This is the ETSI NVS SOL registry for key/value pairs used to represent EPA requirements and settings, as part of NFV VNF descriptors.

DISCLAIMER: The contents of this WIKI page is under developement and has not yet been reviewed by the ETSI NFV SOL Working Group

Specifying EPA Capability Requirements using TOSCA-based NFV VNF Descriptors

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 (VNFD) is used to describe VNF-specific EPA 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.

Specifying EPA requirements

There are five different types of EPA capability requirements that can be specified in the VNFdescriptor - CPU, memory, storage, network and NUMA. Each requirement type is specified using a TOSCA hash map containing a list of capabilities and their corresponding desired configuration values. The following table describes where within the VNFD the EPA requirement hash maps are defined and where within the VNFD they are used.

EPA Requirements	Attribute Name	Defined in...	Used in...
CPU	vdu_cpu_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.VirtualCpu	tosca.nodes.nfv.VDU.Compute
Memory	vdu_memory_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.VirtualMemory	tosca.nodes.nfv.VDU.Compute
NIC	network_interface_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.VirtualNetworkInterfaceRequirements	tosca.nodes.nfv.VduCp tosca.nodes.nfv.VnfExtCp
Storage	vdu_storage requirements	map	tosca.nodes.nfv.VDU.VirtualStorage
NUMA	logical_node_requirements	tosca.datatypes.nfv.LogicalNodeData	tosca.nodes.nfv.VDU.Compute

EPA Requirement Key/Value Pair Entry Format

EPA capability requirements are specified using a set of TOSCA hash maps within the VNFD. Each entry in the hash map fully defines a single EPA capability requirement. Within a given hash map entry, the "key" portion of the entry contains the EPA capability name and the "value" portion contains structured data representing the the attributes of the corresponding configuration value.

The "key" portion of each array entry contains a string specifying a particular EPA 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 EPA 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 EPA capability.

<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>.
schemaSelector	string	An Identifier for the particular schema to use.
hardwarePlatform	string	A string describing what hardware platform associated with a given EPA capability. For vendor-neutral EPA capabilities, a value of "generic" is used.
mandatory	string	A boolean value expressed in string type specifying whether the requested capability is mandatory for for proper operation of the VNF. The value of "true" indicated that a given EPA capability must be present. The value of "false" indicates that the VNF can function with or without the capability.
configurationValue	string	A string describing the configuration value of a given capability, as defined by the schema.

...

Structured data representing the EPA capability configuration value-specific attributes. Can vary from a single attribute to complex permutations of simple attributes, lists and hash maps.

Supported EPA Capability Requirements

VDU CPU Requirements

Capability Name	Capability Value	Descriptiopn
cpuModelSpecificationBinding	strictBinding equalOrBetterBinding	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.
instructionSetRequirements	aes, sse, avx, cat, cmt, mbm, ddio, smt, rdrand, etc etc	Long list of instruction set extensions.
simultaneousMultiThreading	Enabled disabled	The use of Simultaneous Multi-Threading HW is an efficient way to increase the compute capacity of a platform. SMT HW threads share some CPU core resources. In some VDU implementations, it may be necessary to very explicitly control the HW thread allocation on a platform. This could be to help ensure locality in data caches or as a mechanism to enhance determinism
hypervisorConfiguration	HPET memoryCompaction kernelSamepageMerging	Long list: High Precision Event Timer configuration, memory compaction, kernel samepage merging, etc.
computeRas	pciDetectedAndCorrectedErrors pciDetectedAndUncorrectedErrors	Reliability, Availability, Serviceability (RAS) Long list of values: pciDetectedAndCorrectedErrors, pciDetectedAndUncorrectedErrors
cpuModel	List of model identifiers	The CPU model for which the VDU has been developed, compiled for, optimized on, validated on or preferred for some reason.
directIoAccessToCache	Values – TBD	Descriptions related to cache functions – TBD
accelerator	Values – TBD	Descriptions related to accelerator functions – TBD
measuredLaunchEnvironment	Values – TBD	Descriptions related to boot environment functions – TBD
secureEnclave	Values – TBD	Descriptions related to secure region functions – TBD
numVirtualCpu	1-N	Number of virtual CPUs
virtualCpuClock	0-N	Minimum virtual CPU clock rate (e.g. in MHz). The cardinality can be 0 during the allocation request, if no particular value is requested.
logicalCpuPinningPolicy	dedicated shared	Determines if CPUs from the host platform should be committed to the VDU or shared between VDUs.
logicalCpuThreadPinningPolicy	require isolate prefer	Determines the manner in which CPU (HW) threads are allocated to VDUs. Require means CPU (HW) thread siblings should be allocated Isolate means allocate CPU (HW) threads from different execution units. Prefer means ideally allocate CPU HW threads from the same physical execution units but if not available, continue with allocation.

VDU Memory Requirements

Capability Name	Capability Value	Descriptiopn

memoryPageSize	ANY, 4KB, 2MB, 1GB	Memory page size
numberOfPages	0..N	Number of pages of this specific page size. Note, The size of memory requested in all instances of the vduMemRequirements must be less than or equal to the virtualMemSize attribute of the virtualMemoryData information element.
memoryAllocationPolicy	strictLocalAffinity preferredLocalAffinity	Strict Local (to node) Affinity or Preferred local (to node) affinity
memoryType		Type of memory
memorySpeed		Agreed unit of memory speed
memoryRas	ECC, SDDC, thermalThrottling, demandAndPatrolScrubbing	Long list of memory technologies
memoryBandwidth	0..N	Agreed unit of memory bandwidth where 0 is unspecified.
processorCacheAllocationType	Values – TBD	Agreed type of processor cache allocation
processorCacheAllocationSize	0..N	Agreed unit of processor cach

VDU Storage Requirements

Capability Name	Capability Value	Descriptiopn
storageIops	0..N	Required storage characteristics (e.g. speed), including Key Quality Indicators (KQIs) for performance and reliability/availability
storageResilencyMechanism	Erasure tripleReplication	Erasure code based back-end, triple replication based back-end for ensuring data resiliency.

Logical Node Compute Requirements

Capability Name	Capability Value	Descriptiopn
numberCpu	0..N	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

Capability Name	Capability Value	Descriptiopn
localNumaMemorySize	0..N	The amount of memory that needs to be collocated with this specific logical (NUMA) node.

Logical Node i/O Requirements

Capability Name	Capability Value	Descriptiopn
pciVendorId		PCI-SIG vendor ID for the device
pciDeviceId		PCI-SIG device ID for the device
pciNumDevices		Number of PCI devices required.
pciAddress		Geographic location of the PCI device via the standard PCI-SIG addressing model of Domain:Bus:device:function
pciDeviceLocalToNumaNode	required notRequired	Determines if I/O device affinity is required.

Network Interface Requirements

Capability Name	Capability Value	Description
nicFeature	LSO, LRO, RSS, RDMA	Long list of NIC related items such as LSO, LRO, RSS, RDMA, etc.
dataProcessingAccelerationLibrary	Dpdk	Name of the data processing acceleration library required. Orchestration can match any NIC that is known to be compatible with the specified library.
dataProcessingAccelerationLibraryVersion	Version	Version of the data processing acceleration library required. Orchestration can match any NIC that is known to be compatible with the specified library.
interfaceType	Virtio, PCI-Passthrough, SR-IOV, E1000, RTL8139, PCNET	Network interface type
vendorSpecificNicFeature	TBA	List of vendor specific NIC related items.

WORK IN PROGRESS

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