs instead of engaging with the NFVI resources directly. This eliminates the physical boundaries that may normally hinder such deployments.

To provide service orchestration, the NFV orchestrator creates end-to-end service among different VNFs – that may be managed by different VNFMs with which the NFVO coordinates.

An example of where this would be applicable is when an administrator may want to create a service between the base station VNFs from one vendor and the core node VNFs of another vendor. In addition, the NFVO can orchestrate the the topology management of the network services instances (also called VNF forwarding graphs).

NFV Orchestrator’s Importance and Components

NFV has promised to reduce operational costs and increase the velocity of new offerings for service providers. However, CSPs, mobile network operators, and other service providers already have networks in place. NFV solutions will only replace components of their overall solutions and therefore must be able to interoperate with existing functions such as OSS/BSS and legacy networking systems.

The NFVO provides key access to resources and instances in order to create an overall NFV solution that includes VNF catalogues, network services catalogues, NFV instances, and NFVI resources. Additionally, the NFV MANO solution must interact with other components such as the OSS/BSS solutions already in place.

Today NFV orchestrators are typically delivered as a component of an NFV MANO solution, which has crossed key development chasms in the recent past. These include the GitHUB project OpenMANO, led by Telefónica; and the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV), expanding its original scope to include this critical solution area.

NFV Orchestrator Resources

What Is Network Virtualization?

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Management and Orchestration (MANO) (NFV-MANO)

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) Elements

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) NFV Orchestration

ETSI.org Network Functions Virtualization

Group specification Network Functions Virtualization (NFV); Management and Orchestration

NFV Orchestration: Challenges in Telecom Deployments

What is Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)?

SDxCentral 2017 Container and Cloud Orchestration Report

SDxCentral 2017 NFV Report Series Part 1: Foundations of NFV: NFV Infrastructure and VIM

SDxCentral 2017 NFV Report Series Part 2: Orchestrating NFV – MANO and Service Assurance

SDxCentral 2017 NFV Report Series Part 3: Powering NFV – Virtual Network Functions (VNFs)

SDxCentral 2017 SD-WAN and Virtual Edge Report

What is Virtual Network Function?

What is an NFV POC?

Which is Better — SDN or NFV?

How Does ETSI NFV Operate?

What is ETSI ISG NFV?

What is OPNFV?

What is NFV MANO?

What is CloudNFV?

What is NFV Software?

What’s in an NFV Cloud?

What’s a Virtual Router (vRouter)?

What is an NFV Strategy?

An Overview of NFV Elements

Introduction to NFV Data Center

What is an NFV Webinar?

What is an NFV OpenStack?

What is an NFV Orchestration?

