HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade - cloud for telecom operators
We are continuing the series on the HP Helion OpenStack family of cloud solutions and want to talk about the recently released carrier-grade HP Helion OpenStack package ( Carrier Grade ) or HOS CG for short.
In recent years, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architecture, which implements a fundamentally new approach to the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure, is especially popular with telecom operators. Using virtualization, NFV eliminates the close connection between traditional roles and technologies used in telecommunication applications, thereby significantly accelerating and simplifying their implementation.
To implement NFV, operators need to solve a whole range of technological tasks, for example, integrate automation and service management with already deployed operations support (OSS) and business support (BSS) systems, as well as ensure compliance with the increased performance requirements of telecom applications, fulfill the conditions of the agreement on service level SLA and security requirements.
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The specification of the reference architecture NFV was developed by the Industry Specification Group (ISG) created at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which included 37 leading service providers. This architecture is considered standard for NFV implementation:
ETSI NFV Reference Architecture
One of the key components of the ETSI NFV reference architecture is the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM) , which provides automation tools for working with virtualized resources (servers, storage systems and network equipment). These resources together constitute the NFV Infrastructure (NFV Infrastructure - NFVI) and are used in the NFV Infrastructure as a Service (NFVIaaS) model for hosting virtual network functions (VNF).
The open source project OpenStack has become the de facto standard cloud platform for building private and public clouds in the corporate sector and telecom, which virtualizes computing resources, disk space and network resources. Using open source means for service providers to eliminate the risk of “attachment” to one vendor, lower prices compared to proprietary solutions and the possibility of applying the various innovations that the Open Source community offers.
The first attempts to use OpenStack for the virtualization of telecom applications showed that it did not reach a sufficient degree of maturity for use by telecom operators out of the box. OpenStack developers previously focused on private clouds of telecom operators and public clouds of service providers, the requirements of which differ from those of clouds for telecom applications. However, recently the OpenStack community has become much more focused on telecom and began to develop the functions that are required by telecom operators when implementing NFV.
To deploy a productive VIM that will manage the NFV infrastructure, you need to integrate key technologies that OpenStack does not directly deal with, including compute node operating systems (Linux), server virtualization components (KVM) and networks (vSwitch and SDN controllers), installation and management frameworks cloud application lifecycle, failure handling frameworks and high availability management.
In addition, some of these open-source software components are not optimized for virtualizing telecom applications. So, standard KVM without special modifications is not suitable for virtualization, for example, virtual packet gateway (vPGW) due to packet loss and high latency. Similarly, the standard open virtual switch Open vSwitch is not able to provide the required telecom bandwidth for fast transmission of packets of different sizes, which is necessary when processing traffic at a speed of several gigabits / sec.
An additional factor is the hardware. Specialized communications equipment is built on reliability at the level of six nines and uses well-proven Carrier Grade functions. At the same time, NFV solutions use new network virtualization features and dynamic movement of virtual machines between servers, server racks, and data centers, which can create traffic flows that are difficult to debug.
Thus, despite its benefits, the introduction of NFV can lead to a deterioration in the availability of network services if its deployment does not take into account these and other features of the telecom. Virtualization of telecom applications requires special refinement of general-purpose components in order to provide the level of reliability, performance and security required in the work of operator networks.
To help operators deploy NFV applications on open platforms, HP, in conjunction with Wind River Systems, created a special HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade (HOS CG) distribution to implement carrier functionality in NFV solutions. This product is based on HP Helion OpenStack Enterprise Edition with a number of significant improvements in the manageability, availability and performance of the cloud infrastructure.
To improve availability and reliability, HOS CG has implemented enhanced automated recovery features and completely eliminated single points of failure. To improve performance, an operating system based on real-time technologies, a virtualization subsystem optimized for the requirements of telecom applications, and a virtual switchboard are used. OpenStack's manageability is improved beyond the enhanced scheduling and reservation capabilities.
It is very important to note that, in terms of openness, HOS CG is OpenStack in all its glory. External systems gain access to its capabilities through standard OpenStack interfaces (APIs). This allows the use of standard applications and systems compatible with OpenStack, without their customization. All of the additional functionality listed above from HP and Wind River is open as extensions (API extensions), which, again, are implemented as standard interfaces, if they exist.
