WO2017188682A1

WO2017188682A1 - Nfvo having vnf license management function and vnf license management method using same

Info

Publication number: WO2017188682A1
Application number: PCT/KR2017/004336
Authority: WO
Inventors: 옥기상; 백은경; 한제찬
Original assignee: 주식회사 케이티
Priority date: 2016-04-25
Filing date: 2017-04-24
Publication date: 2017-11-02
Also published as: KR20170121714A; KR102319503B1

Abstract

An NFVO having a VNF license management function and an NFV license management method using the same are disclosed. The NFVO capable of managing the license of a VNF can comprise: a license management function unit for requesting a license key of the VNF from a license manager of a VNF vendor and replying to the same, setting the license key in the VNF, and checking or verifying a license state of the VNF; and a license management database for storing the license state of the VNF. Therefore, VNF license information can be managed in a unified manner for different pieces of VNF license information of various vendors, a license use amount between the VNF vendor and the NFVO can be mutually verified, and reliable billing can be performed for the VNF, which can frequently be created/deleted by a communication provider in an NFV technology-based network.

Description

NFVO with VNF license management and how to manage VNF licenses using it

The present invention relates to network function virtualization (NFV), and more particularly, to a network function virtualization orchestrator that enables to manage licenses of virtualized network functions (VNFs) provided according to NFV technology. (NFVO: NFV Orchestrator) and the VNF license management method using the same.

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology is a technology that enables faster and more flexible service by installing and removing network devices previously provided as hardware in the form of software in a general-purpose server infrastructure.

In the NFV service environment, license management has changed dramatically. In the past, licenses were assigned to hardware devices, and hardware and licenses were 1: 1. However, in a softwareized NFV service environment, license management is based on the same software image. Since instances can be created, the relationship between the software image and the license changes to 1: n.

In this case, each time a new softwareized network device, that is, a VNF (Virtualized Network Function) is newly created, a license must be newly assigned and activated, and when the VNF is deleted, a process of removing license information is required. In addition, these licenses must be issued or returned by the vendor providing the VNF, and each of these VNF licenses is a unit in which the vendor bills the carrier for the VNF, or a unit in which the carrier provides services to the customer. Management is a very sensitive and important issue.

Therefore, VNF license management should be managed automatically when scaling through VNF or lifecycle management functions such as creation, deletion, modification, etc. of VNF. Every time a user installs, deletes, or increases or decreases the number of VNFs installed in a network of numerous customers or in a national network, it is difficult and manual to assign, remove, and measure licenses manually. In addition, it is necessary to measure a customer's usage of the license application status applied to each VNF or to the VNF to which the license is assigned, and deliver it to a billing system for billing. In this way, the measured usage information should be automatically applied for settlement between the service provider and the VNF vendor.

VNF license management is required to commercialize a virtual network with Network Function Virtualization (NFV), but there is insufficient standardization in this field. The reality is that each VNF vendor is designing information structures and processing functions to handle licenses in different forms.

This reality makes it difficult for telecom service providers to accommodate VNFs from various vendors to build networks and provide customer solutions. This is because different license management structures for different vendors' VNFs must all be managed in different ways.

The ETSI / NFV Standards Committee defines the structure and interface specifications for managing VNFs in a standardized way among different VNF vendors, and it is necessary to define standard license-driven interfaces and processes for standardized VNF license management.

The first object of the present invention for solving the above problems is, in the NFV technology-based service environment provided by the network device is provided in the software, VNF license allocation, release, usage measurement, etc. according to the creation and deletion of the VNF It provides a network function virtualization orchestrator with VNF license management.

A second object of the present invention for solving the above problems, in the NFV technology-based service environment provided by the network device is provided in the software, VNF license allocation, release, usage measurement, etc. according to the creation and deletion of the VNF It provides a way to manage VNF licenses.

A third object of the present invention for solving the above problems is, in the NFV technology-based service environment provided by the network device is provided in the software, VNF license allocation, release, usage measurement, etc. according to the creation and deletion of the VNF It is to provide a network virtualization system that can be done.

Network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO) according to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the first object of the present invention described above request and return the license key of the VNF to the license manager of the VNF vendor, the VNF A license management function unit configured to set the license key in and check or verify a license state of the VNF; And a license management database that stores a license state of the VNF.

The license manager of the VNF vendor may be a VNF manager (VNFM) of the VNF vendor.

