Enabling NFV Services on Resource-Constrained CPEs

Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) are often implemented using virtual machines (VMs) because they provide an isolated environment compatible with classical cloud computing technologies. Unfortunately, VMs are demanding in terms of required resources and therefore are not suitable for resource-constrained devices such as residential CPEs. However, such hardware often runs a Linux-based operating system that supports several software modules (e.g., iptables) that can be used to implement network functions (e.g., a firewall), which can be exploited to provide some of the services offered by simple VNFs, but with reduced overhead. In this paper we propose and validate an architecture that integrates those native software components in a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) platform, making their use transparent from the user’s point of view.