NFV(13)M02006
Approved at NFV#2, 21-22 April 2013

Terms of Reference
for the
Architecture of the Virtualisation Infrastructure Working Group

(NFV INF)

Responsibilities

  • The NFV INF WG is responsible to propose a reference architecture for the NFV Virtualization Infrastructure in such a way that the referencearchitecture can be used by the NFV Working & expert Groups.
  • The NFV INF WG shall deliver a specific proposal for the NFV overview description.
  • The NFV INF WG shall deliver a specific proposal for the architecture of the virtualization infrastructure, identifying the boundaries between the compute, hypervisor and network domains and the inter-domain capabilities and use cases as well.
  • The NFV INF WG shall collect and define requirements for the reference architecture from relevant stakeholders.
  • The NFV INF WG shall build on the proposed reference architecture by defining related functionalities, i.e. interfaces, protocols, functional behavior and characteristics such as security and performance.
  • The NFV INF WG shall identify gaps, where existing standards/specifications do not fulfill the requirements of the important aspects of the reference architecture, and suggest and pursue further standardization activities within organizations to fill those gaps
  • The NFV INF WG shall deliver its findings in the form of Group Specifications and other relevant ISG NFV deliverables as appropriate.

Areas of Activity

  • The NFV INF WG shall deliver a specific proposal for structuring the work related to specification into the following domains
  • Compute domain
  • Infrastructure Network domain
  • Hypervisor domain
  • The NFV INF WG shall deliver a specific proposal for the architecture of the virtualization infrastructure, identifying the boundaries between the domains and the inter-domain capabilities, such as scalability, portability & Replicability and infrastructure use cases as well.
  • The NFV INF WGdefines the high level configuration operations and parameters of the compute domain which need to be exposed for Management and Orchestration of the virtualization infrastructure.
  • The NFV INF WGdefines the high level configuration operations and parameters of the hypervisor domain which need to be exposed for Management and Orchestration of the virtualization infrastructure.
  • The NFV INF WGdevelops and documents a requirements statement for NFV infrastructure network service (e.g. based on MEF services) including requirements for secure separation of traffic.
  • The NFV INF WG develops and documents the technical conditions which allow for simultaneous control input from existing network protocols, and orchestration management.
  • The NFV INF WG defines the high level operations and parameters of the infrastructure network domain which need to be exposed for Management and Orchestration of the virtualization infrastructure.
  • Performance, especially packet throughput, latency and memory capacity, is considered as an integral part of the specification of the NFV infrastructure, notable in the compute, infrastructurenetwork and hypervisor domains.
  • Security and reliability is considered within a reasonably broad framework of cause and effect but should limit its scope to system level effects

There is an end-2-end architecture responsibility to encourage and work with other work streams to identify specifications which are simple, necessary, sufficient, and relevant.

Organization and working methods/ Collaboration with other bodies

  • The NFV INF WG shall work in accordance with the ETSI ISG Directives and, in particular, the Technical Working Procedures
  • The NFV INF WG shall provide progress reports to the ISG NFV and the NFV Technical Steering Committee as required.
  • The NFV INF WG shall collaborate with the following NFV WGs:
  • MANO WG: for the Management and Orchestration capabilities SW Architecture WG: for the requirements on the virtualization infrastructure as the environment in which virtualized network functions operate.
  • PER EG: for metrics and measurement techniques to calibrate the performance of the virtualization infrastructure in various configurations
  • REL WG: for infrastructure configuration requirements arising from considerations of reliability
  • SEC EG: for infrastructure requirements arising from security considerations
  • The NFV INF WG shall collaborate with other industry organizations as appropriate including:
  • Broadband Forum SIMR WG
  • Open Networking Foundation (ONF)
  • ETSI EP E2NA
  • ITU-T SG11 & SG13
  • IETF
  • 3GPP
  • IEEE 802
  • MEF
  • DMTF
  • OASIS

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