The license manager of the VNF vendor may be a local license manager existing in a service provider's internal network or a global license manager existing on the Internet.

The license management function unit may further include a function of collecting license usage information according to the license key set in the VNF and providing the billing system of a telecommunication company or a billing system of the VNF vendor.

The license usage information may be used for mutual settlement between the telecommunication company and the VNF vendor.

The license management function unit secures a license to be provided to the VNF from the license manager of the VNF vendor in the form of a license pool in the license management database, or on-demand at the request of the VNF. ) Can be secured in the form of.

VNF license management method according to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above-described second object of the present invention comprises the steps of receiving a creation request for the VNF, and checking the license availability of the VNF to the license manager of the VNF vendor ; Requesting and returning a license key for the VNF to a license manager of the VNF vendor; Creating the VNF and setting the license key to the VNF; And updating the license status of the VNF in a license management database.

The VNF license management method may be performed by a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO).

The VNF license management method may further include collecting license usage information according to the license key set in the VNF, and providing the license usage information to a billing system of a telecommunication company or a billing system of the VNF vendor.

Network function virtualization system according to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the third object of the present invention described above is composed of a VNF element, Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFV), and NFV, VNFM, and VIM (Virtualization Infrastructure Manager) A Management and Coordination (MANO) element, wherein the NFVO requests and returns a license key of the VNF to the license manager of the VNF vendor, sets the license key to the VNF, and displays the license status of the VNF. License management function to verify or verify; And a license management database that stores a license state of the VNF.

When using the VNF license management method and the NFVO according to an embodiment of the present invention, the license of the NFVO compared to the conventional license management method that allows the VNF vendor license manager to directly issue or return a license every time a VNF is created / modified / deleted. Through the management function, it is possible to obtain license information from the license manager of the VNF vendor, to install / delete the VNF license information to the VNF, and to measure the amount of usage thereof. It can be solved.

Enables you to manage VNF license information in a unified manner in the license management function and license management database within NFVO for different VNF license information from various vendors, and enables cross-validation of usage between VNF vendors and NFVO. In the commercialization of NFV technology-based network services, a carrier may be provided with a means to reliably charge for VNF that can be created / deleted at any time by software.

In the conventional license management scheme, the VNF vendor license manager manages licenses for each VNF, and does not manage any network services provided by a telecommunications company. However, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the network management criteria are provided through the license management function unit of the NFVO. VNF license management can be done.

Since network services are not a single VNF but a combination of VNFs from various vendors, the relationship between them and license management centered on network services can only be achieved by having a corresponding license management module and database in NFVO. In addition, when a network failure occurs, it is necessary to check and reassign the VNF license information of the network service unit instead of the VNF unit. When using the VNF vendor license manager, the license processing due to the network failure of the network service unit is very difficult. On the other hand, when using the structure of the NFVO according to an embodiment of the present invention, it may be possible to recover by reassigning a license for network failure using VNF and VNF license allocation information for each network service stored in a database.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an ETST NFV architecture to which a VNF scaling method and a virtualization network function manager according to the present invention are applied.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an NFVO including a license management function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a VNF generation step of the VNF license management method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a license usage information collection step of the VNF license management method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a method for providing a license in an NFV license management method according to the present invention.

6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating another example of a method for providing a license in the NFV license management method according to the present invention.

7 is a conceptual diagram illustrating another example of a method of providing a license in the NFV license management method according to the present invention.

As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention. In describing the drawings, similar reference numerals are used for similar elements.

Terms such as first, second, A, and B may be used to describe various components, but the components should not be limited by the terms. The terms are used only for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the present invention, the first component may be referred to as the second component, and similarly, the second component may also be referred to as the first component. The term and / or includes a combination of a plurality of related items or any item of a plurality of related items.

When a component is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another component, it may be directly connected to or connected to that other component, but it may be understood that other components may be present in between. Should be. On the other hand, when a component is said to be "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another component, it should be understood that there is no other component in between.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this application, the terms "comprise" or "have" are intended to indicate that there is a feature, number, step, operation, component, part, or combination thereof described in the specification, and one or more other features. It is to be understood that the present invention does not exclude the possibility of the presence or the addition of numbers, steps, operations, components, components, or a combination thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Terms such as those defined in the commonly used dictionaries should be construed as having meanings consistent with the meanings in the context of the related art and shall not be construed in ideal or excessively formal meanings unless expressly defined in this application. Do not.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, the NFV architecture proposed by ETSI may include a virtualized network function (VNF) 120 and a network function virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) 140. .

