Network Service Descriptor

The Network Service Descriptor contains the values that are defined in ETSI MANO specification. The NFVO is able to handle JSON file describing a Network Service Descriptor.

The NFVO can also handle onboarding a Network Service Template inside a CSAR compliant with the TOSCA Simple Profile for NFV. Refer to the NS Template tutorial and CSAR Onboarding tutorial.

An example of the most important fields follows:

{  
    "name":"iperf-NSD",
    "vendor":"fokus",
    "version":"0.1-ALPHA",
    "vnfd":[  ...  ],
    "vld":[  
        {  
            "name":"private"
        }
    ],
    "vnf_dependency":[
        {
            "source" : {
                "name": "iperf-server"
            },
            "target":{
                "name": "iperf-client"
            },
            "parameters":[
                "private"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

You can see a complete NSD json here.

Params	Meaning
name	The name to give to the NetworkServiceDescriptor
vendor	The vendor creating this NetworkServiceDescriptor
version	The version of the NetworkServiceDescriptor (can be any string)
vnfd	A list of VirtualNetworkFunctionDescriptors (see VirtualNetworkFunctionDescriptor)
vld	A list of VirtualLinkDescriptors
vnf_dependency	A list of VNF_Dependencies (Not mandatory, please check the vnfd page in order to understand how to get rid of it)

VirtualLinkDescriptor

The Virtual Link Descriptor (VLD) describes the basic topology of the connectivity between one or more VNFs connected to this VL. The VLD must contain a parameter name with the value of a network that will be used by the VirtualNetworkFunctionDescriptors. If the network exists, then this network will be used, if not a new one will be created.

VNF Dependencies

A VNF Dependency is composed by:

Params	Meaning
source	The name of the VirtualNetworkFunctionDescriptor that provides one or more parameters (see VNFManager Generic and VNF Parameters)
target	The name of the VirtualNetworkFunctionDescriptor that requires one or more parameters (see VNFManager Generic and VNF Parameters)
parameters	The name of the parameters that the target requires

It is possible to let the Orchestrator to calculate dependencies automatically by providing some parameters in the VNF Descriptor part. Please check the VNF Descriptor page

Network Service Onboarding

After saving the NSD as json you could easily upload it via the Dashboard or the Command Line Interface.