Wind River Open Virtualization Profile
Wind River Open Virtualization Profile VideoAdaptive, High-Performance Virtualization Built for Scalability, Flexibility, and Openness
Until now, the benefits of virtualization have been restricted to use cases that did not require ultra-high performance or strict service level agreements—but it's no longer necessary to choose between virtualization and performance. With Wind River® Open Virtualization Profile, near-native hardware performance and virtualization come together while leveraging the latest in open source technologies to provide the carrier grade virtualization product you need to efficiently grow your business.
Open Virtualization Profile is a real-time virtualization solution using open source kernel virtualization machine technology combined with a proven commercial Linux distribution. It delivers:
- Low latency
- High throughput
- Virtual node management
—all the critical elements needed to maintain the performance levels you are expecting from your hardware without the traditional overhead associated with adding a software virtualization layer.
Why Virtualization?
Capacity, scalability, and operational and capital expense challenges created by the exponential growth of the network are the top concerns for service providers today. Legacy network elements built on proprietary, fixed-function appliances can no longer keep up with the growing need for networks to be more efficient and to deliver higher value services while maintaining performance and extreme reliability service level agreements.
Open Virtualization Profile is a fully integrated and performance-optimized solution that enables many applications and functions that run dedicated operating systems and hardware to consolidate into one system. It is applicable for use in next-generation designs where open source software is required and using standard hardware is desired.
Features
The networking industry has always taken the lead in the adoption of open source solutions; it is no surprise that network equipment providers are now looking for an open source virtualization solution that better fits the industry's need for high-performance systems to meet high service level agreement standards. Wind River Open Virtualization Profile delivers, through some of the following technical advancements:
- Open source solution based on the Wind River Linux Yocto Project Compatible platform
- Type 2 hypervisor with an enhanced kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) for low latency
- Optimized Open vSwitch combined with the Intel® Data Plane Development Kit (Intel DPDK) for high throughput orchestration with cloud middleware technologies like oVirt for virtual node management
Benefits
- Based on the key principles of software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV), two approaches that decouple network functions from hardware through abstraction
- Optimized to deliver high performance, real time, and low latency with near-native results
- Reduces OPEX and CAPEX costs through application and hardware consolidation, space reduction, power efficiencies, and improved operational and support efficiencies
- Enables network efficiencies through better utilization of idle network elements
- Runs on standard off-the-shelf server platforms
- Backed by our award-winning global support and services organization
Use Cases
Virtualization in the Cloud Radio Access Network
Mobile operators deploying 4G wireless networks are looking for innovative approaches to reduce the cost of delivering wireless data to their subscribers. The Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) is a new functional architecture that has huge potential to significantly drive down these costs. The CRAN separates the base station functionality into a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote radio head (RRH). The BBU includes the baseband layer 1 and base station (BS) layer 2 and 3 functionality. The RRH has a low noise amplifier (LNA), intermediate-frequency module and antenna. The interface between the BBU and the RRH is defined by the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) specifications. This architecture reduces deployment costs by enabling base station functionality to be centralized.
Consolidating Best-of-Breed Applications with Multiple
Operating Systems
Situation: An IT department wants the flexibility to choose the best VoIP and security software on the market for an appliance that is also running routing functions.
Solution: Put three workloads in separate virtual machines (VMs), allowing them to run independently on their native operating systems. As a result, IT can make application selections that are relatively independent of other software running on the system.
Application Software Isolation
Situation: Network operators may be concerned about unintended software interactions (e.g., breaches, bugs) between applications.
Solution: Put each application into a dedicated VM, thereby isolating each execution environment and the associated data since all memory spaces are protected in hardware by Intel VT. Applications can also be assigned to dedicated processor cores in order to increase application isolation.
