So you want to talk about MANO…

vBNG VNFs ETSI OSM architecture

Last week we presented at ETSI OSM Ecosystem Day on our journey with #OSM, VNF interoperability, and everything in between. Open source development is an initiative that’s near & dear to us, as we believe it will guide and spark innovation for the years to come.

For anyone who is unfamiliar, OSM refers to Open Source Mano, which is an ETSI-hosted project to develop an Open Source NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) software stack aligned with ETSI NFV.  OSM offers a production-quality MANO stack that meets operators’ requirements for commercial NFV deployments.

Now, operators will have different requirements for their ideal MANO than VNF vendors will. As a VNF vendor, let’s run through our preferences when identifying a good fit. We always want to:

  • Showcase VNFs to customers
  • Demonstrate how easy it is to configure, monitor, and scale our VNF
  • Have consistency/standard requirements for in-house testing

We always look to avoid MANO software that:

  • Super complicated to install – if we need to read a manual to install the software, we’re out.
  • Has high capacity for compute, memory, and storage
  • Does not require a lot of work and configuration to get going – we need our focus to be on our applications!

Luckily for us, ETSI OSM fits the bill perfectly. The OSM community has been a fantastic way for us not only to help guide OSM development, but also to refine and improve our own VNFs. Over the last few years, we’ve been able to test our VNFs for interoperability with other vendors, ensuring that we’re able to simplify the edge rather than becoming another vendor that promotes product lock-in and other architectural restrictions down the line. To see more of our presentation check out the deck here.