Title: Highly available virtual network functions and services based on checkpointing/restore

Authors: Giovanni Venâncio; Elias P. Duarte Junior

Addresses: Department of Informatics, Federal University of Parana (UFPR), Curitiba, PR, Brazil ' Department of Informatics, Federal University of Parana (UFPR), Curitiba, PR, Brazil

Abstract: Network function virtualisation (NFV) technology has the potential to have a deep impact on how networks are built and managed. However, in order to achieve its full potential, it is necessary to guarantee the required dependability, and in particular the availability of virtualised network functions (VNFs) and service function chains (SFCs). This work presents NHAM: NFV high availability module for the NFV management and orchestration (NFV-MANO) reference model. NHAM allows the creation and management of highly-available virtual network services consisting of both stateless and stateful VNFs and SFCs. The architecture provides multiple recovery mechanisms that differ in terms of cost and latency. The solution does not require any modifications of the source code of VNFs/SFCs to make them highly-available. The strategy is based on VNF checkpoint/restore together with SFC buffer management. A prototype was implemented and experimental results are presented showing that carrier grade availability levels can be achieved.

Keywords: network function virtualisation; NFV; virtualised network functions; VNFs; high availability; fault tolerance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCCBS.2024.139101

International Journal of Critical Computer-Based Systems, 2024 Vol.11 No.1/2, pp.115 - 142

Received: 04 May 2023
Accepted: 06 Feb 2024
Published online: 13 Jun 2024 *

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