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 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.
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.
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.
Learn more about the MANO Domain