Flexible and dynamic Network-as-a-Service for next generation Internet
This chapter presents Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) architecture leveraged with flexibility and dynamicity. Convergence and stronger collaboration between network planes while keeping separation is the driving notion for this chapter. We first analyze the convergence of the needs and the convergence of conceptual and technological solutions in the new telecommunication ecosystem. We have considered solutions such as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Cloud and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The advantages brought by these paradigms contribute to the pillars of NaaS. Thus, their convergence and collaboration is necessary for realizing NaaS. However, they present challenges that yet need to be addressed. Therefore, we study the evolution that is crucial for a flexible and dynamic NaaS. We describe an approach for designing Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) as service components. This “as-a-Service” design presents a service component architecture model with functional and non-functional aspects, and a set of properties to be respected for the structure, interconnection and for the management of VNFs. We also describe the importance of adopting and integrating dynamicApplication Programming Interfaces (APIs) in the relational dimension of NaaS for more agility in contracts. These new schemes allow us to introduce flexibility then dynamicity of NaaS. These two NaaS features rely on the interactions of network planes (data, control and management plane). Flexibility is achieved through the offers of network services that can be customized through a network exposition layer. This layer offers discovery, selection and composition of VNFs. These VNFs are first described with quality of service (QoS) information for a QoS-based selection according to the required or desired QoS. The customization is possible thanks to service composition. Dynamicity is achieved through an automated global orchestration of network services. We define the functions of this orchestration after an integration of SDN and NFV, then an incremental integration of SDN-enabled NFV with “as-a-Service,” dynamicAPIs and a new network virtualization layer, all in the same architecture. The global orchestration is responsible for automatic life-cycle management of network services for dynamic Service LevelAgreements (SLAs). Indeed, this automation aims at ensuring compliance of QoS with SLAs and to react as dynamically as the changes in user requests or preferences.
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