Patent attributes
A method for implementing an entity of a network by virtualizing said network entity and implementing it on one or more servers each acting as an execution unit for executing thereon one or more applications running and/or one or more virtual machines running on said execution unit, each of said application programs or virtual machines running on a server and implementing at least a part of the functionality of said network entity being called a virtual network function VNF module, wherein a plurality of said VNF modules together implement said network entity to thereby form a virtual network function VNF, said method comprising the steps of: obtaining m key performance indicators (KPI) specifying the required overall performance of the VNF, obtaining n performance characteristics for available types of execution units, determining one or more possible deployment plans based on the obtained m KPI and n performance characteristics, each deployment plan specifying the number and types of execution units, such that the joint performance of VNF modules running on these execution units achieves the required overall performance of the VNF.
