What is NFV?

Network functions virtualization or shortly known as NFV is believed to be a network architecture perception that utilizes the technologies of IT virtualization for virtualizes would be entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that might connect, or chain together, for creating communication services.

There would be several important points about NFV to note:

• NFV would be replacing network services provided by dedicated hardware with virtualized software. This would be meaning that network services, like load balancers, routers, firewalls, XML processing as well as WAN optimization devices, could be replaced with software running on virtual machines.
• NFV would be helping you would be able to save both capital expenditures (CAPEX) as well as operating expenses (OPEX). Network services that would be utilized to require specialized, dedicated hardware could run on standard commodity servers, reducing costs. Because server capacity could be increased or reduced through software settings that would be made on-demand, it is no longer necessary to overprovision data or service centers for accommodating peak demand.

What is SDN?

Software-defined networking technology or SDN is believed to be an approach for the management of network that would be enabling dynamic, programmatically efficient network configuration for improving network performance as well as monitoring creating it more like cloud computing than traditional network management.

The key ingredients of SDN would be including the following:

• SDN would be delivering directly programmable network control, the ability to provision new network elements as well as devices, or to reconfigure existing ones, comes from a collection of programmable interfaces. This would be allowing administrators to easily program networks either via scripting tools or third-party tools as well as consoles, all of which employ those programmable interfaces.
• SDN is considered to be agile and responsive. It permits administrators for adjusting the network-wide traffic flow dynamically in order to meet fluctuating needs and demands.
• Network managers could configure, control, secure as well as tune network resources utilizing automated SDN programs. Furthermore, networking professionals would be able to create such programs themselves utilizing standard, well-documented tools as well as interfaces.
• Utilizing open standards, SDN would be streamlining network design as well as operation. Instructions originate from SDN controllers utilizing standard protocols and interfaces, rather than relying on vendor-specific protocols, interfaces as well as devices.

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NFV vs SDN: Similarities and Differentiations

The core similarity between SDN (software-defined networking) as well as NFV (network functions virtualization) would be that they both utilize network abstraction. SDN seeks to split network control functions from network forwarding functions, while NFV would be seeking to abstract network forwarding as well as other networking functions from the hardware on which it runs. Thus, both are going to be depending greatly on virtualization to facilitate network design as well as infrastructure to be abstracted in software and then implemented by underlying software across hardware platforms as well as devices.

SDN and NFV differ in how they are going to separate functions as well as abstract resources. SDN would be abstracting physical networking resources such as switches, routers and so on and moves decision making to a virtual network control plane. In this approach, the control plane would be deciding where to send traffic, while the hardware would be continuing to direct as well as handle the traffic. NFV would be aiming to virtualize all physical network resources beneath a hypervisor, which would be allowing the network to grow without the accumulation of more devices.

While both SDN and NFV would be making networking architectures more flexible as well Cas dynamic, they would be performing different roles in defining those architectures as well as the infrastructure they would be supporting.

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