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diff --git a/Scenario_1/Scenario_Analysis_Communication_Interfaces.rst b/Scenario_1/Scenario_Analysis_Communication_Interfaces.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c97776b --- /dev/null +++ b/Scenario_1/Scenario_Analysis_Communication_Interfaces.rst @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +3. Communication Interfaces for VNF HA schemes +=========================================================== + +This section will discuss some general issues about communication interfaces +in the VNF HA schemes. In sections 2, the usecases of both stateful and +stateless VNFs are discussed. While in this section, we would like to discuss +some specific issues which are quite general for all the usecases proposed +in the previous sections. + +3.1. VNF External Interfaces + +Regardless whether the VNF is stateful or stateless, all the VNFCs should act as +a union from the perspective of the outside world. That means all the VNFCs should +share a common interface where the outside modules (e.g., the other VNFs) can +access the service from. There could be multiple solutions for this share of IP +interface. However, all of this sharing and switching of IP address should be +ignorant to the outside modules. + +There are several approaches for the VNFs to share the interfaces. A few of them +are listed as follows and will be discussed in detail. + +1) IP address of VMs for active/stand-by VM. + +2) Load balancers for active/active use cases + +Note that combinition of these two approaches is also feasible. + +For active/standby VNFCs, there is a common IP address shared by the VMs hosting +the active and standby VNFCs, so that they look as one instance from outside. +The HA manager will manage the assignment of the IP address to the VMs. +(The HA manager may not be aware of this, I.e. the address may be configured +and the active/standby state management is linked to the possession of the IP +address, i.e. the active VNFC claims it as part of becoming active.) Only the +active one possesses the IP address. And when failover happens, the standby +is set to be active and can take possession of the IP address to continue traffic +process. + + +For active/active VNFCs, a LB(Load Balancer) could be used. In such scenario, there +could be two cases for the deployment and usage of LB. + +Case 1: LB used in front of a cluster of VNFCs to distribute the traffic flow. + +In such case, the LB is deployed in front of a cluster of multiple VNFCs. Such +cluster can be managed by a seperate cluster manager, or can be managed just +by the LB, which uses heartbeat to monitor each VNFC. When one of VNFCs fails, +the cluster manager should first exclude the failed VNFC from the cluster so that +the LB will re-route the traffic to the other VNFCs, and then the failed one should +be recovered. In the case when the LB is acting as the cluster manager, it is +the LB's responsibility to inform the VNFM to recover the failed VNFC if possible. + + +Case 2: LB used in front of a cluster of VMs to distribute traffic flow. + +In this case, there exists a cluster manager(e.g. Pacemaker) to monitor and manage +the VMs in the cluster. The LB sits in front of the VM cluster so as to distribute +the traffic. When one of the VM fails, the cluster manager will detect that and will +be in charge of the recovery. The cluster manager will also exclude the failed VM +out of the cluster, so that the LB won't route traffic to the failed one. + +In both two cases, the HA of the LB should also be considered. + + +3.2. Intra-VNF Communication + +For stateful VNFs, data synchronization is necessary between the active and standby VMs. +The HA manager is responsible for handling VNFC failover, and do the assignment of the +active/standby states between the VNFCs of the VNF. Data synchronization can be handled +either by the HA manager or by the VNFC itself. + +The state synchronization can happen as + +- direct communication between the active and the standby VNFCs + +- based on the information received from the HA manager on channel or messages using a common queue, + +- it could be through a shared storage assigned to the whole VNF + +- through the checkpointing of state information via underlying memory and/or +database checkpointing services to a separate VM and storage repository. |