An Integration & Testing project category

The first release of the OPNFV (Open Source Network Function Virtualization) community project targets open source component integration to form the NFVI platform for virtual network function (VNF) deployment and for NFVI platform performance measurements. A set of simple use cases are required to provide focus and drive the project to meet the following goals:

• OPNFV Platform functional testing
• OPNFV Platform performance measurements

The use case(s) selected or a subset of them provide a comprehensive set of test cases and tests required to verify the OPNFV Platform functionality. The OPNFV platform functionality includes all the functions provided by the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM) and the Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) components as specified by the ETSI NFV ISG Specifications [1]. The functional test cases and tests identified shall verify the integration of the components like Openstack, ODL, KVM etc., to form a cohesive OPNFV Platform, to test such a platform on its ability to meet the above referenced functions and finally identify gaps in the functionality of the platform in order initiate further projects to address those gaps.

The use case(s) selected must also provide adequate testable scenarios, test cases and tests to enable the measurement of the OPNFV platform performance in terms of commonly used network metrics like bandwidth, latency, number of subscribers, number of connections etc. The performance measurement enables the operators to determine, whether the OPNFV platform meets the requirement for deploying VNF in lieu of PNFs and the associated costs. These measurements also enables the community to identify performance limiting hardware and software entities in the system and provide solutions to improve the performance of the system. Finally, it helps the different vendors to optimize their VNF offerings and also provide better performing components within the platform.

The use case(s) identified, in addition to meeting the above specified goals, should be representative of the traffic profiles experienced by a wide spectrum of network services and applications commonly deployed in the internet (IP Network). A network service or function is characterized by how it behaves in the IP network under certain traffic conditions ( steady/bursting of small packets, large packets, mix of packets etc.), load (number of subscribers, service traffic type), demand etc., which are collectively called a traffic profile.

The ETSI use cases document[2] lists a wide range of use cases. After a review of this document, followed by a set of discussions with the network operators and the community, and applying the above rationale for use case selection, the following high level use cases are selected for the first phase of the OPNFV platform testing.

• Virtual Provider Edge (section 6.3)
• EPC Network Function, MME or PGW (section 9.3)
• IP Multimedia Subsystem
• Content Delivery Network, CDN Node (Section 12.3)
• Home Gateway, NAT, ALG, RGW etc. (section 11.3)

For more details about these use cases, please refer to the above reference: These use cases can be achieved using open source VNFs, custom simulators those mimic the traffic patterns exhibited by the above network devices and finally using some Vendors VNF.

This project enables the functionality and the integration testing of the OPNFV platform that is built using the open source components. In addition, the project enables performance measurement of the performance of the VNF and the OPNFV platform, which exposes the limitations and bottlenecks present in the infrastructure software and hardware as well as the VNF limitations. These efforts enable and the OPNFV platform to be designed on solid open source infrastructure as well as meet the demanding needs of network services and operations. This testing can be approached using two methodologies, the top down approach which is driven by use cases; and the bottom up approach that tests the platform functions.

Use case driven testing starts from the high level use cases identified above and breaks down the use case into a basic core function in its minimalistic form and provides the necessary topology, traffic patterns etc. For example, a minimalistic core function of the vPE VNF would be to provide the basic PE router functionality to act as an L3VPN aggregation point for a set of CE routers. The use case driven test cases would define a suite of basic tests required to deploy the vPE VNF, configure it to support a set of CE devices, support basic L3VPN networks for each CE device and provide connectivity to the core P router. Then it would further define performance related test suites that subject the vPE VNF to different traffic profiles as seen in a real live network. These two suites of test cases are defined in detail to identify the core functions of the OPNFV platform for functionality testing as well as the performance metrics of the platform that needs to be measured. This approach is detailed in the subsections associated with each use case. Please click on the links associated with each use case.

The project does not propose any new API specification. The project uses the standard open source component APIs from openstack, ODL, KVM etc. The project will test out these component APIs and their applicability for a stand alone NFV use cases identified above. The exact APIs set under test are here

List of VNF test case candidates:

• Simple/Canonical: vAAA (e.g FreeRadius), ALG, NAT, vFW (e.g. IPTables), vProxy, vSIP _proxy (e.g. opensips), …
• Advanced: vIMS, vEPC, vCPE, vCDN

The goal of the infrastructure integration testing is to verify the integration of the infrastructure components like openstack, ODL etc. This following macro test scenarios are specified to verify this integration requirement:

1. Install and bring-up verification of the test system
2. On-boarding of the Service VNF Descriptor
3. Defining the Day 0 Configuration for the VNF
4. Deployment of the Service
5. Defining the Day 1 Configuration of the VNF
6. Verification of the Service characteristics

The goal of this Use case is to verify the delivered performance by the infrastructure for certain NFV service use cases. The macro test cases are as follows under some realistic traffic pattern

1. Performance of a VPN Connection through a vPE NFV
2. Performance of a ELINE connection through a vCPE NFV
3. Performance of a Mobile Core Network through a vEPC NFV Service
4. Performance of a virtual CDN NFV ?

1. A PE router traffic pattern
2. A CPE Device initiated traffic Pattern over a ELINE
3. Mobile Core traffic pattern
4. CDN network traffic.

1. vPE
2. vPGW
3. vFW
4. vNAT

The following link provides a list of open source VNF, application domain, strength weakness etc.

The micro test cases for this use case is built on top of the above use case. These are as follows:

1. VNF Orchestration and deployment time
2. VNF boot up time
3. VNF Network performance
4. VNF Compute performance
5. VNF Hyper-visor performance
6. VNF Storage performance

==== Debugging and Tracing ====

Unit/Integration Test plans Client tools developed for status shows etc. Identity a list of features and functionality will be developed. Identify what is in or out of scope. So during the development phase, it helps reduce discussion. Describe how the project is extensible in future

Specify testing and integration like interoperability, scalability, high availablity What QA and test resources will be available?

  API Docs
  Functional block description

1. No Similar project identified.
2. The project completion requires the integration of open source components specified below:
3. Depends on the Continuous Integration Plan
4. Depends on the Hardware and Software Integration Plan

This project will deliver the following:

• Use cases document
• Macro Test cases driven by the use cases
• Micro test cases driven by the Macro Test cases
• Performance measurement metrics

This project proposal is for the first release of the OPNFV platform.

1. ETSI NFV ISG Portal

2. ETSI GS NFV 001 V1.1.1: Network Function Virtualization; Use cases