Home » Network Virtualization: NFV, VNF, NFVI, Service Chaining, vSwitch และ Cloud-Native Networking
Network Virtualization: NFV, VNF, NFVI, Service Chaining, vSwitch และ Cloud-Native Networking
Network Virtualization: NFV, VNF, NFVI, Service Chaining, vSwitch และ Cloud-Native Networking
Network Virtualization เปลี่ยน network functions จาก hardware appliances เป็น software ที่รันบน standard servers NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) เป็น framework, VNF (Virtual Network Function) เป็น virtualized network service, NFVI (NFV Infrastructure) เป็น underlying platform, Service Chaining เรียง VNFs ตามลำดับ, vSwitch ให้ switching ใน hypervisor และ Cloud-Native Networking ใช้ containers และ Kubernetes
Traditional networking ใช้ dedicated hardware appliance สำหรับทุก function: firewall = Palo Alto box, load balancer = F5 box, WAN optimizer = Riverbed box → expensive, inflexible, slow to deploy (weeks-months) NFV แทนที่ด้วย software ที่รันบน x86 servers → deploy ใน minutes, scale up/down on demand, reduce CAPEX 50-70% Service providers เป็นผู้นำ NFV adoption (AT&T, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom) → enterprises กำลังตามมาด้วย cloud-native approach
NFV Architecture (ETSI)
| Component |
Function |
Example |
| VNF |
Virtual Network Function — software implementation of network service |
Virtual firewall, virtual router, virtual load balancer |
| NFVI |
NFV Infrastructure — hardware + virtualization layer ที่ VNFs run on |
x86 servers + hypervisor (KVM, ESXi) + vSwitch (OVS) |
| MANO |
Management and Orchestration — lifecycle management of VNFs |
ONAP, OSM, Cisco NSO, VMware vRealize |
| VIM |
Virtualized Infrastructure Manager — manage compute/storage/network resources |
OpenStack, VMware vCenter, Kubernetes |
| VNFM |
VNF Manager — lifecycle (instantiate, scale, terminate) specific VNFs |
Vendor-specific or generic (Tacker) |
| NFVO |
NFV Orchestrator — orchestrate across multiple VNFs and NFVI |
ONAP, Cloudify, Cisco NSO |
VNF Examples
| Function |
Physical Appliance |
VNF Equivalent |
| Firewall |
Palo Alto PA-5200, Fortinet FG-3000 |
Palo Alto VM-Series, Fortinet FortiGate-VM |
| Load Balancer |
F5 BIG-IP i10000 |
F5 BIG-IP VE, NGINX Plus, HAProxy |
| Router |
Cisco ISR 4000, Juniper MX |
Cisco CSR 1000v, Juniper vMX, VyOS |
| WAN Optimizer |
Riverbed SteelHead |
Riverbed SteelHead-v, Silver Peak VX |
| IDS/IPS |
Cisco Firepower 4100 |
Cisco FTDv, Suricata, Snort |
| DNS/DHCP |
Infoblox appliance |
Infoblox vNIOS, ISC BIND/DHCP |
Service Chaining
| Feature |
รายละเอียด |
| คืออะไร |
เรียง VNFs ตามลำดับ: traffic ผ่าน function 1 → function 2 → … → destination |
| Example |
User → Firewall VNF → IPS VNF → Load Balancer VNF → Web Server |
| Static |
Fixed chain: all traffic goes through same sequence → simple but inflexible |
| Dynamic |
Chain changes based on traffic type, user, policy → flexible but complex |
| NSH |
Network Service Header (RFC 8300): metadata ที่บอก traffic ต้องผ่าน VNFs ไหนบ้าง |
| SFC (Service Function Chaining) |
IETF standard for defining and steering traffic through ordered set of service functions |
vSwitch (Virtual Switch)
| vSwitch |
Type |
Performance |
Use Case |
| Linux Bridge |
Kernel-based |
Moderate |
Simple VM connectivity |
| Open vSwitch (OVS) |
Open source, programmable |
Good (kernel + DPDK) |
OpenStack, SDN environments |
| VMware vDS |
Distributed vSwitch |
Good |
VMware vSphere environments |
| OVS-DPDK |
OVS with DPDK userspace datapath |
Very high (line rate) |
NFV, telco, high-performance |
| VPP (fd.io) |
Vector Packet Processing |
Very high |
High-performance networking |
| SR-IOV |
Hardware bypass (NIC → VM directly) |
Highest (near bare-metal) |
Ultra-low latency, telco |
Cloud-Native Networking
| Feature |
รายละเอียด |
| CNF |
Cloud-Native Network Function: VNF ที่ redesign เป็น microservices บน containers/Kubernetes |
| CNI |
Container Network Interface: plugin ที่ให้ networking สำหรับ Kubernetes pods (Calico, Cilium, Flannel) |
| Service Mesh |
Istio, Linkerd: sidecar proxies ที่ handle service-to-service communication (mTLS, load balancing, observability) |
| eBPF |
Extended Berkeley Packet Filter: programmable kernel networking — Cilium ใช้ eBPF แทน iptables |
| Advantage |
Faster scaling (seconds), smaller footprint, CI/CD integration, cloud-agnostic |
| Trend |
VNF → CNF migration: telcos moving 5G core to Kubernetes-based CNFs |
NFV vs Cloud-Native
| Feature |
NFV (VM-based) |
Cloud-Native (Container-based) |
| Unit |
VM (virtual machine) |
Container (pod) |
| Startup |
Minutes |
Seconds |
| Resource |
Heavy (full OS per VM) |
Light (shared kernel) |
| Orchestration |
OpenStack, MANO |
Kubernetes |
| Scaling |
Vertical (bigger VM) or horizontal (more VMs) |
Horizontal (more pods, auto-scale) |
| Maturity |
Mature (10+ years) |
Growing (5G, edge computing driving adoption) |
ทิ้งท้าย: NFV → Cloud-Native = Future of Network Functions
Network Virtualization NFV: ETSI framework — VNF (software function) + NFVI (infrastructure) + MANO (orchestration) VNFs: virtual firewall, router, LB, WAN optimizer — same function, software form factor Service Chaining: order VNFs in sequence (FW → IPS → LB) — static or dynamic, NSH/SFC standards vSwitch: Linux Bridge (simple), OVS (programmable), OVS-DPDK (high perf), SR-IOV (bypass) Cloud-Native: CNF (containerized), Kubernetes, CNI (Calico/Cilium), service mesh (Istio), eBPF Trend: VNF (VM) → CNF (container) — faster, lighter, CI/CD-friendly, Kubernetes-native Key: NFV reduced hardware dependency — cloud-native takes it further with containers and microservices
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