Dell EMC Network Edge Reference Architecture for VMware v ... · 10 Dell EMC Network Edge Reference...

1 Dell EMC Network Edge Reference Architecture for VMware vCloud NFV 3.1

Internal Use - Confidential

Dell EMC Network Edge

Reference Architecture for

VMware v Cloud NFV

OpenStack Edition 3.1

Dell EMC Service Provider Solutions



Date Description

August 2019 Initial Release

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Other trademarks may be the property of their respective owners. Published in the USA. Dell believes

that the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to

change without notice



Contents

1 Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 7

1.1 Overview .................................................................................................................................... 7

2 Network Edge Reference Architecture Overview .......................................................................... 9

2.1 Network Edge physical landscape ............................................................................................ 9

2.1.1 Core ......................................................................................................................................... 10

2.1.2 Near Edge ................................................................................................................................ 10

2.1.3 Far Edge .................................................................................................................................. 10

2.1.4 Device Edge ............................................................................................................................ 11

2.2 Network Edge Platform Overview ........................................................................................... 11

2.3 Hardware resources ................................................................................................................ 11

2.3.1 Compute .................................................................................................................................. 11

2.3.2 Networking ............................................................................................................................... 12

2.3.3 Storage .................................................................................................................................... 12

2.4 Virtualization Layer .................................................................................................................. 12

3 Dell EMC Edge Portfolio ................................................................................................................. 13

3.1 Dell PowerEdge R640 servers ................................................................................................ 13

3.2 Dell PowerEdge R740xd servers............................................................................................. 13

3.3 Dell EMC PowerEdge XR2 servers ......................................................................................... 14

3.4 Dell EMC Edge Modular Data Centers (MDC) ........................................................................ 14

4 Networking Designs for Edge Deployments ................................................................................ 15

4.1 Dell EMC Open Networking ..................................................................................................... 15

4.2 Network Traffic......................................................................................................................... 15

5 Near Edge Reference Architecture ................................................................................................ 17

5.1 Network Topology .................................................................................................................... 17

5.2 Logical Networking .................................................................................................................. 18

5.3 Multi-Tenancy .......................................................................................................................... 21

5.4 Near Edge Reference Components ........................................................................................ 22

5.4.1 Networking ............................................................................................................................... 22

5.4.2 Servers .................................................................................................................................... 22

5.5 Software requirements ............................................................................................................ 23

5.6 Recommended BIOS Settings ................................................................................................. 24

6 Edge virtualized functions – Use Cases ....................................................................................... 25

6.1 MEC ......................................................................................................................................... 25



6.2 vCDN and Content Acceleration ............................................................................................. 25

6.3 vRAN ....................................................................................................................................... 26

A.1 Bill of Materials ........................................................................................................................ 27

A.2 References .............................................................................................................................. 29



Glossary

AR Artificial Reality

CO Central Office

COTS Commercial Off the Shelf

CUPS Control and User Plane Separation

DC Data Center

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

FPGA Field Programmable Gate Arrays

GPU Graphics Processor Unit

IIoT Industrial Internet of Things

MEC Multi-Access Edge Computing (or known as Mobile Edge Computing)

NEBS Network Equipment Building System

NFV Network Function Virtualization

ONIE Open Network Install Environment

PoP Point of Presence

QoE Quality of Experience

QoS Quality of Services

SDN Software-Defined Network

SDS Software-Defined Storage

SLA Service Level Agreement

URLLC Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication

vBBU Virtualized Baseband Unit

vCDN Virtualized Content Delivery Network

vCU Virtualized Central Unit

vDU Virtualized Distributed Unit

vEPC Virtualized Evolved Packet Core



VIM Virtual Infrastructure Manager

VNF Virtualized Network Functions

VR Virtual Reality

vRAN Virtualized Radio Access Network



1 Introduction The advent of network function virtualization (NFV), the move to open networking, and the

emergence of new edge-related standards and operating models for edge workloads have a

profound structural effect on the supply chain, ecosystems, and underlying architectures.

These positive developments are driving the industry towards openness, choices, and

hardware and software disaggregation.

