Thomas Schroer discusses moving multimedia applications to the cloud using Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). NFV promises cost savings through server consolidation, reduced deployment times, and faster service launches. However, real-time multimedia processing poses challenges for NFV due to latency sensitivities. Interoperability between virtualized components and orchestration layers is also critical for NFV to achieve widespread adoption. The document examines these issues and provides guidance on architectural considerations for delivering rich media services in virtualized, multi-vendor environments.

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Moving Multimedia Applications to
the Cloud
Thomas Schroer
Director – Service Provider Marketing
CommsDay April, 2016

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Moving Multimedia Applications to the Cloud
 What’s Driving Us Towards NFV
 Virtualization Challenges For
Real-Time Multimedia in the
Cloud
 Interoperability and Automated
Lifecycle Management
Considerations
 Some NFV Guiding Principles

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What’s Driving Interest in NFV
TM Forum: Virtualization When Will NFV Cross the ChasmSource: Jim Metzler - NFV: Crossing the Chasm to Widespread Adoption

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The Business Case For NFV
Sources: PA Consulting Group Network Functions Virtualization: Cost Benefits and Revenue Gains
ACG Research – Total Cost of Ownership Study Virtualizing the Mobile Core
40%
Cost savings compared
to a conventional core
network
29%EPC virtualization alone yields savings
 Server savings and capacity-based scaling
 Operational – space, power, hardware abstraction
 Reduced time-to-market and transport savings
Investment
payback3 years
4x fasterVirtualized infrastructure
service launch
 Acquisition, testing, deployment time savings
 Virtualized approach cuts deployment time in half

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Network Slicing Leverages Virtualization, Orchestration and
Software Defined Networking
 “One size fits all network” not in tune with
new device and use case trends
› Networks originally optimized for voice
 Internet demand drove new generations of RAN and core
technology
› Connected devices expanding: vehicles,
wearable devices, remote sensors
 Different mobility needs
 Network slice
› Isolated, dedicated virtual network
› Optimized, orchestrated and functionally
equipped for specific use cases or groups of
subscribers
 Each slice can support different mobility characteristics and
performance requirements
 Move functionality (user plane/data plane/caching) to Edge
for lower latency
› Layer tailored vertical-specific applications on
top of the network slice
NGMN 5G White Paper

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Challenges on the Path To NFV
 Technical Issues
› Real-time multimedia processing – media plane is hard
 Latency, clock accuracy, scheduling
› Virtualization overhead
 Hypervisor, virtual machines
› Performance
 Noisy neighbors, reliability, availability
 Deployment issues
› Interoperability and standards maturity
 Interoperability between applications, virtualized environment and
orchestration layer
 Operational Issues
› Interoperability paramount for automated life cycle management
› End-to-end service orchestration, security and testing
 Business Issues
› Operational readiness – organization silos and skills gap
› Licensing and business models

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Signalling
Media
Signalling
Media
Real-time and Web Applications Are Not the Same
 Web Request
› Delays of up to a second can be acceptable to maintain
users train of thought - Nielson
› Servers can send progress responses to maintain user
connection
› User expectation
› Loss experienced in 6% of all HTTP responses - Google
Request
Response
 Real-time Multimedia Applications
› More sensitive to latency and dropped
packets
› Bounded - packet delay budget
 LTE: <200ms target PDB for conversational voice
› As delay approaches 1 second…
 Stream artifacts become noticeable
 Intolerable effect on call quality

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The Migration From COTS to NFV
COTS
Virtual
Machine
Cloud NFV
 COTS to VM
› Clock source for real-time media
applications
› Hypervisor differences
 Resource/scheduling contention,
shared machine instances increases
latency
› Extensions for low latency applications
› Noisy neighbours
 VM to Cloud
› Deployment challenges across 3rd
party cloud platforms
 Varying local rules and policies
 Customization restrictions limit
latency and performance tuning
› Licensing entitlement and
monetization for various business
models
 Usage, subscription, pay-as-you-go
 Cloud to NFV
› Standards maturity, open interfaces:
key to interoperability
› Application specific management of
service quality and reliability
› Different levels of orchestration and
interoperability
› Increased automation, proactive , self-
healing capabilities

