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GROUP SPECIFICATION
Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV);
Terminology for Main Concepts in NFV
Disclaimer
The present document has been produced and approved by the Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) ETSI Industry
Specification Group (ISG) and represents the views of those members who participated in this ISG.
It does not necessarily represent the views of the entire ETSI membership.
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2 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
Reference
RGS/NFV-003ed141
Keywords
NFV, terminology
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3 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
0-9 . 7
A to B . 7
C . 7
D . 8
E . 8
F . 8
G to H . 8
I . 8
J to K . 9
L . 9
M . 9
N . 9
O . 12
P . 12
Q . 12
R . 12
S . 13
T . 14
U . 14
V . 14
W to Z . 16
4 Abbreviations . 17
0-9 . 17
A . 17
B . 17
C . 17
D . 17
E . 17
F . 17
G to H . 17
H . 18
I . 18
J . 18
K . 18
L . 18
M . 18
N . 18
O . 19
P . 19
Q . 19
R . 19
S . 19
T . 19
U . 20
V . 20
W . 20
ETSI
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4 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
X to Z . 20
History . 21
ETSI
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5 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Trademarks
The present document may include trademarks and/or tradenames which are asserted and/or registered by their owners.
ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of products, services or organizations associated with those trademarks.
Foreword
This Group Specification (GS) has been produced by ETSI Industry Specification Group (ISG) Network Functions
Virtualisation (NFV).
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
ETSI
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6 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
1 Scope
The present document provides terms and definitions for conceptual entities within the scope of the ISG NFV, in order
to achieve a "common language" across all the ISG NFV working groups.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
https://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
Not applicable.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] ETSI Directives: Annex 1: "Definitions in relation to the member categories of ETSI".
[i.2] ETSI TR 121 905: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; Vocabulary for 3GPP Specifications
(3GPP TR 21.905)".
[i.3] IETF RFC 2330: "Framework for IP Performance Metrics".
[i.4] IETF RFC 6390: "Guidelines for Considering New Performance Metric Development".
[i.5] ISO/IEC 15939:2007: "Systems and software engineering -- Measurement process".
[i.6] NIST Special Publication 500-307: "Cloud Computing Service Metrics Description".
NOTE: Available at http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/upload/RATAX-CloudServiceMetricsDescription-DRAFT-
20141111.pdf.
[i.7] Recommendation ITU-T Y.3500: "Information technology - Cloud computing - Overview and
vocabulary".
[i.8] ETSI GS NFV-MAN 001: "Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Management and
Orchestration".
[i.9] Recommendation ITU-T E.800 (2008): "Terms and definitions related to quality of service and
network performance including dependability".
ETSI
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7 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
3 Terms and definitions
0-9
Void.
A to B
administrative domain: collection of systems and networks operated by a single organization or administrative
authority
NOTE: The components which make up the domain are assumed to interoperate with a significant degree of
mutual trust among them based on a stable trust relationship, while a transient, specific trust relationship
is established for interoperating with components in other domains.
affinity of virtualised network resources: persistent policy that forces Virtual Links (VLs) to share the same physical
connectivity
NOTE 1: "Persistent" is used here and in the following definitions to indicate that the affinity remains in effect until
a change is requested by the consumer.
NOTE 2: This may be stipulated to ensure the same transmission characteristics (such as delay) for VLs.
allocate virtualised resource: operation that creates an instance of a virtualised resource, involving the assignment of
NFVI resources
NOTE 1: Virtualised resources can include virtualised compute resources, virtualised network resources or
virtualised storage resources.
NOTE 2: Throughout the present document the term "instantiated virtualised resource" is used to describe an
instance of a virtualised resource.
anti-affinity of virtualised network resources: persistent policy that forces Virtual Links (VLs) to not share any
physical connectivity
NOTE: This may be stipulated to ensure that VLs do not fail at the same time.
area affinity: policy that qualifies an affinity (or anti-affinity) policy with respect to location restrictions
NOTE: Anti-affinity can be used to support availability, survivability and performance needs with respect to
virtualised resources.
EXAMPLE: The anti-affinity policy of having virtualised compute resources on different compute nodes can be
further restricted by mandating to locate the compute nodes on different shelves, racks, bays, sites,
geographic areas or similar restriction.
C
Central Processing Unit (CPU): device in the compute node that provides the primary container interface
Composite Network Service (CNS): Network Service containing at least one Network Service
compute domain: domain within the NFVI that includes servers and storage
compute node: abstract definition of a server
consumable virtualised resource: virtualised resource that can be requested for reservation and/or allocation
NOTE: Virtualised resources comprise compute, network and storage.
EXAMPLE: A volume or object based virtual storage.
ETSI
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8 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
consumer: role played by a functional block that consumes certain functions exposed by another functional block
D
deployment flavour: template that describes a specific deployment (of a Network Service or VNF) supporting specific
KPIs (such as capacity and performance)
E
error: discrepancy between a computed, observed, or measured value or condition and a true, specified, or theoretically
correct value or condition
NOTE 1: Error is a consequence of a fault.
NOTE 2: See ETSI GS NFV-MAN 001 [i.8].
F
fault: adjudged or hypothesized cause of an error
NOTE: See Recommendation ITU-T E.800 [i.9].
fault detection: process of identifying an undesirable condition (fault or symptom) that may lead to the loss of service
from the system or device
fault diagnosis: high confidence level determination of the required repair actions for the components that are
suspected to be faulty
NOTE: Diagnosis actions are generally taken while the component being diagnosed is out of service.
fault isolation: isolation of the failed component(s) from the system
NOTE: The objectives of fault isolation include avoidance of fault propagation to the redundant components
and/or simultaneous un-intended activation of active and backup components in the context of
active-standby redundancy configurations (i.e. "split-brain" avoidance).
fault localization: determining the component that led to the service failure and its location
fault management notification: notification about an event pertaining to fault management
EXAMPLE: Fault management notifications include notifications of fault detection events, entity availability
state changes, and fault management phase related state progression events.
fault remediation: restoration of the service availability and/or continuity after occurrence of a fault
field replaceable unit: unit of hardware resources designed for easy replacement during the operational life of a
network element
G to H
Void.
