The document discusses the challenges and paths forward for virtual customer premises equipment (v-CPE). While network function virtualization (NFV) has benefits, fully implementing v-CPE faces issues related to functional distribution, management complexity, NFV performance and energy usage, and link latency and security. The document proposes steps to better enable v-CPE adoption, such as accelerating NFV, deploying NFV closer to network edges, and using hyper-converged cloud architectures to ease management complexity.

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VIRTUAL CPE –
CHALLENGES AND
PATHS FORWARD
Hayim Porat
ECI CTO

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NFV PROMISE
 NFV value already proven in
data centers
 Expected to speed past SDN
in terms of CSP network
deployment
 But lot’s remains to be done
NFV
From Gartner Hype Cycle for Communications
Service Provider Infrastructure, August 2015
SDN
Plateau in CSP networks reached in:
2-5 years 5-10 years
Today’s Discussion:
v-CPE use case

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PHYSICAL CPE (P-CPE)
 Network functions for
interworking enterprise
LANs across the WAN
 Demarcation, routing, VPN,
NAT, WAN optimization,
security, etc.
 Implemented physically at
customer premises using
multiple dedicated
appliances
Service Provider or
Cloud NetworkP-CPE

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VIRTUAL CPE (V-CPE) AT
CUSTOMER PREMISES
 Implements physical CPE
functions in software (VNFs) on
a standard commercial server
 Consolidates functionality
facilitating mgmt and upgrades
 Some functions need to
persist in legacy P-CPE
 Does not provide benefits of
cloud-based virtualization
P-CPE
V-CPE
Virtual network
functions (VNFs)
of physical CPE
Service Provider
or Cloud Network

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CLOUD-BASED V-CPE
 VNFs implemented anywhere
between the customer premises
and remote data centers
 Provides cloud implementation
benefits:
 Elastic use of shared
resources
 Statistical multiplexing
 New services models
 Virtualization based on ETSI
NFV framework
P-CPE
V-CPEVirtual network
functions (VNFs)
of physical CPE
Service Provider
or Cloud Network
May be 100’s of km apart

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ANTICIPATED
BENEFITS OF V-CPE
 Service providers – New
revenue streams
 Enterprises – Outsourcing
and simplification
 Other:
 Lower equipment costs
 Eliminate truck rolls
 Best of breed applications
 Customization
 Continuous updates

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YET HEADWINDS
EXIST
 Virtualization issues
• Functional distribution
• Management complexity
 NFV issues
• Performance
• Energy
 Link issues
• Traffic Tromboning
• Security
• Latency

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FUNCTIONAL DISTRIBUTION
NATURAL CUSTOMER PREMISES FUNCTIONS
 Termination point
 Enterprise network monitoring
 L2 forwarding
 Access link encryption
 Ethernet access
 Wireless LAN
 WAN load balancing
 WAN optimizationP-CPE
V-CPE

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V-CPE
Service Provider
or Cloud Network
Routing and
multicast
Session
border control
NAT and/or
DHCP
IPsec Security
(firewalls, DPI,
DDOS, etc)
Configuration
management
Performance
monitoring and
logging
VoIP (PBX)
Value added
business services
Caching
FUNCTIONAL DISTRIBUTION
WAN LOCATABLE FUNCTIONS

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MANY FUNCTIONAL DISTRIBUTION DECISIONS
Service Provider
or Cloud Network
P-CPE
V-CPE V-CPE
WAN Locatable Functions
 Routing and multicast
 Session border control
 NAT and/or DHCP
 L2 and L3 VPN
 IPsec
 Security (firewalls, DPI, DDOS, etc)
 Configuration management
 Performance monitoring and logging
 VoIP (PBX)
 Value added business services
 Caching
Natural Customer Premises Functions
 Termination point
 Enterprise network monitoring
 L2 forwarding
 Access link encryption
 Ethernet access
 Wireless LAN
 WAN load balancing
 WAN optimization
Virtual or physical?
Virtual at CP or
within WAN?

11. Customer
Portal
NFV MANO
EMS
NMS
OSS
Local
Mgmt
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ADD MANAGEMENT COMPLEXITY
Service Provider
or Cloud NetworkP-CPE
V-CPE
V-CPE
WAN Locatable
Functions
Natural Customer
Premises Functions
NFVi
Manager
VNF
Manager
Orches-
trator

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NFV ISSUES
PLATFORM VERSUS APPLIANCE
General purpose vs.
dedicated appliances
Input/output
processing
Power
consumption
 FW throughput
about 10 Gbps
 600W
 FW throughput
60 Gbps
 250W
SW licensing
costs

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CHEAPER YES? BUT HOW MANY
X =?

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BUSINESS CASE CONSIDERATION
COST OF ENERGY
Annual Energy cost (assume 1000 servers)
= 1000 x 0.5kW x $0.1/kWh x 24 x 365
= $0.5M/year
Significant costs moving from
businesses to the carrier
X
=
?

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P-CPE
1. Cleartext
2. Service provider
IPSec Tunnel
4. User’s
encrypted traffic
Service
Provider or
Cloud Network
3. IPsec decryption,
vCPE processing,
User encryption
 vCPE needs cleartext to
process data
 However the medium
between the CP and
cloud is unprotected
 Hence both user
encryption and tunnel
encryption is required
 Doubles processing and
energy costs
LINK ISSUES
V-CPE
V-CPE

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P-CPE
V-CPE
Service Provider
or Cloud Network
V-CPE
 Can occur frequently
• DHCP
• DNS
• AAA
 Creates link congestion
 Can add many 10s of
ms to transactions
LINK ISSUES
TROMBONING AND
LATENCY

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SO HOW DO WE
BEST LAUNCH
THE GOOD SHIP
V-CPE?

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SOME STEPS TO
CONSIDER
 NFV acceleration
 NFV at the network edge
 Hyper-converged cloud

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NFV ACCELERATION
 Supplement NFV for intensive
input/output or other processing
tasks not best suited to general
purpose computing
 Create a hybrid device with best
of both worlds
 Optimize for first cost and
energy costs
 Optional add-on only when
needed

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NFV TO THE NETWORK
EDGE
 Reduces latency
 Limits tromboning to the last
mile
 Also a platform for edge
computing services (e.g.
MEC, IoT, M2M, AR)
Service Provider
or Cloud Network
P-CPE
V-CPE
Move NFV from anywhere in the
network or cloud, to as close as
possible to the network edge
V-CPE
V-CPE

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HYPER CONVERGED
CLOUD
 Strong fit with distributed
network edge computing
 Eases complexity through
local plus hierarchical
management
Servers Storage Network Management Security Facilities Services
Converged Infrastructure
Compute
Storage
Networking
Intelligence
Virtual Machine

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 Multiple platforms for best
application fit
 Neptune packet transport
system integrated blade
 Stand-alone module
 I/O acceleration
 Library of best of breed VNFs
 Fully hyper converged cloud
platform based on
OpenStack
ECI ELASTIC
VIRTUALIZATION
Mercury NFV platforms

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“Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work
to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to
make matters worse: complexity sells better.”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra

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THANK YOU!
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