Here, the Operations Support System (OSS) is a system for supporting the operator's network operation and the provision and maintenance of customer service, and the Business Support System (BSS) is the billing for the customer, the customer relationship management (CRM) Relationship management) and call center business automation.

At least one VNF instance 121-1,..., 121 -N may exist on the VNF 120, and element management (EM) 122-1,..., 122 -N (EM) corresponding to each of these may exist. have. On NVFI 140 there are real

physical hardware

145, 146, 147, virtualization layer 144 that virtualizes the actual physical hardware resources, and

virtualization resources

141, 142, 143 virtualized by virtualization layer 144. Can be.

In addition, there may be an NFV Management and Orchestration Component (MANO) 150 for managing and coordinating the components on the NFV architecture.

The MANO 150 manages virtual resources (networking resources, network resources, storage resources) and orchestrate the virtual resources. Therefore, it checks the availability of virtual resources for network services consisting of multiple VNFs, takes charge of the actual deployment of them, and configures the distribution order and related information between VNFs for successful initiation of services. Must be delivered.

Within the MANO 150 is a coordinator (Orchestrator) 151 coordinating the overall operation, a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) 152 managing the VNF 120, and a virtualization infrastructure managing the NFVI 140. There may be a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) 153.

The role of the VNFM 152 is to perform lifecycle management of the VNFs between the VNFs and the orchestrator 151 that manages virtual resources and services. In particular, the VNFM 152 manages the association between virtual resources and VNFs in a cloud environment and immediately maintains and optimizes the continuity of services provided by VNFs in response to events or state changes occurring between them. do.

On the other hand, the role of the VIM 153 is responsible for the control and management of the NFVI to be described later, and typically serves to control and manage the NFVI existing in the infrastructure domain of the operator unit.

NFVI refers to the hardware and software elements that make up the environment where VNF can run. OpenStack, CloudStack, and others are based on open source, and each NFVI provides its own application program interface.

NFVI can be divided into three domains, compute domain (including storage), hypervisor domain, and infrastructure network domain. Virtual computing and virtual storage belonging to the hypervisor domain refer to virtual resources allocated to virtual machines based on physical resources, and the virtualization layer refers to hypervisors such as KVM and XEN.

Computing hardware and storage hardware belonging to the compute domain refer to physical hardware resources, and a virtual network belonging to the infrastructure network domain refers to a virtual network assigned to a virtual machine. (network hardware) means each physical network device. NFVI has a Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) and a reference point Nf-Vi, and has a VNF and Vn-Nf reference architecture.

Referring to FIG. 2, the NFVO 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a license management function 210 and a license management database 220.

In detail, the license management unit 210 may include at least one of a license classification unit 211, a license policy management unit 212, a license key management unit 213, and a license usage metering unit 214. have. However, the detailed elements 211 to 214 of the license management function 210 are only examples of components corresponding to the roles performed by the license management function 210, and the detailed components are one. It may be configured as a software module of, or may be configured as two or more software modules that perform two or more roles.

In addition, the license management unit 210 may include a VNF instance (eg, 230), a VNFM 240, a billing system 250 of a provider BSS / OSS, a local license manager 260 of a VNF vendor, and a global license of a VNF vendor. It may have an interface with at least one of the manager 270 and the OSS billing system 280 of the VNF vendor.

For example, the license management function 210 of the NFVO 200 may have an interface (Vnf-Nfvo.Lm) with respective VNF instances, and interface with the operator's billing system 250 (Oss.Bill-Nfvo. Lm) and an interface (VnfLIm-Nfvo.Lm) with the local license manager 260 of the VNF vendor. In addition, the interfaces (Nfvo.Lm-Vnfm.Lm, Nfvo.Lm-VnfLm, Nfvo.Lm-VnfOss.Bill) are license management function 210, VNFM 240, and global license manager 270 of VNF vendor, respectively. , And an interface with the OSS billing system 280 of the VNF vendor.

Meanwhile, the local license manager 260 of the VNF vendor is a license manager directly connected to the VNF. For example, the local license manager 260 is located in the same host as the VNF instance or in the same network domain as the host where the VNF instance is created, It may be a license manager that resides within a network domain of a (i.e., service provider internal network specific point).

