Celebrations and Struggles at NFV #8

I’ve attended every ETSI NFV Plenary session since April of 2013 – that’s seven in total – and I’d venture to say that the recently concluded NFV #8 was the most raucous to date!

To be fair, this wasn’t just any plenary; this was the session in which the first phase of NFV was formally wrapped up and the second phase launched.  While there was a lot of celebration over the former, the latter was demanding, and at times, protracted.  There were procedural challenges, complexities in nailing down the Terms of Reference for new Working Groups, and even discord over the structure of the Working Groups themselves.  All in all, there was plenty of healthy debate, not at all unusual or surprising when a bunch of passionate technology visionaries try to drive an industry forward!  I thought the NFV Leadership team did a great job of balancing the need for solid progress with the desire to give everyone an opportunity to voice their opinions and contribute suggestions.

The final set of Phase 1 NFV specifications are now technically complete,  undergoing final editorial review by ETSI prior to a planned February 2015 publication.  Work moving forward has already shifted to the newly christened Working Groups as they spin up to address their new mandates:

• WG-TST – Testing, Experimentation, FOSS Projects
• WG-IFA – Interfaces and Architecture
• WG-EVE – Evolution and Ecosystem
• WG-SEC – Security
• WG-REL – Reliability and Availability

Full details on the new groups and their individual Terms of Reference should be available in the near future on the main ETSI NFV portal.

Other recurring themes included managing interactions with OPNFV (Open Platform for NFV), and the focus on promoting interoperability of NFV solutions within the industry.  As a long time NFV contributor, and founding member of OPFNV, rest assured that Wind River will continue to focus on delivering Carrier Grade, high performance open source based solutions to the NFV community, while contributing our industry expertise to these key projects.