“Emulex NFV solutions provide TEMs and telecom operators with an optimised solution to reduce cost and scale operations by transitioning to open server platforms,” said Shaun Walsh, senior vice president of marketing, Emulex. “The forthcoming Emulex PMD with DPDK support, coupled with Emulex SURF programmability for Emulex 10/40GbE adapters, will provide customers with unmatched programmability and flexibility for increased server ROI, reduced CPU overhead, and reductions in operational expenditures.”
By basing designs on open x86 server designs rather than building specialty appliances, telecom operations can speed up development times, provide greater agility and deliver exceptional capital and operational expenditure (CAPEX/OPEX) reductions. Industry enhancements to the underlying technology, including virtualised hardware, software-defined networking (SDN), and faster fabrics, such as 10/40GbE, makes NFV suitable for use with industry standard hardware.
Emulex OneConnect 10/40GbE adapters will provide the following capabilities for NFV:
· Rapid packet processing with enterprise-class DPDK and PMD support: DPDK and Emulex PMD support allows for maximum high performance packet processing, DPDK performances specifically, performance improvements are seen in small packets, as well as in providing a more CPU efficient architecture for larger packets.
· Advanced programmability with Emulex SURF API: The Emulex SURF API provides direct access to the networking processing capabilities of Emulex 10/40GbE adapters. With enhanced Layer 3 functionality and better programmability, the Emulex SURF API enables telecom providers to set parameters for queues and traffic steering, in order to build high performance and more cost effective applications for evolving NFV workloads. By deploying Emulex 10/40GbE adapters with the Emulex SURF API, telecom operators can standardise on one platform for all of their Ethernet connectivity needs including NFV, internal IT operations, telecom Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Cloud Radio Access Networks (RANs), and Content Delivery Networks (CDN) for video convergence.
· More NFV flexibility for virtual functions with advanced Single Root I/O Virtualisation (SR-IOV) support: SR-IOV optimises I/O for virtual machines (VMs), enabling higher host server virtualisation ratios to deliver maximum server ROI. SR-IOV is a more cost-effective solution than multiple, physical adapter ports, and eliminates redundant I/O processing in the hypervisor, enabling higher I/O performance and lower CPU utilisation.
· Ability to build SANs at scale with iSCSI offload and boot from iSCSI support: Telecom carriers and TEMs can leverage the benefits of high performance SANs at scale with Emulex iSCSI hardware offload capabilities. This enables NFV solutions to boot from iSCSI SANs, and support iSCSI offloads, while minimising server CPU utilisation. This frees up server CPU cycles for applications processing, and delivers higher ROI, and power efficiency through more effective server utilisation. Hardware offloads for iSCSI enable more NFV workloads to support the complete NFV hardware lifecycle. Furthermore, leveraging iSCSI for storage connectivity enables NFV workloads to be dynamically distributed, making NFV solutions more elastic, and server failover more efficient, all at scale.