Ligato - A platform for development of Cloud-Native VNF's - SDN/NFV London meetup

1. Ligato
A Platform for Development of Cloud-Native VNFs

2. What Container Network Stacks
Provide Today:
• Lifecycle management for application Containers
• Overlay connectivity for application Containers:
• NAT communication with external world
• Policy controlled overlay, may extend policy control to DC fabric in
some cases
• Network policy addresses security/connectivity
• Designed for Data Center applications / use cases
• Good start, but not sufficient for NFV use cases (Firewalls,
Customs VNFs)

3. What Container Networks Stacks
Lack for NFV Use Cases:
• NFV-specific policy APIs (e.g. QoS, placement considering network resources,
etc.)
• Networking:
• NAT is a bottleneck, not suitable for NFV use cases
• No support for high-speed wiring of VNFs:
• To the outside world
• To application containers
• Between NFV containers
• Creation of Service Function Chains (mixed physical and virtual – virtual a mix of VM and container)
• Management/Control:
• Containerised VNFs not really in the data plane (except for the vSwitch)
• No support for cloud-native, high-performance VNFs
• Forwarding:
• Kernel used for forwarding – not sufficiently performance orientated

4. Cloud-Native Network Function Summary:
• Container-based
• Container stack lifecycle (same as application containers)
• 12-factor app design for management/control
• High-performance forwarding
• High-performance networking
• Seamless virtual/physical world interworking
• Common policy control with application containers (as much as possible)
• Must solve 3 key problems:
• Lifecycle management
• High-Performance Networking (wiring/config, operations)
• Easy installation, operation

5. LIGATOContiv
Cloud-Native Network Functions
(a.k.a. Cloud Native Network Microservices)
Production-Grade
Container Orchestration
Cloud-native NF Orchestration
Cloud-native NF Agent platform
Containerised Fast
Data Input/Output
Enabling Production-Grade Native Cloud Network Services at Scale
Performance-Centric
Container Networking
Contiv-VPP NetmasterCalico
SFC
Controller
Kubernetes API Proxies
Service Policy Service Topology Lifecycle
Kubelet
CNI
CRI
Contiv-VPP NetpluginCalico
Production-Grade Container Orchestration
Network Function and Network Topology Orchestration
Containerized Network Data Plane
Container
Network Function CNF
Agent Agent Agent
FD.io VPP
Container Switch
Agent
Container Networking
Networking Plugin
CNF

6. GoAGENT
Containerized
Network Functions
GoAGENT
Containerized
Network Functions
SFC ControllerSFC Controller
Configuration
Operational State
Message Bus
SFC ControllerSFC Controller
Applications Tools (e.g.agentctl)
clientv1
Containers
Lifecycle
Orchestration
clientv1
Data Store
GoAGENT
Configuration
Notifications
Control and Management Plane
Inter-Process Communication
Containerized
Switch
Containerized Network Data Plane
<<-- microservices -->>
40GE 100GE
CNF CNFcSwitch
Contiv-VPP Netmaster
Cloud-native Network Micro-Services
Putting It All Together Now – The System Design
Functional Layered Diagram System Components
Contiv-VPP NetmasterCalico
SFC
Controller
Kubernetes API Proxies
Service Policy Service Topology Lifecycle
Kubelet
CNI
CRI
Contiv-VPP NetpluginCalico
Production-Grade Container Orchestration
Network Function and Network Topology Orchestration
Containerized Network Data Plane
Container
Network Function CNF
Agent Agent Agent
FD.io VPP
Container Switch
Agent
Container Networking
Networking Plugin
CNF
SFC Controller
clientv1

7. Ligato on Github

8. Network Micro-Service Use Case:
K8s Container Networking
Host
Kubelet
CNI
Kube
Proxy
veth
Contiv-VPP Netplugin
VPP Agent
…
LD_PRELOAD
PodPodPod
PodPodPod
VPP
TCP
VPP
Host
Kubelet
CNI
Kube
Proxy
veth
Contiv-VPP Netplugin
VPP Agent
…
LD_PRELOAD
PodPodPod
PodPodPod
VPP
TCP
VPP
…
Contiv-VPP
Netmaster
Contiv-VPP
Etcd
K8s policy & state
distribution
K8s Master
vswitch CNF Podvswitch CNF Pod
IPv4/IPv6/SRv6 Network