In addition, the global license manager 270 of the VNF vendor is a license manager of a vendor existing on the Internet, and is a component that provides a service to various customers of the vendor without providing a service limited to a specific telecommunication company.

The VNF license management method described in FIG. 3 is a method performed in the VNF generation step. The license management function unit 211 of the NFVO 210 and the

license manager

260 or 270 of the VNF vendor and the VNF described in FIG. It may be performed by the interworking between the 230. Here, the function of the license manager of the VNF vendor may be configured to be performed by the VNFM 240 described with reference to FIG. 2.

In the VNF creation step, the NFVO 200 (ie, the license management function 210 of the NFVO) identifies the category of the VNF to be generated (S301), and checks the license availability of the identified VNF category for the license manager of the VNF vendor. In operation 260 or 270 (S310), if a license is available, a license key is requested to the VNF vendor license manager 260 or 270 (S321), and a license key is received (S322).

The license manager (260 or 270) of the VNF vendor or the NFVO (i.e., the license management function 210 of the NFVO) generates the requested VNF 230 through the VNFM 240 and generates the received license key. Set to 230 (S330). In this case, the generated VNF 230 and the

license manager

260 or 270 of the VNF vendor may additionally perform a process S331 of mutually verifying the set license key.

Next, the NFVO (ie, the license management function unit 210 of the NFVO) may perform a procedure for verifying a license setting state of the VNF 230 (S340).

Meanwhile, the above-described steps S331 and S340 are not essential procedures, and may be performed according to the requirements of the license management function unit 210 of the VNF vendor or the NFVO, or may be performed differently from the illustrated procedures. have.

The NFVO (ie, the license management function 210 of the NFVO) may update the license management database 220 to manage the assignment state of the license key for the NFV 230 (S350).

When the generated VNF 230 is no longer needed, the NFVO 200 may transmit a deletion (release) request of the VNF 230 to the VNF 230 (S360). In addition, the NFVO (ie, NFVO's license management function 210) requests the

license manager

260 or 270 of the VNF vendor to release the license assigned to the VNF 230 in response to the deletion of the VNF 230. In operation S370, the license release fact of the VNF 230 may be updated on the license management database 220 (S380).

The VNF license management method described in FIG. 4 is a method of collecting and providing license usage information performed at the VNF usage stage. The license management function 210 of the NFVO 200 described in FIG. 2 and a license of a VNF vendor are described. It may be performed by the interworking between the

manager

260 or 270, the VNF 230, the carrier's billing system 250, and the VNF vendor's billing system 280.

License usage information is information required to charge customers or settle costs with VNF vendors based on usage, and may be collected through the VNF entity 230 and the

license manager

260 or 270 of the VNF vendor (S411, S412).

After collecting the license usage information, the collected license usage information is verified by comparing the information recorded in the license management database 220 by the license management unit 210 of the NFVO 200 (S420).

The verified license usage information is provided to the billing system 250 of the telecommunication company (S430) and used for billing, and is also provided to the billing system 270 of the VNF vendor to be used for mutual settlement (S440).

As described above with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 2, in order to manage licenses of respective VNFs, a license management function 210 and a license management database 220 need to be defined in the NFVO. In addition, new entities, such as

license managers

260 or 270 of VNF vendors, are defined and also need to define standard interfaces between these entities and NFVO, VNF vendors' VNFMs, and VNF instances.

The VNF vendor may also provide license management functionality through a vendor's internal license manager, which may be in the form of a local license manager 260 or a global license manager 270 on the Internet that exists inside a service provider (carrier). May also be present. In addition, the vendor may provide a license management function in the VNFM 240.

License usage of each VNF may be measured and provided for billing in the billing system. This usage information is needed to settle costs between the service provider and the VNF vendor. Table 1 below summarizes the functional requirements that the license management function 210 of NFVO, that is, NFVO, has to manage VNF licenses.

