Multi-VNF performance characterization for virtualized network functions

Abstract

Network Function Virtualization promises to reduce the overall operational and capital expenses experienced by the network operators. Running multiple network functions on top of a standard x86 server instead of dedicated appliances can increase the utilization of the underlying hardware and reduce the maintenance and management costs. However, total cost of ownership calculations are typically a function of the attainable network throughput, which in a virtualized system is highly dependent on the overall system architecture - in particular the input/ output (I/O) path. In this paper, we investigate the attainable performance of an x86 host running multiple Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) under different I/O architectures: OVS, SRIOV and FD.io VPP. We show that the system throughput in a multi-VNF environment differs significantly from deployments where only a single VNF is running on a server, while different I/O architectures can achieve different levels of performance.