According to the "hype cycle" theory put forward by the research institute Gartner, the industry generally believes that in recent years, after the germination period and the expected expansion period, cloud computing has entered the stage of disillusionment, and then will enter the bright period of steady development. . The most intuitive manifestation is that the idea of ​​cloud computing has begun to widely affect the transformation of traditional IT systems. Not only that, the telecommunications industry is also actively researching cloud computing, and has introduced a network virtualization technology represented by NFV for telecom network transformation. At the 2014 Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014), Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, ZTE, Nokia Communications and many other vendors unveiled the latest research results and practical cases related to NFV. Obviously, virtualization has become an important trend in the upgrade and transformation of telecommunication networks.

NFV is the virtualization of network functions. Its main idea is to replace the expensive dedicated network element devices in traditional telecommunication networks with general-purpose storage, servers and switching devices. In this way, not only can the overall cost of the operator's network be reduced, but also the flexibility of its network can be enhanced.

The telecommunications industry is facing unprecedented challenges. On the one hand, the traffic generated by users is exploding, and operators must constantly upgrade their networks to support innovative services and applications. On the other hand, the strong strength of OTT operators has caused operators to “increase no increase”. The problem is getting worse. Therefore, in order to maintain competitiveness and achieve healthy and sustainable development, operators have to find ways to find ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

NFV technology emerged at the historic moment. By introducing virtualization technology, NFV can separate software and hardware, separate data from controllable platform, and support operators to flexibly adjust existing services and launch new services through standardized and low-cost hardware. .

When it comes to NFV, many people will immediately think of SDN (software-defined network) that is similar to cloud computing. What are the differences and connections between the two? SDN is a new type of network architecture that separates the control plane of the network from the data forwarding plane and implements programmable control. The two are highly complementary but not interdependent. The biggest difference is that SDN is mainly used in traditional IT systems, while NFV is mainly used in operators' networks.

It is the important value of NFV for the development of the telecom industry. The global telecom operators and manufacturers are actively promoting their development. International mainstream operators jointly established the NFV working group in 2013, and the industry standardization organizations such as the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (NGMN), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute ETSI, and the Open Network Forum ONF are conducting related standardization research. However, there is currently no dominant force, and it is foreseeable that the competition in the NFV field will become increasingly fierce in the next few years.

Cisco recently launched the Cisco Evolution Service Platform (ESP) based on NFV and SDN. Pankaj Patel, Cisco's executive vice president and chief development officer, said: "To be successful, operators need to be able to deliver a consistent experience, flexibly introduce new services, and easily automate these services while facilitating management and delivery of services. Globally Telecom operators agree that virtualization can not only reduce costs, but also work with their infrastructure to bring greater value through increased flexibility and resiliency.” Ericsson presented the “Virtualization Evolution Group” at MWC 2014. Core Network". According to Jan Hglund, head of Ericsson's IP and broadband products division, Ericsson recently released a complete set of virtualized network applications and consulting and system integration services to make NFV industrialized. Ericsson also demonstrated the virtual evolution packet core network, which can help operators transition to the network cloud.

The good news is that Chinese manufacturers have already taken the lead in the world in the field of NFV. Current Analysis, an authoritative consulting firm, has ranked Huawei as the best NFV and SDN solution provider for telecom operators through a survey of 100 telecom operators around the world. As a key part of its SoftCOM strategy, NFV will be the focus of the company's R&D innovation over the next five years. Li Sanqi, a Huawei carrier network BG CTO, pointed out that "virtualization will play a vital role in shaping the future network architecture. Huawei is committed to helping operators achieve transformation in order to comply with this major network evolution trend." ZTE is the first Launched the NFV-based cross-system wireless network function to virtualize the Cloud NF solution. It also cooperated with Intel to build the entire system using the common IA hardware platform and took the lead in using the underlying development software provided by Intel for wireless system solutions. Liu Jianhua, president of ZTE's core network products, said: "The Cloud NF architecture provides a solution for efficiently deploying 2G, 3G, 4G multi-system multi-layer networks, while taking into account the needs of existing networks and future 5G network evolution."

While increasing research and development efforts, global telecom operators and manufacturers are actively collaborating on NFV application practices. Recently, Alcatel-Lucent and Telefonica signed a joint innovation agreement, and the two parties will jointly promote the application of NFV in the telecommunications industry. Under the agreement, both parties will define and develop a virtualization process model through Alcatel-Lucent's CloudBand NFV platform, which will help Telefonica determine the elements and time of network virtualization, help it significantly reduce costs through more efficient hardware management, and faster Launch next-generation services and applications. Nokia Communications recently completed the verification of virtualized data core network with SK Telecom of South Korea. According to Nokia Communications, this verification demonstrates that NFV can flexibly adjust network performance such as signaling traffic and bandwidth for different smartphone usage patterns.

With the continuous advancement of NFV standardization and industrialization, the telecommunications network is about to usher in a virtualization revolution.

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