요구 사항 번호Requirement number	기능 요구 사항 개요Feature Requirements Overview
Nfvo.LM.001Nfvo.LM.001	VNF가 생성되거나 용량을 증감할 때, NFVO는 VNF 라이선스 관리자나 VNF Manager에 라이선스 키 할당 역량을 제공할 수 있어야 한다.When a VNF is created or capacity is increased, NFVO must be able to provide license key assignment capabilities to the VNF License Manager or VNF Manager.
Nfvo.LM.002Nfvo.LM.002	VNF개체가 동작할 때, NFVO는 특정 VNF개체에 대해 VNF 라이선스 관리자나, VNF Manager를 통해 VNF 라이선스 상태나 정보를 요청하고 받을 수 있어야 한다.When a VNF object is running, the NFVO must be able to request and receive the VNF license status or information for a particular VNF object through the VNF License Manager or the VNF Manager.
Nfvo.LM.003Nfvo.LM.003	VNF개체가 삭제되었을 때, NFV 오케스트레이터는 라이선스 키 정보를 VNF Manager나 벤더 VNF 라이선스 관리자를 통해 해제할 수 있어야 한다.When a VNF object is deleted, the NFV orchestrator must be able to release license key information through the VNF Manager or Vendor VNF License Manager.
Nfvo.LM.004Nfvo.LM.004	VNF개체가 동작할 때, NFVO는 벤더 VMF Manager나 벤더 VNF 라이선스 관리자를 통해 라이선스 사용량 정보에 대한 수집요청을 할 수 있어야 한다.When a VNF object is running, the NFVO must be able to request collection of license usage information through either the vendor VMF Manager or the Vendor VNF License Manager.
Nfvo.LM.005Nfvo.LM.005	VNF 라이선스 관리자나 VNF Manager를 통해 라이선스 정보가 수집되었을 때, NFVO는 NFV Orchestrator에서 관리하고 있는 정보와 수집된 정보를 비교하여 검증할 수 있어야 한다.When license information is collected through the VNF License Manager or VNF Manager, the NFVO must be able to verify and compare the collected information with the information managed by NFV Orchestrator.

Meanwhile, the VNF may have a different license allocation method and billing method for each vendor. The license allocation and charging through the NFVO may be performed in at least one of the following three methods described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7.

Referring to FIG. 5, the NFVO 200 of a carrier may form a license pool 400 by obtaining a license from an NFV vendor 300 (eg, a license manager of a VNF vendor) in advance (S510). In this case, the information about the license pool 400 secured in advance may be stored in the license management database 220 of the NFVO described above.

When a license is required by the actual VNF generation, a license key is requested to the NFVO 200 (S520), and the license key is distributed in response to the request (S530). License authentication is performed between the

license manager

260 or 270 of the VNF vendor 300 and the VNF (S540 and S550; see step S331 of FIG. 3), and the license fee is post-billed by the vendor (S560).

The difference between the license pool 400 of FIG. 5 and the license pool 410 described in FIG. 6 is that the method described in FIG. 6 configures a license pool by purchasing a license from a VNF vendor in advance. Is that you only get a license that can be assigned to the VNF and you do not pay for it before you actually use it.

An advantage of the scheme described in FIG. 5 is that a license can be provided immediately when the VNF is created, and there is no need to pay a license fee before using the software image in the actual VNF.

On the other hand, the disadvantage of the scheme described in Figure 5, the license information from the vendor must be obtained in advance, it is difficult to reuse the license because the license management is distributed is processed, the process of requesting licenses, payment, license approval, etc. The complexity increases because it must be done.

Referring to FIG. 6, the license pool 410 is formed by purchasing as many licenses as expected from the vendor 300 in advance (S610). In this case, the information about the license pool 410 secured in advance may be stored in the license management database 220 of the NFVO described above.

In this case, when a license is required by the actual VNF generation, a license key is requested to the license pool (S620), and the license key is distributed in response to the request (S630).

An advantage of the scheme described in FIG. 6 is that a license can be provided immediately when the VNF is created, and that the license can be reused.

On the other hand, the disadvantage of the method described in Figure 6 is that the license information associated with the vendor should be secured, licenses must be secured in advance according to various request types according to the customer, and the license of the unused state must also be secured.

The method described in FIG. 7 is a method of obtaining a license from a vendor only when necessary (ie, an on-demand method).

When the NFV is generated, the license function management unit 210 of the NFVO receives a license request (S710), obtains a license from a vendor (purchase or lease) (S720), and distributes the obtained license to the NFV (S730). .

An advantage of the scheme described in FIG. 7 is that it does not have to have an unused license.

