Managing network services and virtualization of network functions

Network services

Network services relay traffic over the network and apply network functions to the traffic, such as WAN optimization, shaping, and traffic protection. Each network service has a topology that you build using a graphical design tool. You can add network service components to the topology and connect them to each other.

You can build a topology in a network service template and then assign that network service template to a tenant. Network service components added to the template topology are automatically assigned to the tenant together with the network service template. A tenant can create and deploy network services, if necessary, using assigned network service templates, and edit network services.

You can use network services to deploy SD-WAN instances. The network service for deploying SD-WAN instances is called the SD-WAN network service (SD-WAN service).

An example of a network service topology is shown in the figure below.

Network service topology

Network function virtualization

Network function virtualization (NFV) lets you use virtualized storage, compute resources, and networks to provide network functions and combine these into network services.

You can deploy virtual network functions (VNF) and physical network functions (PNF) in network services. The difference between virtual and physical network functions is that the orchestrator does not manage the lifecycle of physical network functions. Third-party network functions are supported.

Kaspersky SD-WAN complies with the architecture specified in the ETSI NFV MANO specification (NFV Management and Network Orchestration), which defines the following main functional components:

• Orchestrator.

  Controls the solution infrastructure, functions as an NFV orchestrator (NFVO), and manages network services and distributed VNFMs. You can manage the orchestrator via the web interface or REST API when using external northbound systems.

• Virtual Network Function Managers (VNFM).

  Manages the lifecycle of virtual network functions using SSH, Ansible playbooks, scripts, and Cloud-init attributes.

• Virtual Infrastructure Manager.

  Manages computational, networking, and storage resources within the NFV infrastructure. Serves to connect network functions with virtual links, subnets, and ports.

  Can be deployed in the data center or on a uCPE device. Deploying the VIM in the data center implies centralized management of the VNF lifecycle, while a VIM deployed on a uCPE device allows delivering VNFs to remote locations and managing these VNFs locally. The deployed VIM must be added in the orchestrator web interface.

  The OpenStack cloud platform is used as the VIM.

• The Zabbix monitoring system monitors the status of virtual network functions and physical network functions and notifies the orchestrator when a network function needs to be restored or scaled.
• The NFV infrastructure encompasses physical resources, such as hardware storage, servers, and network devices.
• Controller.

  Centrally manages the overlay network:

  • Builds the network topology.
  • Creates transport services.
  • Manages CPE devices using the OpenFlow protocol.
  • Balances traffic between links.
  • Monitors links and automatically switches traffic to a backup link if the primary link fails.

  To deploy the controller, you need to deploy the physical network function of the controller, which is contained in the installation archive. The controller is managed by the orchestrator.

The figure below shows the relations between the solution components and the NFV infrastructure. Components of external solutions are marked in white, Kaspersky SD-WAN components are marked in green, and the red lines are connections between components.

NFV infrastructure

In this Help section Managing network service templates Managing network services Scenario: Deploying a virtual network function Scenario: Deploying a physical network function Managing VNF and PNF packages Specifying a brief description of a shared network service Managing virtual network functions Managing physical network functions Configuring a P2P service Configuring a P2M service Configuring an M2M service Configuring a shared network (OS 2 SHARED) Configuring a virtual router (OS vRouter) Configuring a VLAN Configuring a VXLAN Configuring a flat network Configuring a UNI

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