NFVManagement

NFVManagement is the set of processes, tools, and workflows used to design, deploy, operate, and optimize virtualized network functions (VNFs) and network services on a virtualized infrastructure (NFVI). It covers lifecycle management, performance and fault monitoring, scaling, healing, and policy-driven automation.

NFVManagement operates within the ETSI NFV MANO framework. The main blocks are the NFV Orchestrator (NFVO), VNF Manager (VNFM), and Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM). NFVO handles service and resource orchestration; VNFM manages VNF lifecycles; VIM administers compute, storage, and networking resources.

Core capabilities include lifecycle management of VNFs and services, service chaining, placement and resource orchestration, scaling, healing and fault recovery, telemetry and performance monitoring, policy enforcement, and SLA management. These enable rapid service deployment and dynamic adaptation to demand.

NFV management interfaces with SDN controllers and cloud platforms. VIM backends may include OpenStack, Kubernetes, or other clouds, enabling VNFs to run as virtual machines or containers and supporting hybrid deployments.

Standards guidance comes from ETSI NFV ISG, including MANO interfaces. Open-source efforts such as Open Source MANO (OSM), Tacker, and OpenStack NFV provide reference implementations and tooling to test interoperability.

Use cases include mobile core modernization (4G/5G), enterprise WAN and edge services, and data center interconnects. NFVManagement enables rapid deployment, better resource utilization, automation, and scalable services while aiming to meet SLAs.

Challenges include multi-vendor interoperability, real-time performance overhead, security and isolation, data model standardization, and multi-domain governance. Ongoing standardization and open-source integration seek to reduce complexity and speed deployment.

NFVManagement is central to modern network virtualization, aligning with ETSI MANO and cloud-native approaches. It supports automated, scalable, policy-driven services across telecom and enterprise environments.