This chapter provides an overview of Oracle Communications Network Service Orchestration Solution and describes the solution components and software requirements.
The Network Service Orchestration solution enables you to create, implement, and manage the life cycles of network services and their deployment as interconnected virtual network functions (VNFs) on virtual resources.
The Network Service Orchestration solution provides the following functionality:
Onboarding of Network Services and VNFs. You can define and model network services and VNFs based on any network function that you want to virtualize. See "Designing and Onboarding Network Services and VNFs" for more information.
Instantiation, Scaling, and Termination of Network Services. You can quickly instantiate, scale, or terminate VNFs and network services in response to the demand on your network. You can manage the life cycles of your VNFs and network services and control the resources that they use. See "Working with Network Services and VNFs" for more information.
Monitoring and Auto-healing. You can monitor the performance of the VNFs continuously and configure the solution to heal a failed VNF automatically. See "Monitoring and Healing a VNF" for more information about monitoring and healing a VNF.
Resource Orchestration. The solution manages the resources across your data centres to ensure that each network service is allocated the required resources to meet the needs of the VNFs.
Customization and Extension. You can customize and extend the solution to support integration with third-party VNF Managers, Virtualized Infrastructure Managers (VIMs), SDN Controllers, and monitoring engines. The solution provides extension points that enable you to customize and extend the solution's core functionality. See "Extending the Network Service Orchestration Solution" for more information.
The solution includes a VNF Manager that enables you to manage the life cycles of the VNFs. The solution also supports integration with Oracle and third-party VNF Managers, VIMs, SDN Controllers, and network monitoring applications. By default, the solution provides integration to certain applications and supports integration to additional applications during the implementation. The solution provides RESTful APIs, which communicate over HTTP, to interact and exchange data with the solution's components.
The Network Service Orchestration solution builds on Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management (UIM), taking advantage of its inventory and workflow capabilities to perform run-time orchestration of NFV environments, including hybrid virtual and physical networks.
Oracle Communications Design Studio provides the design-time environment for onboarding VNFs and composing network services. The solution is extensible and allows integration with third-party VNF managers, VIMs, monitoring engines, and SDN Controllers.
The Network Service Orchestration solution uses the Oracle Communications Information Model to represent inventory items and business practices. The Oracle Communications Information Model is based on the Shared Information Data (SID) model developed by the TeleManagement Forum. The information model contains resource entities, service entities, common patterns, definitions, and common business entities.
For details about the Oracle Communications Information Model (OCIM), see Oracle Communications Information Model Reference and UIM Information Model Reference.
Table 1-1 describes the NFV entities and their corresponding OCIM entities.
Table 1-1 NFV Entities and OCIM Entities
| NFV Entity | OCIM Entity | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Network Service |
Service |
Represents a network service formed by VNFs on the NFV infrastructure. |
|
Virtual Network Function (VNF) |
Logical Device |
Represents a virtual network function. A VNF is a network function capable of running on an NFV infrastructure and being orchestrated by a NFV Orchestrator and VNF Manager. A VNF may implement a single network entity with interfaces and behavior defined by standardization organizations like 3GPP and IETF, while another VNF may implement groups of network entities. |
|
NFV Infrastructure |
Custom Object with the following characteristics:
Represents a tenant. |
Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) is the totality of all hardware and software components that build the environment where VNFs are deployed. |
|
Network Service Descriptor (NSD) |
Service |
Describes the deployment requirements, operational behavior, and policies required by network services that are created based on this descriptor. |
|
VNF Descriptor (VNFD) |
|
Describes the deployment requirements, operational behavior, and policies required by VNFs that are created based on this descriptor. |
|
Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) |
Custom Object with the following characteristics:
|
Represents a Virtualized Infrastructure Manager that controls and manages the compute, storage, and network resources. |
|
SDN Controller |
Custom Object |
Represents a Software Defined Network (SDN) controller that manages the flow control to enable intelligent networking. |
|
Virtual Data Center (VDC) |
Custom Object with the following characteristics:
|
Represents a virtual machine in a data center. |
|
Availability Zone |
Custom Object with the following characteristics:
|
In OpenStack, availability zones enable you to arrange OpenStack compute hosts into logical groups and provides a form of physical isolation and redundancy from other availability zones, such as by using a separate power supply or network equipment. |
|
Host |
Custom Object with the following characteristics:
|
Represents the compute host. |
|
IP Network Infrastructure |
|
Represents the network, subnet, and IP address of the VNF in the solution. The networks are either created or referenced in the service configuration. During activation, the corresponding network, subnet, and ports are created in VIM on which the VNF virtual machine is deployed. |
|
Flavor |
Custom Object |
Represents a specific deployment of a network service or VNF supporting specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as capacity and performance. |
|
Endpoint |
Custom Object |
Describes a termination endpoint for the network service. |
|
Connection Point |
Device Interface |
Represents a port on the VNF. |
The Network Service Orchestration solution includes sample cartridges that you can use as references for designing and implementing a network protection service.
See "About the Sample Network Protection Service Model" for detailed information about the service model and instructions for implementing the sample network protection service.