Dr Christos Kolias of Orange and Raj Murali of Linaro talk Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), SDN, ODP

Posted by – September 30, 2014

Interview with Orange Sr. Research Scientist Dr. Christos Kolias and Raj Murali, Director of the Linaro Network Group on LNG Networking & Demo Day at the Connect event. The interview focuses on discussion about network functions virtualization (NFV), software defined networking (SDN), and OpenDataPlane (ODP).

Dr. Kolias explains the motivations and goals of the NFV project while Mr. Murali discussed the state of the ODP project and how it relates to the wider goals of NFV and SDN. The OpenDataPlane project provides an efficient abstraction layer to permit data plane applications to run portably across a wide variety of networking SoC platforms and processor architectures while still exploiting the various acceleration and offload features of those platforms. Mr. Murali also discussed the OpenDataPlane demonstrations showcased at Linaro Connect 2014. ODP v1.0 is scheduled for delivery at the end of 2014.

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) envisions and promises to change the service provider landscape and has emerged as one of one of today’s significant trends. Although less than two years old, NFV has garnered the industry’s full attention and support. Moving swiftly, a number of key accomplishments have already taken place, and a lot more work is currently under way within ETSI NFV while we are embarking on its future phase. Various proofs-of-concepts (ranging from vEPC to vCPE, vIMS and vCDN) are being developed while issues such as open source and SDN are becoming key ingredients as the can play a pivotal role.