The Role of Functional Programming in Management and Orchestration of Virtualized Network Resources Part II. Network Evolution and Design Principles

TL;DR

This paper explores how functional programming principles can enhance the management and orchestration of virtualized network resources, emphasizing NFV and network evolution, with practical examples and educational insights.

Contribution

It introduces the application of functional programming concepts to NFV management and orchestration, highlighting new approaches for reliable virtual network operations.

Findings

Functional programming improves NFV management efficiency

Examples demonstrate coordination of virtualized resources

Focus on reliable operation of orchestration functions

Abstract

This is part II of the follow-up lecture notes of the lectures given by the authors at the Three \CO" (Composability, Comprehensibility, Correctness) Winter School held in Kov{s}ice, Slovakia, in January 2018, and Summer School held in Budapest, Hungary, in June 2019. In this part we explain the recent network evolution and the concept of virtualization, focusing on the management and orchestration of virtualized network resources. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a new paradigm for changing the way networks are built and operated. Decoupling software implementation from network resources through a virtualization layer introduces a need for developing sets of NFV management and orchestration (MANO) functions. We discuss how this new point of view is highly inspired by the functional programming concepts. We provide examples and exercises on Open Stack virtual technology, and also discuss the challenges and problems inspired by telecommunication industry. Focus is on Reliable operation of Management and Orchestration functions of Virtualized resources. These notes provide an introduction to the subject, with the goal of explaining the necessity for new knowledge and skills in area of network programming. We introduce students with main problems and the network design principles, methods and techniques used for their solution. The worked examples and exercises serve students as the teaching material, from which they can learn how to use functional programming to effectively and efficiently coordinate management and orchestration functions in distributed complex systems using NFV.