The move to a cloud infrastructure using edge functionality (from the cloud to the core and

closer to the delivery point) represents an opportunity for Service Providers.

This distributed cloud platform permits massive automation with granular control, visibility,

and security across administrative domains spanning different organizations and

geographies.

Dell EMC believes the journey to network transformation starts with open standards-based

infrastructure optimized for the customer's workloads and implementation.

With open, standards-based compute infrastructure as a foundation, the next step is about

the workload – i.e. the various pieces of software running on the deployed edge nodes. The

principal goal is a differentiated workload execution environment that can reflect and enforce

service logic. The result is sophisticated composable functions, service graphs, and the

enforcement policies with granular workload visibility.

5G and mobile edge infrastructure modernization rollout complements the best of IT, service,

and workload management with distributed mobility capabilities together in one unified,

validated platform with extensive management and disaster recovery capabilities.

Dell EMC and VMware have been working jointly on validated solutions for the Network Edge

to deliver on a joint vision of new generation intelligent, programmable and automated edge

platform.

This reference architecture guides the design and creation of Network Function Virtualization

Infrastructure (NFVI) for distributed Telco Edge deployments using Dell EMC Infrastructure

and VMware vCloud NFV solutions. This version of the reference architecture extends the

vCloud NFV 3.1 (OpenStack Edition) functionality to distributed nodes.

1.1 Overview The number of devices connected to a Service Provider network has been growing

exponentially, resulting in a significant increase in Network bandwidth requirements. As

shown in Figure 1 , together with management complexity. Service Providers are struggling

to keep pace with this the ever-increasing need for bandwidth, which is outpacing service

providers’ network infrastructure capacity. Additionally, Service Providers are finding it harder

to support newer data-sensitive application services required by 5G, IoT devices, and next-

generation mobile devices that require real-time processing, ultra-low latency, and massive

scalability.



Figure 1 Growing number of network edge and connected devices

Edge computing can help service providers keep up with this ever-increasing need for

bandwidth and allows them to deliver newer services, faster. Edge computing allows for

moving data, content, applications, and services closer to the end-users or devices (delivery

point), reducing round-trip delays. At the same time, since data no longer needs to be sent to

the central location or cloud, it results in significant backhaul traffic reduction resulting in

OPEX and CAPEX savings for the Service Providers.

Dell EMC is working with the leading Service Providers on their journey to Network and Edge

transformations. Dell EMC is helping to address many service provider pain points by:

• Delivering newer infrastructure platforms to address Edge requirements.

• Delivering an optimized NFVI platform for the Edge to host Network Functions at that

location. (as a natural extension to existing core and cloud capabilities)

• Building a curated partner ecosystem to address specific emerging applications and

edge use cases such as vRAN, vCDN, IIoT.

• Contributing to several Open Source Consortia focused on Network Transformation

and the Edge.



2 Network Edge Reference Architecture

Overview This reference architecture provides an overview of the key aspects of edge requirements

and provides a reference implementation of network edge cloud platform to deploy distributed

network services in a cloud environment at the edge.

The focus of this reference architecture is Near-Edge, which is usually a regional/central

office location that aggregates all types of traffic from front-haul, including fixed-line, 4G, and

Wi-Fi to back-haul. Sufficient IT-datacenter capacity, power, cooling, and locations are

mandatory for Near Edge functionality. Site capacity range includes one to five full racks and

multiple VNFs workloads (local vEPC, vCDN, MEC) and aggregation of network services (x-

haul) operate at this site.

Key characteristics of all network edge environments:

Networking: high-bandwidth, network slicing, aggregation, load balancing

Performance/Reliability: real-time/near real-time, ultra-low latency/jitter, SLA/QoS/QoE

Geo-location: Central Office (CO), Region, Aggregation, Local Exchange, Point of

Presence (PoP)

Processing: Management, Orchestration, Analytics, Intelligence, CUPS

2.1 Network Edge physical landscape The distance from the core datacenter on the operator’s infrastructure and the services

hosted at that location determines the physical location of the Network Edge.

