Glasgow Network Functions
Glasgow Network Functions (GNF; formerly known as GLANF) is an open-source, container-based Network Function Virtualization Framework. It allows transparent attachment of virtual Network Functions (NF)s to selected traffic in Software-Defined Networks.
Features
- Container-based: Network functions are packaged in light-weight Docker containers to provide fast instantiation time, platform-independence, high throughput and low resource utilisation for the system. GNF is the first framework that demonstrated container-based NFV.
- Transparent traffic steeting: Hosts need not to change their traffic's destination to use network functions, as re-routing the traffic is handled entirely by the network without modifying packet headers.
- Infrastructure independent: Traffic routing for NFs is handled separately from the DCs generic routing policies, allowing forwarding of traffic from any host to ephemeral NFs in OpenFlow-enabled environments.
- Open innovation: The development of new NFs is not hindered by limitations of any particular NFV toolkit, framework or architecture. Sharing NFs in public or private repositories alleviates redundant implementations and promotes collaborative development, innovation and better software quality.
Publications
- Container network functions: bringing NFV to the network edge. IEEE Communications Magazine, Richard Cziva and Dimitrios P Pezaros, 2017 (journal article)
- Roaming edge vNFs using Glasgow Network Functions. Richard Cziva, Simon Jouet and Dimitrios P Pezaros, ACM SIGCOMM 2016, Florianopolis, Brazil. (demo)
- GNFC: Towards Network Function Cloudification. Richard Cziva, Simon Jouet and Dimitrios P Pezaros, IEEE NFV-SDN 2015, San Francisco, US. (full paper)
- Container-based Network Function Virtualization for Software Defined Networks. Richard Cziva, Simon Jouet, Kyle White and Dimitrios P Pezaros, IEEE ISCC 2015, Cyprus. (full paper)
Links
- Github repository for GNF NFs: https://github.com/UofG-netlab/gnf-dockerfiles
- Github repository for the roaming vNFs demo: https://github.com/UofG-netlab/gnf-demo
- GLANF (old) website: http://glanf.dcs.gla.ac.uk