Insights from SONATA: Implementing and Integrating a Microservice-based NFV Service Platform with a DevOps Methodology

Thomas Soenen, Steven Van Rossem, Wouter Tavernier, Felipe Vicens, Dario Valocchi, Panos Trakadas, Panos Karkazis, George Xilouris, Philip Eardley, Stavros Kolometsos, Michail-Alexandros Kourtis, Daniel Guija, Shuaib Siddiqui, Peer Hasselmeyer, José Bonnet


Abstract

In pursuit of a flexible, resource efficient and high-performant 5G infrastructure, many operators, vendors and research consortia are currently developing, testing and integrating their NFV platform with associated management and orchestration (MANO) functionality. The SONATA NFV platform follows a micro-service design, which involves a tight coupling between an SDK, monitoring and MANO functionality, targeting a secure and stable software foundation. This experience paper gives a thorough overview on the encountered challenges, insights and resulting learnings when implementing and integrating the SONATA Service Platform using a continuous integration and delivery DevOps methodology. This is the result of a strong cooperation between prominent equipment vendors, network operators, software companies and universities, providing a set of constructive recommendations in hope of catalysing the development and deployment of NFV platforms.

View full paper: noms18.pdf.