Introduced in September 2014 as an outgrowth of the ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group (ETSI NFV ISG), this document is the project's first white paper and provides a detailed overview of the project.

1. PAVING THE WAY TO
OPEN SOURCE NFV
A Linux Foundation Collaborative Project

2. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
1. AN OVERVIEW
OF OPNFV
The Open Platform for Network Functions
Virtualization (OPNFV) was introduced in
September 2014 as an outgrowth of the
ETSI NFV Industry Specification Group
(ETSI NFV ISG).
Establishment of OPNFV resulted from the realization that an open reference
platform was needed to validate key NFV concepts, leverage the growing open
source community, and accelerate development and ultimately adoption of NFV
products and services.
Because of the breadth of the ETSI NFV ISG Architectural Framework, it was
necessary to narrow the OPNFV scope to functional areas that had already
achieved significant progress. Thus, the initial focus was limited to the NFV
Infrastructure (NFVI1
) and Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM2
) (Figure 1).
In contrast to traditional open source projects, which develop common components
or platforms, OPNFV is committed to an ‘Upstream First’ methodology. OPNFV
adopts one or more upstream open source projects, and devotes development
resources towards integration and testing, instead of developing new code.
OPNFV has been built on OpenStack, supports multiple SDN Controllers (including
OpenDaylight, ONOS, OpenContrail), host platforms, and deployment technologies.
Because each operator has a distinct environment, OPNFV offers a choice of
distributions. For example, OpenStack may operate over an OpenDaylight or
ONOS SDN Controller framework, with support for both x86 and ARM-compatible
2
1
NFVI: Totality of all hardware and software components thatbuild up the environment in which
VNFs are deployed
2
VIM: Functional block that is responsible for controlling and managing theNFVI compute, storage
and network resources, usually within one operator’s Infrastructure Domain (e.g. NFVI-PoP)

3. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
3
processors. Through the collective experience gathered from using the open
reference platform, OPNFV will contribute back to the upstream projects, fueled
by operators’ real-world use cases.
A particularly strong aspect of the project is a diverse and vibrant community
consisting of network operators, network equipment manufacturers, Independent
Software Vendors (ISVs) and component suppliers. The majority of OPNFV
members also participate in the ETSI NFV ISG, ensuring close collaboration.
OPNFV members contribute significantly to the upstream projects as well.
2. WHY OPNFV?
OPNFV was envisioned to address a
number of challenges (listed below)
anticipated by operators, many of whom
are also ETSI NFV ISG members, and
pursuing their own NFV strategies:
OSS/BSS
INITIAL
FOCUS
OF OPNFV
EMS 1
Orchestrator
Virtual
Computing
Virtual
Storage
VIRTUALIZATION LAYER
Virtual
Network
EMS 2 EMS 3
VNF 1
NFVI
Hardware Resources
VI-Ha
VNF 2 VNF 3
Service, VNF and
Infrastructure Description
NFV Management
& Orchestration
Os-Ma
Se-Ma
Or-Vnfm
Ve-Vnfm
Nf-Vi
Computing
Hardware
Storage
Hardware
Network
Hardware
Execution
Reference Points
Other
Reference Points
Main NFV
Reference Points
Or-Vi
Vi-Vnfm
Virtualized
Infrastructure
Manager(s)
VNF
Manager(s)
VN-NF
Figure 1- ETSI NFV Architecture Framework with OPNFV Initial Scope

4. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
4
• The transformative impact of NFV and Software Defined Networking (SDN)
• COTS hardware, which has traditionally has performed significantly poorer
than purpose-built hardware
• Traditional operational processes, which are manually intensive,
subject to errors, and slow
• Lack of definition for NFV areas (e.g., MANO), which has resulted
in proprietary NFV architectures
• Lack of telecommunications features in the open source community
• An open NFV ecosystem, which avoids silos, proprietary solutions,
and vendor lock-in
Considering that vendors and network operators are racing to deliver
NFV platforms and services, and that neither is waiting for standards or open
source communities to deliver, OPNFV is playing a valuable role. OPNFV
is speeding up integration and providing a technical forum to address
performance, interoperability, security, and scalability issues that would otherwise
be costly, time-consuming, and highly proprietary for each organization to
address on their own.
OPNFV is the only public forum with a broad community where the industry
can pull together the components of the platform(s) to see if they work
together. It is also an incubation environment to try out new software features
or hardware components.
However, OPNFV does not seek to provide a specific distribution for the
NFV platform or even specify all the pieces in an NFV platform. The goal is to
qualify a common set of building blocks with specific roles/functions. OPNFV
building blocks need not necessarily be open, but must conform to a common
framework. Many of the initial components in the initial OPNFV release, ARNO,
are open source in order to expedite the initial releases and stimulate larger
community participation.

5. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
5
3. PROGRESS
TO DATE
Since its formation in September 2014,
OPNFV has grown considerably.
At the time of publication, there are over 50 OPNFV members, including many
of the world’s most important wireline, mobile, and cable operators; along with
leading network equipment vendors, software, semiconductors, including several
innovative startups. The OPNFV developer community has grown to over 125
code submitters with many more developers working on OPNFV-related projects
for their own organizations.
In June, 2015, only 9 months after introduction, OPNFV announced the initial
release—ARNO. The ARNO3
release represents more than integrating OpenStack
(VIM), KVM (hypervisor), Ceph, (distributed storage), OpenDaylight (SDN
Controller Framework), and Open vSwitch (software switch), etc. (Figure 2). ARNO
also introduces the OPNFV development environment: Continuous Integration,
automated deployment and testing, documentation, and tooling. ARNO has been
demonstrated running on platforms from multiple vendors across the x86 and
ARM processor architectures.
3
OPNFV release names are river-themed, a community decision, inspired by the work with
upstream projects
Figure 2- OPNFV Initial Release- ARNO

6. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
6
Unlike most open source projects, ARNO (and all OPNFV releases) do not
introduce standalone code. By committing to ‘Upstream First’ OPNFV will only
develop code where absolutely necessary to avoid proprietary forks of the
upstream components.
OPNFV is a use case driven project, motivated by the specialized capabilities
required by CSPs. For example, one of the most important is virtualized CPE,
which was prioritized as among the initial use cases by the ETSI NFV ISG.
An IHS/Infonetics survey4
of leading network operator last year rated vE-CPE
as the #1 use case overall for NFV in 2014–2015.
Among the key requirements to support vCPE that OPNFV is currently
addressing:
• Massive scale out (Fuel, IPv6)
• NFV integrated with virtualized networking (Open vSwitch for NFV)
• Integrated resource reservation and capacity management (Promise)
• Lightweight containerization (ONOSFW)
4
IHS/Infonetics SDN and NFV Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, 2014

7. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
7
4. FUTURE
DIRECTIONS
Looking ahead, ONFV is seeking to
create an extensible and automated
NFV reference platform capable of VNF
Lifecycle Management and support for
diverse NFVI.
Central to the mission is establishment of a highly automated build, continuous integration
and deployment platform that will be validated by common traffic profiles and use cases,
which will be automated as well.
The OPNFV roadmap has been built upon a 6-month release cycle, balancing the
goal to deliver against the release cadence of the upstream projects. Each release
incorporates select new upstream functionality that is verified against a Management and
Orchestration (MANO) VIM environment.
OPNFV projects range from engaging directly with upstream projects, to internal projects
that may be classified requirements, functional test, develop and documentation. Internal
projects proposals, priorities, and scope, are motivated by the community, and overseen
by the Technical Steering Committee.
Another important objective is the cultivation and nurturing of an Open NFV ecosystem to
offer network operators and vendors alike, qualified, and interoperable building blocks to
enable network operators to move towards deployment. OPNFV progress will likely result
in de facto standards that motivate continuous innovation, agility and usability, which
ultimately expedite and facilitates NFV adoption.
The future success of OPNFV will hinge not only how well we address functional and
performance gaps in upstream projects, but also by industry-wide adoption of open,
standardized interfaces to enable management and orchestration in an automated and
interoperable manner. An OPNFV compliance program is planned, based on the testing
and integration platform, which paves the way towards industrialization for NFV.

8. OPNFV: Paving the Way to Open Source NFV
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5. CLOSING THOUGHTS
NFV and SDN are challenging
entrenched assumptions about how
networks are designed, deployed,
and managed.
To keep up with the frenetic pace of innovation that is radically altering the network
operator landscape, a paradigm shift is necessary. Enter the open reference platform to
incentivize unprecedented industry engagement, operator and vendor collaboration,
intelligent automation and openness. OPNFV is paving new ground, by challenging
the rules for open source projects, and offering huge time to market, quality, and
interoperability benefits. As the project is not yet two years old, we have just begun.
To find out how your organization can participate in the most significant re-architecture
in decades, visit us at www.opnfv.org.