The Edge locations highlighted in Figure 2 Network Edge are Near edge, Far edge, and

Device edge or Customer Premises Edge.



Figure 2 Network Edge requirements

2.1.1 Core The core is the heart of CSP network services. It is a centralized location for the CSP’s

management plane and all federated control planes for the Near Edge regions. VNFs such as

EPC, IMS, PCRF, MANO, Analytics, and OSS/BSS, are part of this 4G/5G Core architecture.

2.1.2 Near Edge Near Edge (regional/central office) aggregates all types of traffic from front-haul including

fixed-line, 4G, Wi-Fi traffic to back-haul. Each Near Edge site manages multiple Far-Edge

sites for management, control, and data plane.

Usually, multiple racks of infrastructure are deployed at this site supporting various workloads

such as MEC, CDN, CORD, UPF, and Network Slicing application functions.

2.1.3 Far Edge Far Edge is synonymous with a micro-datacenter located at a cell tower or close to a

customer’s premises. This location is sometimes referred to as the “Last Mile” to the

subscribers. The Far Edge infrastructure has some specific physical requirements for

thermal/cooling, power, rack spacing, and front/rear I/O access. This location is the closest

to the user’s access and provides key services where latency, reliability, and experience are

the most critical factors to the users.

Network services deployed and utilized by Far Edge include vRAN (NG-RAN), Industrial IoT,

Private LTE, Connected Cars, AR/VR, etc. Most of these services require ultra-low latency,

high network bandwidth, and real-time synchronization.



2.1.4 Device Edge Device Edge refers to customer or enterprise premises where thousands or in some cases,

millions of devices are connected to the network and can act as sources and consumers of

data. These include mobile devices, IoT sensors, industrial equipment that connect either

through wireless or wireline connections.

2.2 Network Edge Platform Overview The Network Edge Platform architecture contains three layers:

1. Hardware resources

2. Virtualization layer

3. Edge virtualized functions

See Figure 3 Network Edge Platform layers

Figure 3 Network Edge Platform layers

2.3 Hardware resources

2.3.1 Compute The workloads running at the edge determine the requirements for the compute

infrastructure. Appropriate sizing based on the workloads’ requirements is needed to decide

the optimal compute configuration for the edge workload.

Sizing and other requirements determine the following configuration settings for the compute

infrastructure:

• CPUs, sockets, cores, and clock frequencies



• Max power consumption (AC/DC)

• Thermal limits & cooling requirements

• Climate tolerance

• Server depth and front/rear I/O access

• Compliance requirements such as NEBS

• Level of ruggedization and tolerance to various “environmentals”

Depending on the workload requirements, hardware components such as GPUs, SmartNICs,

and FPGAs may be required to provide optimal performance. (acceleration, offload, visibility

etc.)

2.3.2 Networking Networking at the edge needs to consider overlays/underlays usually provided by a Software-

Defined Network (SDN). Synchronization and time-sensitive integration to network

connections help devices to achieve accuracy of communication regardless of the location.

2.3.3 Storage Data access from the edge can be either stateless or stateful. Stateful network services

depend on storage access, and storage requirements increase with services like video

streaming, caching, and media transcoding. Edge Locations are usually space-constrained,

and hence external storage arrays are generally not recommended for such sites.

2.4 Virtualization Layer Virtualization is an essential element to host VM based network functions. The virtualization

layer combined with SDN and Software-Defined Storage (SDS) delivers a flexible, scalable

edge cloud environment.



3 Dell EMC Edge Portfolio Optimal Compute infrastructure serves a critical role in transforming the service provider

network to a highly efficient, flexible, and scalable disaggregated model. Dell EMC offers a

wide range of compute options which gives Service Providers the flexibility to design their

disaggregated Network architecture based on the appropriate workloads and the data center

location requirements.

Figure 4 Dell EMC Edge portfolio

3.1 Dell PowerEdge R640 servers The Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 server is a hyper-dense, two-socket, 1U rack server. The

PowerEdge R640 is the ideal dual-socket, 1U platform for dense scale-out cloud computing.

The scalable business architecture of the Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 is designed to

maximize application performance and provide the flexibility to optimize configurations based

on the application and use case.

