![]() | This article may be too technical for most readers to understand.(August 2020) |
A cloud-native network function (CNF) is a software-implementation of a function, or application, traditionally performed on a physical device, but which runs inside Linux containers (typically orchestrated by Kubernetes). [1] [2] [3] The features that differ CNFs from VNFs (virtualized network functions), one of the components of network function virtualization, is the approach in their orchestration.
In ETSI NFV standards, the cloud-native network functions are a particular type of virtualized network functions [4] and are orchestrated as VNFs, i.e. using the ETSI NFV MANO architecture and technology-agnostic descriptors (e.g. TOSCA, YANG). In that case, the upper layers of the ETSI NFV MANO architecture (i.e. the NFVO and VNFM) cooperate with a container infrastructure service management (CISM) function [5] that is typically implemented using cloud-native orchestration solutions (e.g. Kubernetes).
The characteristics of cloud-native network functions are: [6] [7]
These characteristics address many of the common issues found with the first generation of VNFs, by incorporating many of the innovations deployed commonly in the internet infrastructure. These include auto-scaling, [2] supporting a continuous delivery/DevOps deployment model, and efficiency gains by sharing common services across platforms. Through service discovery and orchestration, a system based on CNFs will be more resilient to node failure. [2] [6] A specification of criteria to classify and characterize cloud-native VNF implementations can be found in ETSI GS NFV-EVE 011. [8]
The Linux Foundation backed Cloud Native Computing Foundation project is actively supporting companies in contributing to open-source projects like Kubernetes or Prometheus, upon which Cloud Native Network Functions can be based on. [9] The CNCF project also created a CNF Testbed, in order to facilitate a common test-ground for various cloud-native network functions. [10]
OS-level virtualization is an operating system (OS) virtualization paradigm in which the kernel allows the existence of multiple isolated user space instances, called containers, zones, virtual private servers (OpenVZ), partitions, virtual environments (VEs), virtual kernels, or jails. Such instances may look like real computers from the point of view of programs running in them. A computer program running on an ordinary operating system can see all resources of that computer. However, programs running inside of a container can only see the container's contents and devices assigned to the container.
Linode, LLC was an American cloud hosting provider that focused on providing Linux-based virtual machines, cloud infrastructure, and managed services.
Software-defined networking (SDN) technology is an approach to network management that enables dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration to improve network performance and monitoring, in a manner more akin to cloud computing than to traditional network management. SDN is meant to address the static architecture of traditional networks and may be employed to centralize network intelligence in one network component by disassociating the forwarding process of network packets from the routing process. The control plane consists of one or more controllers, which are considered the brains of the SDN network, where the whole intelligence is incorporated. However, centralization has certain drawbacks related to security, scalability and elasticity.
OpenShift is a family of containerization software products developed by Red Hat. Its flagship product is the OpenShift Container Platform — a hybrid cloud platform as a service built around Linux containers orchestrated and managed by Kubernetes on a foundation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The family's other products provide this platform through different environments: OKD serves as the community-driven upstream, Several deployment methods are available including self-managed, cloud native under ROSA, ARO and RHOIC on AWS, Azure, and IBM Cloud respectively, OpenShift Online as software as a service, and OpenShift Dedicated as a managed service.
Network functions virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture concept that leverages IT virtualization technologies to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create and deliver communication services.
Docker is a set of platform as a service (PaaS) products that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. The service has both free and premium tiers. The software that hosts the containers is called Docker Engine. It was first released in 2013 and is developed by Docker, Inc.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP), offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that provides a series of modular cloud services including computing, data storage, data analytics and machine learning, alongside a set of management tools. It runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, and Google Docs, according to Verma, et.al. Registration requires a credit card or bank account details.
Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system for automating software deployment, scaling, and management. Originally designed by Google, the project is now maintained by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.
Mirantis Inc. is a Campbell, California, based B2B open source cloud computing software and services company. Its primary container and cloud management products, part of the Mirantis Cloud Native Platform suite of products, are Mirantis Container Cloud and Mirantis Kubernetes Engine. The company focuses on the development and support of container and cloud infrastructure management platforms based on Kubernetes and OpenStack. The company was founded in 1999 by Alex Freedland and Boris Renski. It was one of the founding members of the OpenStack Foundation, a non-profit corporate entity established in September, 2012 to promote OpenStack software and its community. Mirantis has been an active member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation since 2016.
Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model in which the cloud provider allocates machine resources on demand, taking care of the servers on behalf of their customers. "Serverless" is a misnomer in the sense that servers are still used by cloud service providers to execute code for developers. However, developers of serverless applications are not concerned with capacity planning, configuration, management, maintenance, fault tolerance, or scaling of containers, VMs, or physical servers. Serverless computing does not hold resources in volatile memory; computing is rather done in short bursts with the results persisted to storage. When an app is not in use, there are no computing resources allocated to the app. Pricing is based on the actual amount of resources consumed by an application. It can be a form of utility computing.
Apcera is an American cloud infrastructure company that provides a container management platform to deploy, orchestrate and govern containers and applications across on-premises and cloud-based infrastructure.
Dan Kohn was an American serial entrepreneur and nonprofit executive who led the Linux Foundation's Public Health initiative. He was the executive director at Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), which sustains and integrates open source cloud software including Kubernetes and Fluentd, through 2020. The first company he founded, NetMarket, conducted the first secure commercial transaction on the web in 1994.
The Update Framework (TUF) is a software framework designed to protect mechanisms that automatically identify and download updates to software. TUF uses a series of roles and keys to provide a means to retain security, even when some keys or servers are compromised. It does this with a stated goal of requiring minimal changes and effort from repository administrators, software developers, and end users. In this way, it protects software repositories, which are an increasingly desirable target for hackers.
TiDB is an open-source NewSQL database that supports Hybrid Transactional and Analytical Processing (HTAP) workloads. It is MySQL compatible and can provide horizontal scalability, strong consistency, and high availability. It is developed and supported primarily by PingCAP and licensed under Apache 2.0, though it is also available as a paid product. TiDB drew its initial design inspiration from Google's Spanner and F1 papers.
Kubeflow is an open-source platform for machine learning and MLOps on Kubernetes introduced by Google. The different stages in a typical machine learning lifecycle are represented with different software components in Kubeflow, including model development (Kubeflow Notebooks), model training (Kubeflow Pipelines, Kubeflow Training Operator), model serving (KServe), and automated machine learning (Katib).
Cloud native computing is an approach in software development that utilizes cloud computing to "build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds". These technologies such as containers, microservices, serverless functions, cloud native processors and immutable infrastructure, deployed via declarative code are common elements of this architectural style. Cloud native technologies focus on minimizing users' operational burden.
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) is a Linux Foundation project that was founded in 2015 to help advance container technology and align the tech industry around its evolution.
Open Service Mesh (OSM) was a free and open source cloud native service mesh developed by Microsoft that ran on Kubernetes.
eBPF, acronym for extended Berkeley Packet Filter is a technology that can run programs in a privileged context such as the operating system kernel.
Harvester is a cloud native hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) open source software. Harvester was announced in 2020 by SUSE.
11. Cloud Native Computing Foundation, (http://www.cncf.io)