NFVI Platform Capability Registry

This is the ETSI registry for key/value pairs used to represent hardware platform capabilities and settings, as part of NFV VNF descriptors (VNFD).

Introduction

Some VNF suppliers make use of the underlying hardware platform capabilities in order to accelerate performance and optimize throughput of their VNF products. In order to ensure proper instantiation and operation of such VNFs, the VNF Descriptor is used to describe VNF-specific  hardware platform capability requirements that will be matched against the capabilities of the underlying hardware infrastructure resources, in order to ensure that appropriate resources are used for instantiation.

This registry is defined to specify capabilities that are generic to all hardware vendors, as well as capabilities that are hardware vendor specific. There are five different categories that can be specified in the VNFD: CPU, memory, storage, network and logical node requirements. They are defined in terms of data model (i.e. TOSCA, YANG) neutral attributes within information elements specified in ETSI GS NFV-IFA 011 version 2.5.1 and beyond. The attribute "type" is defined as a map of strings that contains a set of key-value pairs.

EPA Requirements	IFA011 Information Element	Attribute
CPU	VirtualCpuData	vduCpuRequirements
MEMORY	VirtualMemoryData	vduMemRequirements
STORAGE	BlockStorageData	vduStorageRequirements
NETWORK	VirtualNetworkInterfaceRequirements	networkInterfaceRequirements
LOGICAL NODE	LogicalNodeRequirements	logicalNodeRequirementDetail

Each attribute represents a table in the registry, with the entries in each table specifying the hardware platform capabilities. Each entry contains the following information:

Name	The name of the capability specified in lower camel case, for example memoryPageSize.
Permitted Value	One or more permitted values used to configure the capability specified in lower camel case
Version	The version of the capability specified as a decimal (X.X). There may be multiple versions supported. The versioning shall begin with 1.0 and be increased every time there is a change to the capability.
Schema	The schema used to validate and configure the associated value.
Hardware	If the capability is supported on all hardware platforms then this takes a value of "Generic". if not, it will be vendor specific such as Intel or ARM, etc.
Description	A short description of the capability, such as “memory page size.

The process for creating entries in this registry is subject to a governance process described in HPC registry operation.

The Registry

The entries in the tables below represent hardware capabilities supported by hardware vendors. When a capability is identified as "Generic" it implies the capability is supported by all hardware vendors. Otherwise the hardware is specified as vendor specific and thus is only supported by hardware provided by that vendor.

CPU Requirements – Example entry in the Registry

Name	Value	Version	Schema	Hardware	Description
cpuModelSpecificationBinding	strictBinding equalOrBetterBinding	1.0		Generic	VDUs may be developed, compiled, optimized or validated on particular CPU models. Some deployments may wish to permit the VDU to be deployed on a platform with the specified CPU only, or with an alternative CPU with the same architecture, instruction set, and if specified, instruction set extensions, or with a CPU of equivalent or greater capability.

Memory Requirements – Example entry in the Registry

Name	Value	Version	Schema	Hardware	Description
memoryPageSize	ANY, 4KB, 2MB, 1GB	1.0		Generic	Memory page size

Storage Requirements – Example entry in the Registry

Name	Value	Version	Schema	Hardware	Description
storageLops	0..N	1.0		Generic	Required storage characteristics (e.g. speed), including Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) for performance and reliability/availability
storageResilencyMechanism	Erasure tripleReplication	1.0		Generic	Erasure code based back-end, triple replication based back-end for ensuring data resiliency.

Network Requirements – Example entry in the Registry

Name	Value	Version	Schema	Hardware	Description
nicFeature	LSO, LRO, RSS, RDMA	1.0		Generic	Long list of NIC related items such as LSO, LRO, RSS, RDMA, etc

Logical Node Requirement Detail

The logical node requirements are broken-out into three types: Compute, Memory, and I/O.

Logical Node Compute Requirements – Example entry in the Registry

Name	Value	Version	Schema	Hardware	Description
numberCpu	0..N	1.0		Generic	Number of CPU cores for this logical node. The cumulative number of CPU requests per node must equal the VDU level numVirtualCpu requirement.

