#programmable networks

I've often seen this topic being discussed on Technically Speaking and for a while I've been curious to understand more about the technology and its applications. So I decided to take an observer's perspective and explore the ideas that uniquely form network functions virtualization (NFV). I wanted to not only achieve a personal understanding, but also to share the key concepts surrounding the technology with others. The notion of virtualization isn't entirely new – it was conceived as far back as the 1960s, when methods were employed in the computing industry to logically divide system resources, such as those of a hard disk or other storage mediums. Similarly, server virtualization is the capacity to abstract a server's ...

Many equipment vendors use the terms software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) interchangeably. However, these technologies are different and are used in different parts of the network. NFV is virtualizing device functionality, while SDN is developing standard interfaces and orchestration between devices. SDN was conceived in the campus network. Technology researchers wanted to be able to test applications without having to manually update software on every network device. So, they developed a “programmable” network by separating control and forwarding functions, centralizing control and using well-defined interfaces – application programming interfaces. This concept was then extended to the data center where server virtualization was ...

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