Pre-study on Network Function Virtualization at Communication Technology Lab: Emulator

Abstract

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture framework that virtualizes functions that were traditionally tied to hardware and allows for higher flexibility of deployment of network services. It is growing in popularity as more research is being conducted in the field, and because of this it is beneficial to investigate its possible uses in academia. The objectives of this thesis are to research NFV as a whole to investigate its different aspects, as well as research different NFV emulators. Later, the aim is to design tests that could be run in a selected emulator to showcase NFV academically to potential students. Out of the three thoroughly investigated emulators, the MeDICINE emulator was selected based on several criteria, most notably the ease of installation. However, due to some major technical issues and time constraints, the emulator could not be run, meaning no tests could be executed. Six tests were designed with two different topologies to showcase as many aspects and functionalities of NFV as possible. These tests open up possibilities for future work in the area, where potential students could use these tests to investigate NFV further through running them and checking parameters, but also adapting the topologies to other emulators and comparing the process of running the tests in several different emulators.

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture framework that virtualizes functions that were traditionally tied to hardware and allows for higher flexibility of deployment of network services. It is growing in popularity as more research is being conducted in the field, and because of this it is beneficial to investigate its possible uses in academia. The objectives of this thesis are to research NFV as a whole to investigate its different aspects, as well as research different NFV emulators. Later, the aim is to design tests that could be run in a selected emulator to showcase NFV academically to potential students. Out of the three thoroughly investigated emulators, the MeDICINE emulator was selected based on several criteria, most notably the ease of installation. However, due to some major technical issues and time constraints, the emulator could not be run, meaning no tests could be executed. Six tests were designed with two different topologies to showcase as many aspects and functionalities of NFV as possible. These tests open up possibilities for future work in the area, where potential students could use these tests to investigate NFV further through running them and checking parameters, but also adapting the topologies to other emulators and comparing the process of running the tests in several different emulators.