Cloud-Native Automation and ETSI NFV MANO: Evolution, Migration and Co-Existence Strategies

"Even operators keen to adopt cloud-native automation are unlikely to be able to completely remove NFV MANO from their network anytime soon."

Telecoms operators primarily rely on the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) network functions virtualisation (NFV) management and orchestration (MANO) architecture for managing the lifecycle of virtualised network functions (VNFs) and orchestrating associated network services. The growing adoption of cloud-native network function (CNF) has led to increasing interest in implementing a new automation paradigm - cloud-native automation (CNA) - which uses the inherent automation capabilities of Kubernetes (K8s). Operators hope that CNA can unlock automation benefits that they have struggled to achieve with MANO. Additionally, ETSI plans to evolve MANO to align more closely with CNA principles. However, the best pathways for operators to advance their network automation remain unclear.

This report explores different approaches for operators to unlock greater benefits from their network automation, namely by evolving their NFV MANO implementations or adopting CNA solutions (alongside NFV MANO, thereby adopting a hybrid automation approach). It also discusses how operators can bridge the gap between NFV MANO and CNA and the implications of the changing network automation paradigm on the industry ecosystem.

Questions answered in this report:

• What are the key considerations for operators that are looking to evolve their approaches to network automation?
• What strategies can operators adopt to advance their network automation with MANO and CNA?
• What are the implications of evolving MANO standards and implementations for operators?
• How can operators implement, benefit from and overcome the challenges of CNA approaches?
• How can vendors best support operators with advancing their automation?