Research Article
Antonio Cimmino and Jorge C
Abstract
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is an emerging technology approach, which refers to the migration of certain network functionalities, traditionally performed by hardware elements, to virtualized IT infrastructures, where they are deployed as software components. NFV leverages commodity servers and storage, including cloud platforms, to enable rapid deployment, reconfiguration and elastic scaling of network functionalities. This introduces a new framework, enabling providers not only to deploy Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) for their own needs, but also to offer them as value added services to their customers. Virtual network appliances can be provided on-demand asa- Service, eliminating the need to acquire, install and maintain specialized hardware like gateways, proxies, firewalls, transcoders and analyzers at customers’ premises. The main goals of paper are the definition of basic use cases and the identification of the key system requirements for the design and deployment of ‘Network Functions as-a-Service (NFaaS) over virtualized infrastructures’.