Are CNFs, VNFs?

The answer is yes. Our recent report “The VNFO – Ripe for Change” says this loudly and clearly.

Pardon the atrocious image. But I hope it encapsulates the dilemma appropriately.

It is important to reiterate the reasons for including containers under VNF and in essence, Kubernetes under VNFO.

Both VMs and containers are virtualization methodologies. Thus, network functions synthesized using VMs and containers qualify as VNFs.

In VNFs orchestrated by containers are sometimes referred to as cloud-native NFs (CNFs). Insight Research has also employed this term as early as 2020. Over time however, we have observed that the usage of CNFs is neither consistent nor uniform.

Most ‘traditional’ MANOs such as ONAP, OSM and all proprietary offerings now support containers and Kubernetes. Containers are thus one more means towards achieving the end-objective of VNFs.

In such situations, Insight Research finds it more appropriate to use VNF as an umbrella term and under this term, refer to VM or container as the specific virtualization methodology.

The question then arises – where would we slot NFs orchestrated by containers encapsulated in VMs? Answer is containers. Similarly, NFs orchestrated by VMs encapsulated in containers are slotted under VMs.

Kaustubha Parkhi Principal Analyst, Insight Research

RELATED BLOGS

The AI-RAN Alliance: The idea whose time has come

Posted: March 18, 2024

      Of all the announcements at MWC24, the one that validates our focus on AI in RAN is the formation of the AI-RAN Alliance. Coinciding with the release of our report “AI and RAN – How fast can they run?”, the Alliance checks all the boxes to furthering AI from the periphery of the … Continue reading The AI-RAN Alliance: The idea whose time has come

SDN, NFV and Indian Telcos

Posted: October 21, 2018

      I returned with useful insights from the SDN-NFV India earlier this month. There were two discernible trends – optimistic solution vendors and cautious telcos. Indian telcos are worried about the following: Indian telcos, including the largest ones, are genuinely concerned about the solidity and stability of SDN and NFV products. Telcos think … Continue reading SDN, NFV and Indian Telcos

The Cloud Native Pole Vault – The contrasting fates of Rakuten Mobile and Jio

Posted: August 12, 2024

      Oh no, this is not about the incredible exploits of the unbelievable “Mondo” Duplantis at Paris last week! He is on a different planet altogether. If you recall, cloud native networks and network functions has been a longstanding area of focus for Insight Research. How much of it does really translate into … Continue reading The Cloud Native Pole Vault – The contrasting fates of Rakuten Mobile and Jio