Scenario: Deploying a physical network function

You can deploy a physical network function for a tenant in a network service. As physical network functions, you can use dedicated hardware as well as virtual entities created using third-party virtualization environments. The orchestrator does not manage the lifecycle of physical network functions.

For example, you can deploy a physical network function at the central office of your organization to protect user traffic that is transmitted between CPE devices.

Physical network function deployment involves the following steps:

1. Preparing the PNF package

   Prepare the PNF package that you want to deploy, and then upload the PNF package to the orchestrator web interface. If necessary, you can enable protection of VNF and PNF packages against substitution before uploading the PNF package to the orchestrator web interface.

2. Ensuring network connectivity between the orchestrator and the physical network function

   Ensure network connectivity between the virtual machine or physical server on which the orchestrator is deployed and the dedicated hardware or virtual entity on which you want to deploy the physical network function.

3. Assigning the physical network function to a tenant

   Use one of the following methods to assign the physical network function to the tenant for which you want to deploy it:

   • If you want to deploy a physical network function using a network service template:
     1. Add the physical network function to the topology when creating or editing a network service template.
     2. If necessary, configure the topology and the physical network function. For a description of what you can do with physical network functions, see the Managing physical network functions section.
     3. Assign the network service template to a tenant.
   • If you want to deploy a physical network function without a network service template, assign the physical network function to the tenant.
4. Logging in to the tenant self-service portal

   Log in to the tenant self-service portal

5. Deploying a physical network function

   Do the following:

   1. Add the physical network function to the topology when creating or editing a network service in one of the following ways:
      • If you want to deploy a physical network function using a network service template, add the network service template to the topology.
      • If you want to deploy a physical network function without a network service template, add the physical network function to the topology.
   2. If necessary, configure the topology and the physical network function. For a description of what you can do with physical network functions, see the Managing physical network functions section.
   3. Deploy the physical network function using one of the following methods:
      • If you added the physical network function to the topology while creating the network service, deploy the network service.
      • If you added the physical network function to the topology while editing a network service, deploy the modified network service.

The physical network function is deployed.

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