HP HOS CG consists of the following main components:
Main components of the HP Helion Carrier Grade
The current release of HOS CG is based on the OpenStack Juno edition with Nova functionality from the Kilo edition, and a number of improvements and bug fixes have been added. These services also provide plug-ins to integrate third-party hardware and software.
For example, the HP Helion Carrier Grade includes Keystone plug-ins for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and SQL servers, Cinder plug-ins for HP 3PAR storage systems, and a driver for the Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA). HP Helion Carrier Grade also provides an integrated Swift service.
Nova in HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade has been updated with:
All of these advanced features help ensure high performance VNF. HP Helion Carrier Grade also provides high-availability VNF features, such as live migration and VM evacuation.
Neutron, which for HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade is a key service, provides:
Heat in the HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade automates the VNF orchestration during its life cycle, for example, autoscaling.
The HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade adds a number of additional features, enhancements, and fixes for Heat:
Refined to carrier-class solutions, the HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade (HOS CG) offers a reliable open cloud platform for implementing NFV with telecommunications customers to meet telecom companies' requirements.
Virtualization of network functions - the main way of telecommunications development
In recent years, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architecture, which implements a fundamentally new approach to the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure, is especially popular with telecom operators. Using virtualization, NFV eliminates the close connection between traditional roles and technologies used in telecommunication applications, thereby significantly accelerating and simplifying their implementation.
To implement NFV, operators need to solve a whole range of technological tasks, for example, integrate automation and service management with already deployed operations support (OSS) and business support (BSS) systems, as well as ensure compliance with the increased performance requirements of telecom applications, fulfill the conditions of the agreement on service level SLA and security requirements.
')
The specification of the reference architecture NFV was developed by the Industry Specification Group (ISG) created at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which included 37 leading service providers. This architecture is considered standard for NFV implementation:
ETSI NFV Reference Architecture
One of the key components of the ETSI NFV reference architecture is the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM) , which provides automation tools for working with virtualized resources (servers, storage systems and network equipment). These resources together constitute the NFV Infrastructure (NFV Infrastructure - NFVI) and are used in the NFV Infrastructure as a Service (NFVIaaS) model for hosting virtual network functions (VNF).
OpenStack - the best tool for deploying a virtualized NFV infrastructure
The open source project OpenStack has become the de facto standard cloud platform for building private and public clouds in the corporate sector and telecom, which virtualizes computing resources, disk space and network resources. Using open source means for service providers to eliminate the risk of “attachment” to one vendor, lower prices compared to proprietary solutions and the possibility of applying the various innovations that the Open Source community offers.
The first attempts to use OpenStack for the virtualization of telecom applications showed that it did not reach a sufficient degree of maturity for use by telecom operators out of the box. OpenStack developers previously focused on private clouds of telecom operators and public clouds of service providers, the requirements of which differ from those of clouds for telecom applications. However, recently the OpenStack community has become much more focused on telecom and began to develop the functions that are required by telecom operators when implementing NFV.
To deploy a productive VIM that will manage the NFV infrastructure, you need to integrate key technologies that OpenStack does not directly deal with, including compute node operating systems (Linux), server virtualization components (KVM) and networks (vSwitch and SDN controllers), installation and management frameworks cloud application lifecycle, failure handling frameworks and high availability management.
In addition, some of these open-source software components are not optimized for virtualizing telecom applications. So, standard KVM without special modifications is not suitable for virtualization, for example, virtual packet gateway (vPGW) due to packet loss and high latency. Similarly, the standard open virtual switch Open vSwitch is not able to provide the required telecom bandwidth for fast transmission of packets of different sizes, which is necessary when processing traffic at a speed of several gigabits / sec.
An additional factor is the hardware. Specialized communications equipment is built on reliability at the level of six nines and uses well-proven Carrier Grade functions. At the same time, NFV solutions use new network virtualization features and dynamic movement of virtual machines between servers, server racks, and data centers, which can create traffic flows that are difficult to debug.
Thus, despite its benefits, the introduction of NFV can lead to a deterioration in the availability of network services if its deployment does not take into account these and other features of the telecom. Virtualization of telecom applications requires special refinement of general-purpose components in order to provide the level of reliability, performance and security required in the work of operator networks.
HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade - OpenStack for Carriers
To help operators deploy NFV applications on open platforms, HP, in conjunction with Wind River Systems, created a special HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade (HOS CG) distribution to implement carrier functionality in NFV solutions. This product is based on HP Helion OpenStack Enterprise Edition with a number of significant improvements in the manageability, availability and performance of the cloud infrastructure.
To improve availability and reliability, HOS CG has implemented enhanced automated recovery features and completely eliminated single points of failure. To improve performance, an operating system based on real-time technologies, a virtualization subsystem optimized for the requirements of telecom applications, and a virtual switchboard are used. OpenStack's manageability is improved beyond the enhanced scheduling and reservation capabilities.
It is very important to note that, in terms of openness, HOS CG is OpenStack in all its glory. External systems gain access to its capabilities through standard OpenStack interfaces (APIs). This allows the use of standard applications and systems compatible with OpenStack, without their customization. All of the additional functionality listed above from HP and Wind River is open as extensions (API extensions), which, again, are implemented as standard interfaces, if they exist.
HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade Components
HP HOS CG consists of the following main components:
Main components of the HP Helion Carrier Grade
- The main services of OpenStack are Horizon, Nova, Neutron, Cinder, Glance, Swift, Keystone, Ceilometer and Heat. If necessary, other OpenStack services may be added in the future;
- Operator class software package for compute nodes:
- Carrier grade Linux (operating system of physical servers);
- Carrier grade KVM (for virtualization of compute nodes);
- High-performance virtual switch Carrier grade accelerated virtual switch (AVS) with data plane development kit (DPDK) support. - Management components and middleware, including high availability management (HA); operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM); software image management and management of failures and performance;
- The Guest software development kit (SDK) of drivers and utilities for inclusion in the VNF guest operating system to improve the standard performance and high availability of VIM;
- HP Helion Lifecycle Manager (HLM) is an installation tool in the cloud and lifecycle management (not shown in the figure above).
Features of carrier-class versions of OpenStack and Linux
The current release of HOS CG is based on the OpenStack Juno edition with Nova functionality from the Kilo edition, and a number of improvements and bug fixes have been added. These services also provide plug-ins to integrate third-party hardware and software.
For example, the HP Helion Carrier Grade includes Keystone plug-ins for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and SQL servers, Cinder plug-ins for HP 3PAR storage systems, and a driver for the Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA). HP Helion Carrier Grade also provides an integrated Swift service.
Nova in HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade has been updated with:
- features single-root input / output virtualization (SR-IOV) and PCI-passthrough;
- NUMA node affinity and CPU core pinning support;
- assigning large memory pages to virtual machines;
- scaling vCPU;
- network performance-based scheduling scheduler;
- scheduler based on CPU type and NUMA node.
All of these advanced features help ensure high performance VNF. HP Helion Carrier Grade also provides high-availability VNF features, such as live migration and VM evacuation.
Neutron, which for HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade is a key service, provides:
- virtual network orchestration for VNF functions;
- Isolation of tenants using virtual local area networks (VLANs) and expandable VLANs (VXLANs) of the provider;
- distributed virtual routing virtual routing (DVR) functionality;
- security functionality and QoS policies;
- Modular Layer 2 (ML2) plug-in mechanism for programming and controlling AVS;
- ability to send packets with VLAN tags to / from VNF.
Heat in the HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade automates the VNF orchestration during its life cycle, for example, autoscaling.
The HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade adds a number of additional features, enhancements, and fixes for Heat:
- composite application lifecycle management (“Stack”)
- the ability to define a set of resources (for example, VM, networks, Cinder volumes, Swift databases) that form complex applications
- file and template based definitions
- support for lifecycle management commands, such as start, modif, and stop
- VM instance bootstrapping / configuration using cloud-initiative and cloud-formation mechanisms
- automatic scaling of applications
- security groups integration
- improved template usability
- Improved usability of Heat in Horizon
findings
Refined to carrier-class solutions, the HP Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade (HOS CG) offers a reliable open cloud platform for implementing NFV with telecommunications customers to meet telecom companies' requirements.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/269255/
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