Why does Intel contribute to the SDN and NFV communities?
Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) are moving out of the labs and into production deployments as a cheaper, faster, more flexible alternative to traditional hardware network 'appliances'.
Just as virtualization has changed OS and application rollouts, NFV at layers 4 and above (control plane) and SDN at layer 2 and 3 (controlling packet movement) are revolutionizing the deployment and management of network traffic on off-the-shelf hardware and branded or Open Source OSs. This is where OPNFV, including the Intel® Open Network Platform (ONP) Server (reference architecture), can quickly get you started in the design and testing of your network. Just use the instructions at
https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/quick-set-up-onp for initial setup using standard off the shelf server platforms, ranging from Intel® Atom™ to Intel® Xeon® Processors.
What are all these Open names?
The network and virtualization infrastructure tools define an information model, a set of APIs, and control protocols such as OpenFlow (a communication protocol between the control and forwarding layers) developed for OpenStack* (and branded) OS.
OpenStack* (Juno*-Mitaka) provides the framework to create/manage VMs (virtual machines). VMs are the base OS’s for the virtualized functions. VMs can have multiple virtual Network Interfaces. Note: Mitaka contains OVS 2.5 accelerated with DPDK 2.2 https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/using-open-vswitch-with-dpdk-on-ubuntu Intel® Open Network Platform (ONP) Server is a reference design providing scripts and more to quickly set up a test network. It's based on |  |
Intel Technologies that boost performance
Intel (including Wind River) are major contributors to the DPDK and to Linux. Intel recently merged the Intel® DPDK vSwitch into the Open vSwitch main branch so that Neutron can use Intel’s accelerated packet processing while avoiding proprietary plugins. By building the switching logic on top of the Intel DPDK library, there is a significant boost to the packet switching throughput which can be integrated in both the host and guests of the OpenStack network compute nodes.
The Intel DPDK also adds samples of L3 forwarding, load balancing, and timers, all of which can help reduce development time. It also exposes resources as multiple virtual functions making them available to multiple VMs and available to speed up inter-VM communication.
Additionally Intel is prototyping Open NFV (OPNFV) concepts using the OpenDaylight platform to leverage Intel’s network performance enhancements.
Intel® QuickAssist Acceleration Technology provides accelerator services (encryption, compression and algorithm offload) for up to 14 separate virtualized instantiations. Intel QuickAssist Technology is available on the Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor, the Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2600 and E5-2400 Series, and Intel® Core™, Intel® Pentium® and Intel® Celeron® Processors with Intel® Communications Chipset 89xx Series.
Intel is also providing the Intel® Open Network Platform Server. The Intel® ONP Server Reference Architecture provides hardware that is optimized for a comprehensive stack of the latest open source software releases, as a validated template to enable rapid development. The Reference Architecture includes architecture specs, test reports, scripts for optimization and support for Intel network interfaces from 1 GbE to 40Gbe (FTXL710-AM2 4x10GbE )
What SDN/NFV applications are available?
Many solution partners are listed at https://networkbuilders.intel.com/solutionslibrary
Where can I find more information?
Intel maintains several sites including:
- 01.Org/packet-processing: access to Intel administered open source projects, including the packet processing project
- NetworkBuilders.Intel.com: a library of white papers as well as ecosystem partners and other sections
- Support and information available from the Intel Networking Forum
- SDN/NFV/DPDK and other networking info on Intel Developer Zone
- Wired Ethernet community at Intel
- https://networkbuilders.intel.com/docs/OPNFV_WhitePaper_Final.pdf
- Communications-virtualization-and-nfv-paper.pdf
- Learn more about DPDK at dpdk.org
- Use Cases that benefit from Optimization of Small Network Packets
- Using-open-vswitch-with-dpdk-on-ubuntu
- Using-open-vswitch-with-dpdk-for-inter-vm-nfv-applications
- Rate-limiting-configuration-and-usage-for-open-vswitch-with-dpdk
- qos-configuration-and-usage-for-open-vswitch-with-dpdk
- implementing-an-openstack-security-group-firewall-driver-using-ovs-learn-actions