ETSI Network Function Virtualisation is an initiative started in October 2012 when a group of Vendors and Operators published a White Paper describing the objectives, the motivations, and the use cases driving this new specification group.
The ETSI NFV group released in 2015 a set of documents as part of the first release of the specification. In these documents they proposed the ETSI NFV Architecture as the following
{{:nfv-architecture.jpg|ETSI NFV Architecture}}
NFV Domains
NFV proposes three different domains for organising the specification work. Those domains are listed below, and further described in each of the different sub-pages.
Virtual Network Function (VNF) Domain
A VNF is a software implementation of a Network Function that can be deployed on a cloud infrastructure. The VNF domain explores all the aspects related with the VNFs, including high-availability, elasticity, reliability and lifecycle management.
[[:vnf-domain|Learn more about the VNF Domain]]
Network Function Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI) Domain
The NFVI is the composition of Hardware and Software elements providing the Infrastructure on top of which VNFs are executed.
[[:nfvi-domain|Learn more about the NFVI Domain]]
Management and Orchestration (MANO) Domain
The MANO domain includes all the Management and Orchestration functions required for managing the lifecycle of those VNFs on top of the NFVI.
[[:mano-domain|Learn more about the MANO Domain]]