On the other hand, the drawback of the scheme described in Figure 7 is that because the license is assigned when necessary, there is a delay in the initial service provision, and it is difficult to recycle the license because it identifies the license assignment based on MAC address, the authorization server for obtaining a license key It is necessary to develop interlocking functions between the vendor and the vendor.

The methods according to the invention can be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means and recorded on a computer readable medium. Computer-readable media may include, alone or in combination with the program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like. The program instructions recorded on the computer readable medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in computer software.

Examples of computer readable media include hardware devices that are specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include machine language code, such as produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate with at least one software module to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

Although described with reference to the embodiments above, those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention can be variously modified and changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Could be.

Claims

As a Network Function Virtualization Orchestrator (NFVO) that can manage licenses of Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs),

A license management function unit for requesting and returning a license key of a VNF to a license manager of the VNF vendor, setting the license key to the VNF, and checking or verifying a license state of the VNF; And

Characterized in that the license management database for storing the license state of the VNF,

Network function virtualization orchestrator.
The method according to claim 1,

The license manager of the VNF vendor is a VNF manager (VNFM: Virtual Network Function Manager) of the VNF vendor,

Network function virtualization orchestrator.
The method according to claim 1,

The license manager of the VNF vendor is characterized in that the local license manager existing in the service provider's internal network,

Network function virtualization orchestrator.
The method according to claim 1,

The license manager of the VNF vendor is characterized in that the global license manager exists on the Internet,

Network function virtualization orchestrator.
The method according to claim 1,

The license management function unit may further include a function of collecting license usage information according to the license key set in the VNF and providing the billing system of a telecommunication company or the billing system of the VNF vendor.

Network function virtualization orchestrator.
The method according to claim 5,

The license usage information is used for mutual settlement between the carrier and the VNF vendor,

Network function virtualization orchestrator.
The method according to claim 1,

The license management function unit secures a license to be provided to the VNF from the license manager of the VNF vendor in the form of a license pool in the license management database, or on-demand at the request of the VNF. Characterized by securing in the form,

Network function virtualization orchestrator.
As a method of managing licenses for virtualized network functions (VNFs),

Receiving a creation request for a VNF and checking a license manager of the VNF vendor for a license availability for the VNF;

Requesting and returning a license key for the VNF to a license manager of the VNF vendor;

Creating the VNF and setting the license key to the VNF; And

And updating the license status of the VNF in a license management database.

How VNF manages licenses.
The method according to claim 8,

The method is characterized in that performed by a network function virtualization orchestrator (NFVO),

How VNF manages licenses.
The method according to claim 8,

The license manager of the VNF vendor is a VNF manager (VNFM: Virtual Network Function Manager) of the VNF vendor,

How VNF manages licenses.
The method according to claim 8,

The license manager of the VNF vendor is characterized in that the local license manager existing in the service provider's internal network,

How VNF manages licenses.
The method according to claim 8,

The license manager of the VNF vendor is characterized in that the global license manager exists on the Internet,

How VNF manages licenses.
The method according to claim 8,

And collecting license usage information according to the license key set in the VNF, and providing the license usage information to a billing system of a telecommunication company or a billing system of the VNF vendor.

How VNF manages licenses.
The method of claim 13,

The license usage information is used for mutual settlement between the carrier and the VNF vendor,

How VNF manages licenses.
In a network function virtualization (NFV) system,

Virtualized Network Function (VNF) element;

Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI); And

Includes an NFV Management and Coordination (MANO) element consisting of the Network Function Virtualization Orchestrator (NFVO), the Virtualization Network Function Manager (VNFM: VFN Manager), and the Virtualization Infrastructure Manager (VIM),

The NFVO is

A license management function unit for requesting and returning a license key of a VNF to a license manager of the VNF vendor, setting the license key to the VNF, and checking or verifying a license state of the VNF; And

Characterized in that the license management database for storing the license state of the VNF,

Network function virtualization system.
The method according to claim 15,

The license management function unit may further include a function of collecting license usage information according to the license key set in the VNF and providing the billing system of a telecommunication company or the billing system of the VNF vendor.

Network function virtualization system.
The method of claim 16,

The license usage information is used for mutual settlement between the carrier and the VNF vendor,

Network function virtualization system.
The method according to claim 15,

The license management function unit secures a license to be provided to the VNF from the license manager of the VNF vendor in the form of a license pool in the license management database, or on-demand at the request of the VNF. Characterized by securing in the form,

Network function virtualization system.