Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for Scalable and Flexible Services
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15662/IJARCST.2022.0503002Keywords:
Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Virtual Network Functions (VNFs), NFV-MANO, Scalability, Flexibility, Energy Efficiency, NFV/SDN Integration, Orchestration AutomationAbstract
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) radically transforms traditional network service delivery by decoupling network functions from proprietary hardware and deploying them as software-based Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) atop Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems. This enables scalable, flexible, and agile network service provisioning. By systematically reviewing pre-2019 literature—including foundational NFV frameworks, NFV/SDN integration models, VNF performance evaluations, energy-aware NFV for 5G, and security considerations— we analyze how NFV stands to reduce both OPEX and CAPEX, accelerate service rollouts, and support dynamic scaling. Using case studies such as energy-efficient 5G NFV architectures (notably achieving ~34% energy savings) and performance benchmarking of VNFs across cloud instances, we assess NFV’s practical performance and deployment challenges. We propose an NFV deployment workflow encompassing: (1) architecture design and standards alignment, (2) VNF selection and performance testing, (3) orchestration and automation via NFV-MANO, (4) deployment with autoscaling and event chaining, (5) security hardening, and (6) continuous monitoring and optimization. NFV advantages include vendor-neutral flexibility, rapid deployment, elasticity, operational agility, and potential energy efficiency. Disadvantages involve increased management complexity, performance overhead, interoperability difficulties, and expanded attack surfaces. Results and discussion reveal that while NFV promises transformative impact—especially when integrated with SDN—the transition to production-grade, carrier-grade NFV systems remains in early stages, with orchestration, performance tuning, and security still active research areas. We conclude that NFV is essential for future network scalability and flexibility, but effective realization requires robust frameworks, performance-aware deployment, and secure orchestration. Future work should focus on lightweight cloudnative VNFs, unified orchestration across multi-vendor environments, and energy-optimized NFV designs.
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