9. Network Micro-Service Use Case:
Service Function Chaining with Cloud-Native NFs
Host
VPP Vswitch
CNF
VPP
10.1.0.127
…
CNF1
VPP
…
CNF2
VPP
…
… Server
Vswitch VPP
CNF
VPP
…
CNF
VPP
…
CNF3
VPP
…
…
NF1 NF2 NF3
Overlay Tunnel
Logical Representation
Physical Representation
Ingress Network
Ingress Classifier
Egress Network
Egress Classifier
Topology
Placement
(K8s)
Rendering
Ingress
Router
Egress
Router
Overlay Tunnel Overlay Tunnel
Ingress Classifier Egress Classifier

10. SFC
Controller
VNF Logical Topology
Data Plane Network 1
Data Plane Network 2
Cloud (Overlay) Network
…
KubernetesEtcd
Contiv
Netmaster
(opt)
Physical
Device
Physical
Device
Physical
Device
Physical
Device…
Cloud tools
& services
CNF CNF CNF CNF CNF

11. SFC
Controller
VNF Physical Topology
Data Plane Network 1
Data Plane Network 2
Physical
Device
Physical
Device
Physical
Device
Physical
Device
…
Cloud Network
…
KubernetesEtcd
Contiv
Netmaster
(opt)
Cloud tools
(DB, Mbus, …)
Host
Contiv-VPP
Netplugin
Contiv-VPP Netplugin
Kube
Proxy
Kubelet
DPDK
NICs
…
VPPVRF 2 VRF 1
Agent
CNF
CNF
CNF
Agent
Cloud VRF
VPP
Host
Contiv-VPP
Netplugin
Contiv-VPP Netplugin
Kube
Proxy
Kubelet
DPDK
NICs
…
VPP VRF 2VRF 1
Agent
CNF
CNF
CNF
Agent
Cloud VRF
VPP

12. CN-Infra
Core
Plugin
Lifecycle
Management
Probes
Status
Kafka
Etcd
Redis
Cassandra
Logrus
Log
Manager
DBRPC Messaging Logs Health
App Plugin
Lifecycle
SPI
App Plugin
App Plugin
Lifecycle
SPI
API API API API API
Ligato Agent: a CNF Development Platform
www.github.com/ligato/cn-infra
CN-Infra
Plugins
App
Plugins
Health Monitor
(e.g. K8s)
Log Aggregator
(e.g. Logstash)
KafkaKV Data Store
(Etcd, Cassandra, Redis)
App clients

13. App
Plugins
Linux
VETH
L2L3ACLNet
Interfaces
GoVpp
CN-Infra
Core
Plugin
Lifecycle
Management
Probes
Status
Kafka
Etcd
Redis
Cassandra
Logrus
Log
Manager
DBRPC Messaging Logs Health
App Plugin
Lifecycle
SPI
App Plugin
Agent App/Extension Plugin
Lifecycle
SPI
API API
API API API
Ligato VPP Agent: a CNF Development Platform
www.github.com/ligato/vpp-agent
API
API
Lifecycle
SPI
CN-Infra
Plugins
VPP-Agent
Plugins
Health Monitor
(e.g. K8s)
Log Aggregator
(e.g. Logstash)
KafkaKV Data Store
(Etcd, Cassandra, Redis)
App clients
VPP

14. Backup

15. Network Micro-Service Use Case:
Service Function Chaining with Cloud-Native NFs
Network
Application
Container
Application
Container
Contiv Policy
Network
Application
Container
Application
Container
CNF1 CNFn…
Network
Application
Container
Policy
CNF2 CNFn…
Network Policy
CNF2 CNFn-1…
Network
Application
Container
Application
Container
Policy
CNF1 CNFn…
Same Server
Server Server
PolicyPolicy
PolicyPolicy
Policy
Policy