This repository contains the current implementation of the Universal Node and is divided in different sub-modules. Please check individual README's in each subfolder.

An high-level overview of this software is given by the picture blow.

The Universal Node orchestrator (un-orchestrator) is the main component of the Universal Node (UN). It handles the orchestration of compute and network resources within a UN, hence managing the complete lifecycle of computing containers (e.g., VMs, Docker, DPDK processes) and networking primitives (e.g., OpenFlow rules, logical switching instances, etc).

In a nutshell, when it receives a new Network Functions Forwarding Graph (NF-FG) to be deployed, it does the following operations:

• retrieve the most appropriate images for the selected virtual network functions (VNFs) through the VNF name resolver;
• configure the virtual switch (vSwitch) to create a new logical switching instance (LSI) and the ports required to connect it to the VNFs to be deployed;
• deploy and start the VNFs;
• translate the rules to steer the traffic into OpenFlow flowmod messages to be sent to the vSwitch (some flowmod are sent to the new LSI, others to the LSI-0, i.e. an LSI that steers the traffic towards the proper graph.)

Similarly, the un-orchestrator takes care of updating or destroying a graph, when the proper messages are received.

The Name Resolver is a module that returns a set of implementations for a given NF. It is exploited by the un-orchestrator each time that a NF must be started in order to translate the 'abstract' name (e.g., firewall) into the proper suitable software image (e.g., firewall_vmimage_abc).

The Virtualizer is a module that enables the un-orchestrator to interact with the upper layers of the Unify architecture, by means of the NF-FG defined in UNIFY. It in fact converts that NF-FG in the native representation accepted by the un-orchestrator.

The virtualizer operates as operates as follows:

• it receives the NFFG commands through its northbound interface, based on the virtualizer library defined in UNIFY that implements the official NF-FG specification;
• converts those commands in the NFFG formalism natively supported by the un-orchestrator;
• through its southbound API, sends the equivalent command to the un-orchestrator.

This module is only required to integrate the un-orchestrator with the upper layers of the Unify architecture. Instead, it is not needed when the un-orchestrator is controller through its native interface; in the case, the native NF-FG specification must be used.

This folder contains some examples of virtual network functions that are known to work on the UN.

This folder contains some running use-cases for the UN, including configuration files and VNFs.