Ericsson Orchestrator

Ericsson Orchestrator (EO) is a comprehensive suite of modules which support the orchestration of resources and services in virtualized and hybrid networks. These modules can be combined in various ways to provide life cycle management of Virtual Network Functions, control the allocation and use of virtualized infrastructure resources, manage transport connections over Wide Area Networks. Also, to provide life cycle management of end-to-end services.

Ericsson Orchestrator consists of the following applications:

• EO cCM (CM)
• Evolved VNFM (EVNFM)

EO cCM

EO cCM consists of G-VNFM, System Configuration Management (SCM), and NFVO.
Cloud technologies provide ISP operators and enterprises with the ability to manage Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) services and IT workloads in a more efficient manner.
EO cCM performs the following:

• Provides an integrated platform for LCM of NFV and IT workloads.
• Operates in a geographically distributed cloud infrastructure.
• Enables secure and hierarchical multi-tenancy for this cloud infrastructure.
• Provides a secure GUI and open APIs for all the NFV and IT workload management services.
• Manages virtualization resources in a flexible way, allowing cloud providers to build and grow cloud infrastructure for virtualized applications and VNF-based services.

In the NFV domain, EO cCM provides generic VNF Manager (VNFM) and NFVO functions for Virtualized Network Services and Virtual Network Functions with open and standard-based interfaces. EO cCM offers orchestration of NFV services by using the following:

• Standard-based templates or descriptors
• Orchestration workflows

It also enables extensibility of the workflows through REST API callouts and asynchronous notifications. The southbound adaptation framework of EO cCM enables customization of virtualized overlay networks for data center and WAN network infrastructure.
EO cCM also supports the ETSI MANO architecture for VNF LCM. The support for this architecture is characterized as follows:

• VNF package onboarding and management are provided through a standardized interface.
• The NFVO functionality for VNF management is separated and enhanced with quota and capacity check.
• The actual VNF LCM can be delegated to multiple external VNFMs registered to EO cCM. The communication between the NFVO and VNFM is performed through a standardized interface.

EO cCM offers a comprehensive fault management and Performance Management platform for highly reliable operations of virtualized workloads. Infrastructure capacity management and tenant quota management features provide operational controls. Such controls are necessary in multi-tenant, distributed cloud environments. Operational capabilities are rounded up by a High Availability and geographically redundant deployment model. This deployment model is suitable for most demanding Internet Service Provider and IT operations environments.

EVNFM

EVNFM provides Life Cycle Management (LCM) support for Containerized Network Functions (CNFs) and Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) according to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Management and Orchestration (MANO) specifications.

Currently, the ETSI standards do not support CNFs. EVNFM aligns to the existing standards as closely as possible and includes the necessary changes to support CNFs.

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