[Paper Review] Joint Orchestration of Cloud-Based Microservices and Virtual Network Functions

Hadi Razzaghi Kouchaksaraei, Holger Karl|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jan 30, 2018

Software-Defined Networks and 5G4 citations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a unified orchestration framework that integrates cloud-based microservices and virtual network functions (VNFs) using Terraform and SONATA, enabling joint deployment, service chaining, and WAN connectivity across multi-cloud and NFV environments. The solution bridges gaps in current platforms by combining Terraform’s multi-cloud provisioning with SONATA’s NFV-specific capabilities, achieving seamless management of complex hybrid services with improved cost efficiency and performance.

ABSTRACT

Recent studies show the increasing popularity of distributed cloud applications, which are composed of multiple microservices. Besides their known benefits, microservice architecture also enables to mix and match cloud applications and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) services (service chains), which are composed of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). Provisioning complex services containing VNFs and microservices in a combined NFV/cloud platform can enhance service quality and optimise cost. Such a platform can be based on the multi-cloud concept. However, current multi-cloud solutions do not support NFV requirements, making them inadequate to support complex services. In this paper, we investigate these challenges and propose a solution for jointly managing and orchestrating microservices and virtual network functions.

Motivation & Objective

• To address the challenge of orchestrating hybrid services combining microservices and VNFs in a unified multi-cloud and NFV environment.
• To overcome the limitations of existing multi-cloud platforms that lack native support for NFV requirements such as service chaining and WAN connectivity.
• To unify disparate orchestration tools—Terraform for multi-cloud provisioning and SONATA for NFV management—into a cohesive platform.
• To enable joint lifecycle management, auto-scaling, and dependency modeling for both microservices and VNFs.
• To reduce operational complexity and maintenance overhead by reusing existing, standardized tools and interfaces.

Proposed method

• Integrates Terraform as the multi-cloud provisioning layer to deploy microservices across heterogeneous cloud infrastructures.
• Leverages SONATA’s orchestrator to manage VNFs with NFV-specific requirements, including service chaining and OVS-based WAN connectivity.
• Uses SONATA’s infrastructure adaptor for OpenStack and OVS adaptor for network connectivity, extending support beyond OpenStack via Terraform.
• Combines Terraform’s declarative infrastructure-as-code model with SONATA’s service descriptors to enable joint lifecycle management.
• Employs a hybrid orchestration model where Terraform handles cloud infrastructure provisioning and SONATA manages VNF lifecycle and network functions.
• Develops a joint service descriptor to express dependencies, scaling policies, and deployment constraints for both microservices and VNFs.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How can microservices and VNFs be jointly orchestrated in a multi-cloud and NFV environment to support complex service chains?
• RQ2 What architectural and integration patterns enable seamless interoperability between cloud-native orchestration tools and NFV-specific platforms?
• RQ3 How can existing multi-cloud tools like Terraform be extended to support NFV-specific requirements such as service chaining and WAN connectivity?
• RQ4 What is the optimal division of labor between orchestration systems for managing microservices and VNFs in hybrid deployments?
• RQ5 How can a unified descriptor model express the dependencies, scaling, and deployment policies of mixed microservice and VNF workloads?

Key findings

• The integration of Terraform and SONATA enables joint deployment of microservices and VNFs across multiple cloud and NFV infrastructures, overcoming tool-specific limitations.
• The proposed architecture supports service chaining and WAN connectivity through SONATA’s OVS adaptor, fulfilling critical NFV requirements missing in standard multi-cloud tools.
• By reusing established tools like Terraform and SONATA, the solution reduces development and maintenance overhead while ensuring extensibility.
• The joint orchestration model enables auto-scaling and lifecycle management of hybrid services through a unified descriptor format.
• The approach supports deployment on any cloud infrastructure supported by Terraform, enhancing portability and avoiding vendor lock-in.
• The solution demonstrates feasibility in managing complex services combining application logic (microservices) and network functions (VNFs) in a single, coherent orchestration flow.