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NFV Interoperability
 New virtualization, management, and
orchestration environment
› Compounds interoperability challenges
› Open source tweaking to optimize MANO
performance
 Interoperability and open interfaces key
concerns for operators
› Paramount for NFV to cross the technology
chasm
Source: NFV: Crossing the Chasm to Widespread Adoption, TM Forum
Importance of Open Standards Based APIs
0 10 20 30 40
Extremely…
Very important
Moderately…
Somewhat…
Not important at all

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“Supplier interoperability is a constant
headache for service providers”
-NFV: Crossing the Chasm to Widespread Adoption, TM
Forum
“…Using open-source code may not
necessarily lead to interoperability.”
-Neela Jacques, Executive Director OpenDaylight Community
NFV Interoperability
 Onboarding processes
› Supported by open interfaces
› Interoperability and adherence to standards
Source: NFV: Crossing the Chasm to Widespread Adoption, TM Forum
Importance of Open Standards Based APIs
0 10 20 30 40
Extremely…
Very important
Moderately…
Somewhat…
Not important at all

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Delivering Multimedia Voice and Video Services
Decomposing Applications
 Multimedia video-voice chat service
elements
› Application server
› IMS Core
 Core session control, registration, access
› IMS edge and access
 IMS-PSTN breakout and interworking
 Access SBC
MRFMRF
› Media processing
 Media Resource Broker (MRB)
• Load balances traffic across media resources
• Intelligent and stateful resource broker
• Monitors and tracks media resources
 Media Resource Function (MRF)
• Processes and manipulates media
• Audio and video media stream mixing
• Tones and announcements
• Record/playback of audio/video
• Transcoding, transrating, transizing
 Separating media processing from the applications leads
to better resource utilization and more consistent user
experience
 MRB/MRF architecture better aligns with NFV
decomposition principles

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Delivering Rich Media Services in Multivendor Virtualized
Environments
 NFV Infrastructure
› Physical compute, storage, networking
› Virtualization layer - VMs or containers
 VNF layer
› Virtualized applications
› Stand alone or composite VNFs
 NFV Orchestrator
› NFV brains
› Network services chaining
 VNF Manager
› Instantiation, configuration, modification and
termination of VNFs
› Scaling out, in, up or down of VNFs
› Manages virtual and physical functions
 VIM
› Controls, manages, orchestrates NFVI resources
› Cloud operating system

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Interoperability
› Exposing run-time KPIs and policy
to 3rd party VNFM
› VNF Descriptor and Stack
definitions for new instantiations
› Open VNFM to support 3rd party
VNFs
Horizontal Interoperability With NFV MANO
Ve-Vnfm
EM
VNF
LB
VNF
MRF
VNF
MRB
OSS/BSS
VNF
SBC
NFVI
EM EM EM
KPI inputs to orchestration layers
› Monitoring parameters
 System level
 Application level
 Service level
› Real-time analytics enabling the
application of predictive self organizing and
self healing policy rules
 SLA adherence
› Frequency, scope (per session, aggregate)
of KPIs
› Proactive service quality policies
› Open APIs to 3rd party VNFMs
VNF Manager
› VNF Life Cycle Management
 Scaling up/down, in/out
› Automatic , real-time service
scenarios
 Ensure continuous service quality on-
demand. (i.e. usage burst)
 Frees up organizational resources
making manual capacity planning
decisions
› Downscale with care; apply heuristics
for graceful draining of sessions while
conserving continuity for endpoints
VNF
Descriptor
› Monitoring
Parameters
› Lifecycle events
› Deployment
flavor
› Auto scale
policy
VNF
Manager

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NFV Guiding Principles
 Real-time multimedia VNFs
› Require high performance virtualized environments
 Architectural flexibility
› Software architected for the cloud
 Modular
 Flexible deployment
 Functional decomposition
› Support technology advancements at the virtualization layer -
Virtual machines, container technology
 VNF automation, scalability and programmability are not
“nice to haves” rather “must have” goals
› Intelligent automated lifecycle management
› Application and system KPIs and associated policy
 Critical to optimize VNF application performance and scalability to realize the
full potential of a virtualized environment
 Interoperability is paramount
› Fast onboarding with open APIs
› Multi-vendor deployment flexibility
Dialogic Cloud Ready
Solutions
http://bit.ly/1K2jiYH
NFV Applications – Key
Considerations for
Profitability
http://bit.ly/1Mp2Y6i

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