Resources

  • SD-WAN Resources
    • What is Software-Defined WAN (or SD-WAN or SDWAN)?
    • The Essentials of SD-WAN Architecture: Advantages and Options
    • SD-WAN as a Service Using Orchestration
    • What is Hybrid WAN and Why Does it Matter?
    • What’s the Difference Between Hybrid WAN and SD-WAN
    • What is SDN-WAN and Why Does it Matter?
    • What is SD-WAN as a Service?
    • What is iWAN and Why Does It Matter?
    • What is the Difference Between SD-WAN and iWAN?
    • SD-WAN vs. MPLS: The Pros and Cons of Both Technologies
    • Riverbed SD-WAN Offers Different Options
    • What Is CloudGenix’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • What Is AT&T’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • Versa’s SD-WAN Combines Networking and Security
    • Nuage’s SD-WAN Uses a Single Network Policy Framework
    • What is Citrix’s SD-WAN Product?
    • What Is Cisco’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • What Is Juniper’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • Silver Peak’s SD-WAN Solution Targets Enterprises
    • What is Verizon’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • What Is VeloCloud’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • What Is Viptela’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • 2017 SD-WAN and Virtual Edge Report – Download
  • MEC Resources
    • What Is Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC)?
  • Containers Resources
    • Inside the Linux Container Ecosystem Report – Download
    • What are Containers?
    • How Does Container Networking Work?
    • Containers vs VMs: Which is better in the Data Center?
    • What is Docker Container? Part 1: The Docker Open Source Project
    • What is Docker Container? Part 2: How Docker Containers Work
    • What Is Docker Security & How Do You Use It?
    • What is the Docker Platform and Container Components?
    • What is CoreOS Flannel?
  • SDN Resources
    • What is Software Defined Networking (SDN)? Definition
    • Software-Defined Networking Tutorial – The Basics
    • Why SDN or NFV Now?
    • What are SDN Northbound APIs (and SDN Rest APIs)?
    • What are SDN Southbound APIs?
    • What is Open SDN?
    • What is the OpenDaylight Project (ODL)?
    • What is OpenFlow?
    • Who is the Open Networking Foundation (ONF)?
    • What are SDN Controllers?
    • SDN, NFV, and Network Virtualization Define The Wave of New IP Infrastructure
    • Understanding the SDN Architecture – SDN Control Plane & SDN Data Plane
    • What’s a Software-defined Data Center?
    • What is SDN-WAN and Why Does it Matter?
    • SDN Webinar Videos, Presentations, and Demos
    • What is SDN Orchestration (SDN Policy Orchestration)?
    • 2015 SDN & NFV Market Size and Forecast Report
    • What is the Brocade SDN Controller (BSC)?
    • What is Cisco APIC? Part 2 of Cisco ACI Definition
    • What is Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)? Part 3
    • What is a Cisco XNC (Extensible Network Controller)?
    • What is a Floodlight Controller?
    • What is the Juniper Contrail Controller?
    • What is the NEC OpenFlow ProgrammableFlow Controller?
    • What is an OpenDaylight Controller?
    • What is an OpenFlow Controller?
    • What is Ryu Controller?
    • What is Cyan Blue Planet?
    • What is Nuage Networks VSC?
    • What is the Software Driven Cloud Networking?
    • SDN Controller Comparison Part 1: SDN Controller Vendors (SDN Controller Companies)
  • Network Virtualization Resources
    • What is Network Virtualization?
    • What is Overlay Networking (SDN Overlay)?
    • What is Network Automation With Network Virtualization?
    • What is Virtual Networking?
    • What is Network Service Chaining?
    • What are Network Overlays?
    • What is Networking as a Service or NaaS?
    • What is a VXLAN?
    • What is Network Service Chaining?
    • What Is Network Automation With Network Virtualization?
    • Business Agility Drives Network Virtualization Demand
    • What Is Open Virtual Network (OVN)?
    • How Does Micro-Segmentation Help Security?
    • What is Juniper Networks Network Virtualization?
    • What is NEC Network Virtualization?
    • What is Nuage Network Virtualization?
    • What is Cisco Network Virtualization?
    • How Does Micro-Segmentation Help Security?
  • NFV Resources
    • What is Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)?
    • What is a Virtual Network Function or VNF?
    • What is an NFV POC?
    • Which is Better – SDN or NFV?
    • How Does ETSI NFV Operate?
    • What is ETSI ISG NFV?
    • What is OPNFV or Open Platform for NFV Project?
    • What is NFV MANO?
    • What’s CloudNFV?
    • What’s NFV Software?
    • What’s in an NFV Cloud?
    • What’s a Virtual Router (vRouter)?
    • What is an NFV Strategy?
    • An Overview of NFV Elements
    • What is an NFV Data Center?
    • NFV Webinar Videos, Presentations, and Demos
    • What is an NFV OpenStack?
    • What is an NFV Orchestration?
    • What is an NFV Orchestrator (NFVO)?
    • What is Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM)?
    • What is a VNF Manager (VNFM)?
  • Cloud Resources
    • What is the Cloud?
    • What is Private Cloud? The Benefits and the Providers
    • What is Hybrid Cloud? A Scalable and Customizable Computing Solution
    • What is Software Defined Everything – Part 1: Definition of SDx
    • Software Defined Everything Part 2: Cloud Infrastructure
    • Software Defined Everything Part 3: SDx infrastructure
    • Software Defined Everything Part 4: SDx Infrastructure Buyers
    • Software Defined Everything Part 5: SDx Use Cases
    • Software Defined Everything Part 6: Infrastructure Attributes
    • Software Defined Everything Part 7: Infrastructure Form Factors & Delivery Models
    • Software Defined Everything Part 8: Succeeding in an SDx World
    • What are Cloud Service Providers?
    • Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure
    • What is Software-Defined Storage?
    • What is Software Defined Compute?
    • What is Storage Virtualization?
    • What is KVM?
    • What is Cloud Networking or Cloud Based Networking?
    • What is the Definition of IEEE Intercloud?
  • Security Resources
    • 2017 SDx Infrastructure Security Report – Download
    • SDN Security – Challenges Implementing SDN Network Security in SDN Environments
    • What is Security Virtualization?
    • What is Cloud-Based Security?
    • Data Security Regulations
    • How to Deliver Data Center Security via Network Virtualization
    • The Top Cloud Security Tools for Threat Monitoring & Threat Protection
    • Future of Virtual Security: Micro-Segmentation & Visibility
  • Open Source Resources
    • What is OpenStack Networking?
    • What is OpenStack Neutron?
    • What is Open vSwitch (OVS)?
    • What is Open vSwitch Database or OVSDB?
    • What is KVM?
    • What Is Mirantis OpenStack?
  • White Box Resources
    • What is White Box Switching & White Box Switches (& are they SDN Switches)?
    • What is a Data Center Fabric?
    • What is a Networking Switch Fabric?
    • What Are 40G Switches?
    • What is a Cisco Nexus Switch?
    • What Is Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (or Cisco ACI or Cisco SDN)? Part 1
    • What are Leaf Switches?
    • What is a Spine Switch?
  • DevOps Resources
    • SDN Automation, Programmability, and Programmable Networks
  • Cisco Resources
    • What is Cisco OpenFlow?
    • What is Cisco OpFlex?
    • What is the Cisco ONE Controller?
    • What is Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI)? Part 1
    • What is Cisco APIC? Part 2
    • What is the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC)? Part 3
    • What is Cisco onePK?
    • What is a Cisco Nexus Switch?
    • What is a Cisco XNC (Extensible Network Controller)?
    • What is Cisco Network Virtualization?
    • What Is Cisco’s SD-WAN Approach?
    • Cisco Data Center Channel
  • VMware Resources
    • What is VMware NSX and VMware SDN?
    • What is VMware Network Virtualization?
  • Arista Networks Resources
    • What are Arista Switches?

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