Terminology and Glossary
During our discussions with NRENs and at workshops it became clear that there are OAV terms that are being used in different ways and in some cases with slightly different meaning and understanding. So in order to have a common basis we decided to identify a list of relevant OAV terms and add a short definition with a reference link (source) for each term as well as an acronym table with definitions of abbreviations. We tried to use standard-based definitions whenever we could find them and listed internal definitions in cases where no standard definitions were found.
Internal definitions are based on the consensus of all team members; to come to an agreed definition of all team members a terminology document was created with descriptions of the terms and an internal survey was conducted for final adjustments. Additional comments are welcome!
OAV Common Terms
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Glossary
| OAV Terms | Definition and reference |
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Architecture component | An architecture component is a nontrivial, nearly independent, and replaceable part of a system that fulfills a clear function in the context of a well-defined architecture.
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Architecture principles | Architecture principles define the underlying general rules and guidelines for the use and deployment of all IT resources and assets across the organisation. They reflect a level of consensus among the various elements of the enterprise, and form the basis for making future IT decisions. |
API (Application Programming Interface) | An API is a set of commands, functions, protocols, and objects that programmers can use to create software or interact with an external system. Any data can be shared with an application program interface. |
Automated service provisioning | Automated service provisioning is the ability to deploy an information technology or telecommunications service by using pre-defined procedures that are carried out electronically without requiring human intervention.
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Automation | Processing tasks in a repeatable manner to yield the same result every time without human intervention.
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Blockchain | A blockchain is an expanding list of cryptographically signed, irrevocable transactional records shared by all participants in a network.
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Cgroups (control groups) | Cgroups are linux kernel mechanisms to restrict and measure resource allocations to each process group. Using cgroups, you can allocate resources such as CPU time, network, and memory. |
Cloud native application | Cloud Native Application (CNA) refers to a type of computer software that natively utilises services and infrastructure provided by cloud computing providers.
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Component | A component is a functionally independent part of any system. It performs some function and may require some input or produce some output. |
Composite service | A composite service is an assembly of one or more elements into an end to end service. It may be recursive so a composite service may become a component of yet another service.
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Control plane | The control plane is responsible for processing a number of different control protocols that may affect the forwarding table, depending on the configuration and type of network device. These control protocols are jointly responsible for managing the active topology of the network.
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Cross-domain data services | Data services that are delivered across multiple administrative, information or technological domains that allow data sharing among authorized consumers in different domains.
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Data center interconnect (DCI) | Data center interconnect (DCI) is a segment of the networking market that focuses on the technology used to link two or more data centers so the facilities can share resources. |
Data plane | The data plane (sometimes known as the user plane, forwarding plane, carrier plane or bearer plane) is the part of a network that carries user traffic from one interface to another. |
Decoupling | Building approach (in electronics, software, etc.) where the constituent components of a system can be produced, sourced and interchanged independently of the other.
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Domain | A collection of network infrastructure under the administrative control of the same organisation.
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Federated orchestration | Service orchestration performed by multiple autonomous management domains, to effectively allow services to span across several providers.
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Functional block | Self contained unit in an overall system that performs a specific function or task.
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Hierarchical orchestration | Orchestration decomposed into one or more hierarchical interactions where parts of the service are delegated to a subordinate orchestrator.
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Intent-based policy / network | Technology incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to automate administrative tasks across a network.
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Management | The processes aiming at fulfilment, assurance, and billing of services, network functions, and resources in both physical and virtual infrastructure including compute, storage, and network resources.
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Management API | A Management API allows a service requestor to perform all management operations before, during and after the use of a service.
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Management domain | A collection of physical or functional elements under the control of an entity, aiming at fulfilment, assurance, and billing of services, network functions, and resources in both physical and virtual infrastructure.
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Microservices | Microservices is an approach to software architecture that builds a large, complex application from multiple small components that each perform a single function, such as authentication, notification, or payment processing. Each microservice is a distinct unit within the software development project, with its own code base, infrastructure, and database. The microservices work together, communicating through web APIs or messaging queues to respond to incoming events. |
Network automation | Network automation is the process of automating the configuration, management, testing, deployment, and operations of physical and virtual devices within a network. |
Network controller | Functional block that centralizes some or all of the control and management functionality of a network domain and may provide an abstract view of its domain to other functional blocks via well-defined interfaces.
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Network function | Network Function (NF) – a functional building block within a network infrastructure, which has well-defined external interfaces and a well-defined functional behaviour.
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Network function disaggregation (NFD) | Defines the evolution of switching and routing appliances from proprietary, closed hardware and software sourced from a single vendor, towards totally decoupled, open components which are combined to form a complete switching and routing device. |
Network namespaces | Network namespaces is a virtualization mechanism (a virtualised networking stack) which provides abstraction and virtualisation of network protocol services and interfaces. Each network namespace has its own network device instances that can be configured with individual network addresses.
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Network orchestration | Network orchestration is the execution of the operational and functional processes involved in designing, creating, and delivering an end-to-end service. For example, it uses network automation to provide services through the use of applications that drive the network. An orchestrator functions to arrange and organise the various components involved in delivering a network service.
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Network resource | Physical or logical network component of hardware, software or data in the data, control or management planes within an organization's infrastructure.
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Network service | A collection of network functions with a well specified behavior (i.e. content delivery networks (CDNs) and IP multimedia subsystem (IMS)).
