Implementation of Failure Detector Based on Network Function Virtualization

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is an emerging technology that uses software virtualization techniques to implement network functions that are usually deployed on specific hardware and software devices. With NFV it is possible to design, deploy, and manage network functions in a fraction of the time it often takes to do the same in non-virtualized settings. NFV improves the flexibility and reduces the time for the development, deployment and management of new functions. In this paper, we propose NFV-FD: a NFV to detect process and link failures. NFV-FD relies on an OpenFlow controller from which information about the network is obtained. With this information NFV-FD keeps track of the state of both processes and links. NFV-FD was implemented and experimental results are reported for the amount of resources required by the virtual function, as well as the quality of the failure detection and notification service.