New NFV 2 Specifications Released by ETSI
By The promise of virtualization has service providers excited about the possibility of automating most of the functions in their network, with the goal of end-to-end orchestration that will deliver greater operational efficiency and cost reduction in capital and operational expenditures. The new NFV 2 specifications released by ETSI will move the needle forward for the virtualization of telecommunication networks by gaining more traction as industry players determine the parameters that are needed to fully adopt virtualization across the board.
The ETSI association has more than 800 member companies and organizations to produce globally applicable standards for ICT in fixed, mobile, radio, aeronautical, broadcast and Internet technologies. The Association has a global presence as the members are drawn from 66 countries across five continents to ensure standardization process for new technologies gets properly adopted to the widest audience possible.
The NFV Release 2 specifications delivers the requirements, interfaces and information models for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). This release was based on several developments and progress made in future utilization of NFV technology by the ETSI Industry Specification Group on NFV (ETSI ISG NFV).
According to the Association, the roadmap for Release 2 will move the telecommunication sector closer to a more cost-effective network infrastructure with the agility and flexibility needed to meet the demand of consumer and organizational ICT services.
Telefonica’s Diego Lopez, the newly appointed Chairman of ETSI NFV ISG, said, "Through the collaborative efforts of all parties involved in the ETSI NFV ISG, we have been able to identify and define the required capabilities, following a practical approach that leverages proofs of concept to explore and demonstrate what was proposed. The combination of wide consensus and experimental evidence has led to NFV being recognized as a completely viable and highly valuable technology. This has allowed us to make progresses at a fast pace."
A comprehensive set of specifications were announced that were derived from many interrelated sectors that resulted in moving the objective of defining a comprehensive set of specifications to simplify the deployment of NFV in the telecommunications industry. The development process was accelerated by drawing on the support of the open source community along with the already defined standards structure to ensure interoperability to the widest segment possible.
The NFV Release 2 builds on the ETSI ISG NFV documentation that was published in 2014, which included, interface descriptions and information models for the interoperability of solutions based on the ETSI NFV Architectural Framework. Release 2 has 11 new group specifications with functional requirements in a range of areas, including the management of virtualized resources, lifecycle management of both network services and virtualized network functions, network service fault/performance management, virtualized resource capacity management, and others.
An alternative way to design, deploy, and manage network services is what NFV gives operators. This ability will let them offer services on demand, with updates in real time and to deliver services to customers more quickly, and the new NFV 2 specifications released by ETSI will have specifications and recommendations to make that possible.
Edited by Maurice Nagle