Logical Node Memory Requirements – Example entry in the Registry

Name	Value	Version	Schema	Hardware	Description
localNumaMemorySize	0..N	1.0		Generic	The amount of memory that needs to be collocated with this specific logical (NUMA) node.

Logical Node I/O Requirements – Example entry in the Registry

Name	Value	Version	Schema	Hardware	Description
pciVendorId		1.0		Generic	PCI-SIG vendor ID for the device

Mappings to Specific Data Models

Mapping to ETSI GS NFV-SOL 001 data model (TOSCA)

Mapping Table

For each of the five platform capability categories - CPU, memory, storage, network and logical node - the associated attribute defined in ETSI GS NFV-IFA 011 is mapped to a property of type “map of string” of a TOSCA data type specified in ETSI GS NFV-SOL 001. The following table describes for each attribute defined in ETSI GS NFV-IFA 011 and representing one of these five categories, the corresponding TOSCA property, the TOSCA data type where this property is used and the TOSCA node type where this data type is used, in accordance with ETSI GS NFV-SOL 001 v2.5.1 and beyond.

Category	IFA011 Attribute	As Property	Data Type Defined in SOL001	Used in SOL001
CPU	vduCpuRequirements	vdu_cpu_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.VirtualCpu	tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute
Memory	vduMemRequirements	vdu_mem_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.VirtualMemory	tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute
Network	networkInterfaceRequirements	network_interface_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.VirtualNetworkInterfaceRequirements	tosca.nodes.nfv.VduCp tosca.nodes.nfv.VnfExtCp
Storage	vduStorageRequirements	vdu_storage_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.VirtualBlockStorageData	tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.VirtualBlockStorage
Logical Node	logicalNodeRequirementDetail	logical_node_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.LogicalNodeData	tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute

Key/Value Pair Entry Format

Each entry in the hash maps defined above fully defines a single hardware platform capability. Within a given hash map entry, the "key" portion of the entry contains the capability name (as defined in the registry) and the "value" portion contains structured data representing the attributes of the corresponding configuration value.

The "key" portion of each array entry contains a string specifying a particular capability name. The "value" portion of each array entry is a structured field containing information used to interpret the requested capability configuration. The capability values are defined as TOSCA strings, and their content can vary from a single attribute to complex permutations of simple attributes, lists and hash maps. Content and structure of capability values are defined using JSON schemas that can be used to parse the capability value strings in order to determine the desired state of platform capabilities.

All capability value strings contain a set of pre-defined attributes that are used refine the how the requirements should be treated and what configuration value schema should be used for its interpretation. The following table describes that pre-defined attributes and their purpose:

Array Entry	Values
<key>	A string specifying the name of a given hardware platform capability as defined in the "name" column of a given registry table.
<value>	A map of key-value pairs describing the configuration value of a given capability, where the key-value pairs are defined as follows
	key type value schemaVersion string A string describing the version the schema to be used for validation and interpretation of the <configuration-value>. This is taken from the "version" column of a given registry table. schemaSelector string An Identifier for the particular schema to use. This is taken from the "schema" column of a given registry table. hardwarePlatform string A string describing what hardware platform associated with a given capability. For vendor-neutral capabilities, a value of "generic" is used, otherwise a specific vendor (i.e. Intel, ARM, etc) is used. This is taken from the "hardware" column of a given registry table. mandatory string A boolean value expressed in string type specifying whether the requested capability is mandatory for proper operation of the VNF. The value of "true" indicates that a given hardware platform capability must be present. The value of "false" indicates that the VNF can function with or without the capability. Note: this is not taken from the registry and is defined on a per NFV vendor basis. configurationValue string A string describing the configuration value of a given capability, as defined by the schema. This shall be among the permitted values specified in the "value" column of a given registry table.
...	Structured data representing the hardware platform capability configuration value-specific attributes can vary from a single attribute to complex permutations of simple attributes, lists and hash maps.