I
infrastructure domain: administrative domain that provides virtualised infrastructure resources such as compute,
network, and storage or a composition of those resources via a service abstraction to another Administrative Domain,
and is responsible for the management and orchestration of those resources
NOTE: This definition is from ETSI GS NFV-MAN 001 [i.8].
ETSI
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9 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
infrastructure network domain: domain within the NFVI that includes all networking that interconnects
compute/storage infrastructure
NOTE: It pre-exists the realization of VNFs.
infrastructure resource group: logical resource collection grouping virtual resource instances assigned to a tenant
along with software images
J to K
Void.
L
lifecycle management: set of functions required to manage the instantiation, maintenance and termination of a VNF or
NS
M
measurement: set of operations having the object of determining a Measured Value or Measurement Result
NOTE: The actual instance or execution of operations leading to a Measured Value. (Based on the definition of
Measurement in ISO/IEC 15939 [i.5], as cited in NIST Special Publication 500-307 [i.6]).
metric: standard definition of a quantity, produced in an assessment of performance and/or reliability of the network,
which has an intended utility and is carefully specified to convey the exact meaning of a measured value
NOTE: This definition is consistent with that of Performance Metric in IETF RFC 2330 [i.3] and IETF
RFC 6390 [i.4].
EXAMPLE: Packet transfer performance or reliability of a network.
multi-site network service: network service whose constituent Network Functions/NSs are deployed in more than one
site
multi-tenancy: feature where physical, virtual or service resources are allocated in such a way that multiple tenants and
their computations and data are isolated from and inaccessible by each another
NOTE: This definition has been specialized from the term "multi-tenancy" as defined in Recommendation
ITU-T Y.3500 [i.7].
N
Nested Network Service (NNS): Network Service that is part of a composite Network Service
NOTE: A Composite Network Service is a Network Service containing at least one Network Service.
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
network forwarding path: ordered list of connection points forming a chain of NFs, along with policies associated to
the list
Network Function (NF): functional block within a network infrastructure that has well-defined external interfaces and
well-defined functional behaviour
NOTE: In practical terms, a Network Function is today often a network node or physical appliance.
Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV): principle of separating network functions from the hardware they run on by
using virtual hardware abstraction
ETSI
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10 ETSI GS NFV 003 V1.4.1 (2018-08)
Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI): totality of all hardware and software components that
build up the environment in which VNFs are deployed
NOTE: The NFV-Infrastructure can span across several locations, e.g. places where data centres are operated.
The network providing connectivity between these locations is regarded to be part of the NFV-
Infrastructure. NFV-Infrastructure and VNF are the top-level conceptual entities in the scope of Network
Function Virtualisation. All other components are sub-entities of these two main entities.
Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI) components: NFVI hardware resources that are not field
replaceable, but are distinguishable as COTS components at manufacturing time
Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure Node (NFVI-Node): physical device[s] deployed and managed as
a single entity, providing the NFVI Functions required to support the execution environment for VNFs
Network Function Virtualisation Infrastructure Point of Presence (NFVI-PoP): N-PoP where a Network Function
is or could be deployed as Virtual Network Function (VNF)
Network Functions Virtualisation Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO): functions collectively provided
by NFVO, VNFM, and VIM
Network Functions Virtualisation Management and Orchestration Architectural Framework (NFV-MANO
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
Network Functions Virtualisation Orchestrator (NFVO): 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
Network Interface Controller (NIC): device in a compute node that provides a physical interface with the
infrastructure network
network operator: operator of an electronics communications network or part thereof
NOTE: An association or organization of such network operators also falls within this category (as defined in
ETSI Directives [i.1]).
Network Point of Presence (N-PoP): location where a Network Function is implemented as either a Physical Network
Function (PNF) or a Virtual Network Function (VNF)
Network Service: composition of Network Function(s) and/or Network Service(s), defined by its functional and
behavioural specification
NOTE: The Network Service contributes to the behaviour of the higher layer service, which is characterized by at
least performance, dependability, and security specifications. The end-to-end network service behaviour
is the result of the combination of the individual network function behaviours as well as the behaviours of
the network infrastructure composition mechanism.
network service descriptor: template that describes the deployment of a Network Service including service topology
(constituent VNFs and the relationships between them, Virtual Links, VNF Forwarding Graphs) as well as Network
Service characteristics such as SLAs and any other artefacts necessary for the Network Service on-boarding and
lifecycle management of its instances
network service orchestration: subset of NFV Orchestrator functions that are responsible for Network Service
lifecycle management
network service provider: type of Service Provider implementing the Network Service
network stability: ability of the NFV framework to maintain steadfastness while providing its function and resume its
designated behaviour as soon as possible under difficult conditions, which can be excessive load or other anomalies not
exceeding the design limits
NF forwarding graph: graph of logical links connecting NF nodes for the purpose of describing traffic flow between
these network functions
ETSI
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NF set: collection of NFs with unspecified connectivity between them
NFVI component: NFVI hardware resource that is not field replaceable, but is distinguishable as a COTS component
at manufacturing time
NFV framework: totality of all entities, reference points, information models and other constructs defined by the
specifications published by the ETSI ISG NFV
NFV Infrastructure (NFVI): totality of all hardware and software components which build up the environment in
which VNFs a
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