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Network slicing | Network slicing is a specific form of virtualisation that allows multiple logical networks to run on top of a shared physical network infrastructure. (..) The intent of network slicing is to be able to partition the physical network at an end-to-end level to allow optimum grouping of traffic, isolation from other tenants, and configuring of resources at a macro level. |
Network slice instance | A Network slice instance is a set of Network Function instances and the required resources (e.g. compute, storage and networking resources) which form a deployed Network Slice.
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NFV | Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) is a network architecture concept that uses virtualization to classify entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create communication services. More specifically, it is the deployment of software implementations of traditional network functions (e.g. load balancers, firewalls, office switches/routers) on virtualized infrastructure rather than on function-specific specialized hardware devices.
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NFV-MANO(Network Functions Virtualisation Management and Orchestration) | Management and orchestration (MANO) is a key element of the ETSI network functions virtualization (NFV) architecture. MANO is an architectural framework that coordinates network resources for cloud-based applications and the lifecycle management of virtual network functions (VNFs) and network services. As such, it is crucial for ensuring rapid, reliable NFV deployments at scale. MANO includes the following components: the NFV orchestrator (NFVO), the VNF manager (VNFM), and the virtual infrastructure manager (VIM). |
NFV-MANO Architectural Framework(Network Functions Virtualisation Management and Orchestration Architectural Framework) | Collection of all functional blocks (including those in NFV-MANO category as well as others that interwork with NFV-MANO), data repositories used by these functional blocks, and reference points and interfaces through which these functional blocks exchange information for the purpose of managing and orchestrating NFV.
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NFVO(Network Functions Virtualisation Orchestrator) | Functional block that manages the Network Service (NS) lifecycle and coordinates the management of NS lifecycle, VNF lifecycle (supported by the VNFM) and NFVI resources (supported by the VIM) to ensure an optimized allocation of the necessary resources and connectivity.
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OpenFlow protocol | OpenFlow protocol is a protocol defined by the OpenFlow Switch Specification that allows separation of the network control plane by providing access to the forwarding plane.
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OpenFlow (standard) | OpenFlow is an open standard that enables you to control traffic and run experimental protocols in an existing network by using a remote controller. The OpenFlow components consist of a controller, an OpenFlow or OpenFlow-enabled switch, and the OpenFlow protocol. |
OpenStack | Open source software for creating private and public clouds. OpenStack software controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center, managed through a dashboard or via the OpenStack API. |
Open virtual network (OVN) | Open Virtual Network (OVN) is an Open vSwitch-based software-defined networking (SDN) solution for supplying network services to instances. |
Open vSwitch (OVS) | Open source multilayer virtual switch that supports standard interfaces and protocols.
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Operational domain | Scope of management delineated by an administrative and technological boundary.
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Orchestration (ONAP) | The arrangement, sequencing and automated implementation of tasks, rules and policies to coordinate logical and physical resources in order to meet a customer or on-demand request to create, modify or remove network or service resources.
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Resource slice | A grouping of physical or virtual (network, compute, storage) resources. A resource slice could be one of the components of Network Slice, however on its own does not represent fully a Network Slice. |
SDN | A programmable network approach that supports the separation of control and forwarding planes via standardized interfaces.
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Self-configuration | A process by which computer systems or networks automatically adapt their own configuration of components without human direct intervention.
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Service access point | A Service Access Point is a kind of Resource Function (RF) that handles access into and out of another RF, such as an application RF or virtualized appliance RF.
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Service chaining (NFV) | Network service chaining, also known as service function chaining (SFC) is a capability that uses software-defined networking (SDN) capabilities to create a service chain of connected network services (such as L4-7 like firewalls, network address translation [NAT], intrusion protection) and connects them in a virtual chain. This capability can be used by network operators to set up suites or catalogs of connected services that enable the use of a single network connection for many services, with different characteristics. |
Software defined exchanges | Software Defined IXP (SDX) is an internet exchange that utilizes SDN to do interdomain routing. In addition, SDX design incorporates high levels of programmability, open APIs, shared resources across multiple domains, dynamic provisioning, resource discovery, quick resource integration and configuration, and granulated control of resources.
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Switch abstraction interface (SAI) | Definition of the API to provide a vendor-independent way of controlling forwarding elements, such as a switching ASIC, an NPU or a software switch in a uniform manner.
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User interface orchestration | User Interface Orchestration defines, formats and structures the sequence of user interfaces (UIs) needed for a process. For example, the orchestration of UI during a service request from customers.
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Virtual content delivery network | A content delivery network using virtualisation technology that enables the allocation of virtual storage, virtual machines, and network resources according to providers' requirements in a dynamic and scalable manner.
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Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) | Virtual eXtensible Local Area Network (VXLAN) enables the encapsulation of Ethernet frames inside UDP packets with a designated UDP destination port (4789). VXLAN allows users to overlay L2 networks on top of existing L3 networks. In the data center, it is commonly used to stretch an L2 network across multiple racks. |
Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) | Virtual Routing and Forwarding is a layer 3 abstraction, which provides a separate routing table for each instance, usually this is done by adding some sort of VRFID to the routing table lookup.
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Virtualisation | Abstraction of network or service objects to make them appear generic, i.e. disassociated from the underlying hardware implementation specifics.
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Virtualised network function (VNF) - virtual network function | Virtual Network Function (VNF) is a network task written as software that can be provided in a virtualised manner (i.e. firewall, router, switch). |
Workflow | The sequence of steps through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion. |
Workflow management | Workflow management (WFM) is a technology supporting the re-engineering of business and information processes. It involves: Defining workflows, (...) and providing for fast (re)design and (re)implementation of the processes as business needs and information systems change.
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