Examples

CPU Hardware Capabilities

Usage of vdu_cpu_requirements key-value pairs as specified in tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute. Note in this example that there is one  hardware capabilities being defined: simulatenousMultiThreading. This is  the “key”. The  associated “value” is composed of a specification of: schemaVersion, schemaSelector, hardwarePlatform, mandatory, and configurationValue as a complex value.

<some entity>

...

        properties:

                  vdu_cpu_requirements:

                       simultaneousMultiThreading:

                           schemaVersion: 0

                           schemaSelector: " "

                           hardwarePlatform: "Ggeneric"

                           mandatory: true

                           configurationValue: "enabled"

...

Memory Hardware Capabilities

Usage of vdu_mem_requirements key-value pairs as specified in tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute. Note in this example that there are two hardware capabilities being defined: memoryPageSize and numberOfPages. These are the “keys”. Each associated “value” is composed of a specification of: schemaVersion, schemaSelector, hardwarePlatform, mandatory, and configurationValue as a complex value.

<some entity>

...

         properties:

                  vdu_mem_requirements:

                        memoryPageSize:

                            schemaVersion: 0

                            schemaSelector: " "

                            hardwarePlatform: "Generic"

                            mandatory: true

                            configurationValue: "2 MB"

                        numberOfPages:

                            schemaVersion: 0

                            schemaSelector: " "

                            hardwarePlatform: "Generic"

                            mandatory: true

                            configurationValue: "1024"

...

...

Storage Hardware Capabilities

Usage of vdu_storage_requirements key-value pairs as specified in tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.VirtualBlockStorage. Note in this example that there is one hardware capability being defined: storageResiliencyMechanism. This is the “key”. The associated “value” is composed of a specification of: schemaVersion, schemaSelector, hardwarePlatform, mandatory, and configurationValue as a complex value.

<some entity>

...

         properties:

                  vdu_storage_requirements:

                        storageResiliencyMechanism:

                            schemaVersion: 0

                            schemaSelector: " "

                            hardwarePlatform: "Intel"

                            mandatory: true

                            configurationValue: "tripleReplication"

...

...

Network Hardware Capabilities

Usage of network_interface_requirements key-value pairs as specified in tosca.nodes.nfv.VduCp or tosca.nodes.nfv.VnfExtCp. Note in this example that there is one hardware capability being defined: dataProcessingAccelerationLibrary.  This is the “key”. The associated “value” is composed of a specification of: schemaVersion, schemaSelector, hardwarePlatform, mandatory, and configurationValue as a complex value.

<some entity>

...

         properties:

                  network_interface_requirements:

                        dataProcessingAccelerationLibrary:

                            schemaVersion: 0

                            schemaSelector: " "

                            hardwarePlatform: "Ggeneric"

                            mandatory: true

                            configurationValue: "dpdk"

...

...

Logical Node Hardware Capabilities

Usage of logical_node_requirements key-value pairs pairs as specified in tosca.nodes.nfv.Vdu.Compute. Note in this example that there are three hardware capabilities being defined: numberCpu, localNumaMemorySize, and pciDeviceLocalToNumaNode. These are the “keys”. Each associated “value” is composed of a specification of: schemaVersion, schemaSelector, hardwarePlatform, mandatory, and configurationValue as a complex value.

<some entity>

...

         properties:

                  logical_node_requirements:

                        numberCpu:

                            schemaVersion: 0

                            schemaSelector: " "

                            hardwarePlatform: "Intel"

                            mandatory: true

                            configurationValue: "1"

                        localNumaMemorySize:

                            schemaVersion: 0

                            schemaSelector: " "

                            hardwarePlatform: "Intel"

                            mandatory: true

                            configurationValue: "4096"

                         pciDeviceLocalToNumaNode:

                            schemaVersion: 0

                            schemaSelector: " "

                            hardwarePlatform: "Intel"

                            mandatory: true

                            configurationValue: "required"

...

...

Mapping to ETSI NFV-SOL 006 data model (YANG)

To be defined

Registration process

Operation of the Registry