On the Performance of Router and Switch VNF in a Virtual Internet Lab

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) provides new advanced possibilities in designing and implementing networks. Network functions such as routing, firewall or load-balancing can now be represented as virtual devices known as Virtual Network Function (VNF). NFV makes it easier for network operators to develop and operate their systems, especially in capacity scalability by increasing or reducing the amount of VNF without having to buy new hardware. But the behavior and performance of an NFV system is still dependent on the stack on which it is run e.g. servers, cloud computing software, support services, operating systems etc. In this study we evaluate the performance limits of such VNFs in a virtual Internet routing scenario. Our environment is based on OpenStack infrastructure, which is the most common enterprise grade IaaS platform. We develop several scenarios to determine the ability of routing and switching in a virtual environment and investigate the performance of those VNFs.