NFV is meant to decouple the hardware and software
requirements that are typical for network devices and
enable the software component or the network operating
system to run on commodity hardware as a virtual
machine, in a container, or on bare-metal servers. While
in most cases this leads to a loss of performance as
custom hardware components such as Application
Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are not used with
NFV offerings, it is usually considered an acceptable
trade-off and offers a cost-effective way to take
advantage of the software features that come with the
network operating system. If maximum performance is
required, then a combination of dedicated custom
hardware and software can be used to ensure guaranteed
performance. If the performance requirement is not as
stringent, then an NFV alternative that includes just the
software network operating system running on off-the-
shelf hardware can be considered. For example, Cisco
offers the enterprise-grade network operating system
Cisco IOS XE as a downloadable virtual machine in the
form of a Cisco CSR1000v router for an NFV offering
covering enterprise routing and switching capabilities,
and it also offers IOS XE as a combination of hardware
and software with the Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series of
switches that offer 100Gbps interfaces and guaranteed
hardware routing and switching forwarding
performance. There is a virtual option for almost all
Cisco operating systems currently available, including
Cisco IOS XE with Cisco CSR1000v, Cisco IOS XR with
Cisco IOS XRv, and Cisco NX-OS with Cisco NX-OSv
- These virtual instances can be run on x86
commodity hardware on premises or in private and
public cloud environments.
Cisco CML/VIRL is a powerful network simulation
platform that is meant to be a flexible, all-in-one virtual
networking lab. With Cisco CML/VIRL and virtual
instances of network operating systems from Cisco, it is
possible to build entire network simulations. The