With the Dell EMC PowerEdge R640 you can create an NVMe cache pool and use either 2.5”

or 3.5”drives for data storage. Combined with up to 24 DIMM’s, 12 of which can be

NVDIMM’s, you have the resources to create the optimum configuration to maximize

application performance in only a 1U chassis.

3.2 Dell PowerEdge R740xd servers The Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd delivers a perfect balance between storage scalability and

performance. The 2U two-socket platform is ideal for software-defined storage. The R740xd

ability to mix any drive type to create the optimum configuration of SSD and HDD for either

performance, capacity, or both. The Dell EMC PowerEdge R740xd is the platform of choice

for software-defined storage such as VMware vSAN.



3.3 Dell EMC PowerEdge XR2 servers Dell EMC PowerEdge XR2 is built from the ground up for harsh environments and features

the latest Intel® Xeon® SP processors. The rackable, rugged 1U-short depth server with

certifications in shock, vibration, dust, humidity, EMI and maritime is ideal for computing in

space-constrained deployments.

3.4 Dell EMC Edge Modular Data Centers (MDC) Modular Data Centers (MDC) provide a self-contained design with cooling, power, and

dedicated enclosure to secure and performance capable deployment in a remote location.

MDCs are architected to be flexible and can host a variety of Dell EMC servers, networking,

and storages to accommodate diverse edge workloads. Micro-MDC is pre-integrated data

center that can quickly deploy at Near and Far Edge sites.

Figure 5 Dell EMC Edge Modular Data Centers (MDC)



4 Networking Designs for Edge Deployments Physical connectivity between servers within sites requires a sufficient number of switch ports

to be available along with the ability to scale bandwidth. A reference physical switch

configuration per site expects guaranteed bandwidth with no over-subscription and using a

non-blocking design. This reflects to network edge capacity and bandwidth aggregation. This

reference architecture is shown in Figure 6.

Near Edge DCStack ID

Reset

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25Gb/s

25Gb/s

25Gb/sFar EdgeDC CU/DU

25Gb/s

25Gb/s

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Far EdgeDCCU

25Gb/s

25Gb/s

Stack ID

Reset

Fronthaul

Midhaul

Backhaul

DU

4G Radio

N * 40/100GbN * 100/400Gb

Figure 6 End-to-End Network Edge Topology

4.1 Dell EMC Open Networking Open Networking is a core element of Dell EMC’s networking strategy and mission. Open

Networking separates the hardware from the operating system, giving you the choice of

picking the operating system that best fits your unique network infrastructure needs. Open

Networking uses standards-based open-source building blocks.

In the Dell EMC Networking portfolio, any switch model with an “-ON” suffix, such as the Dell

EMC Networking Z9264F-ON and the Dell EMC Networking S5248F-ON switches, has Open

Network Install Environment (ONIE) enabled.

4.2 Network Traffic The network architecture employs a Virtual Link Trunking, (VLT) connection between the two

Top of Rack (ToR) switches. The inherent redundancy of a non-VLT environment requires

standby equipment, which increases infrastructure costs and risks. In a VLT environment, all

paths are active, adding immediate value and throughput while protecting against hardware

failures. VLT technology enables a server or bridge to uplink a physical trunk into more than

one Networking S5248-ON switch by treating the uplink as one logical trunk. A VLT-

connected pair of switches function as a single switch to a connecting bridge or server. The

major benefits of VLT technology are:



• Dual control plane for highly available resilient network services

• Full utilization of the active LAG interfaces

• Active/active design for seamless operations during maintenance events

The Dell EMC Networking S5248-ON switches each provides six 40/100 GbE uplink ports.

The VLT interconnect (VLTi) configuration in this architecture uses two 40/100 GbE ports

from each ToR switch to provide a 200 GB data path between the switches.

Figure 7 illustrates the Networking Z9264F-ON

Stack ID

Reset

Stack ID

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VLTi

Figure 7 Z9264F-ON

Figure 8 illustrates the Networking S5248F-ON

Figure 8 S5248F-ON



5 Near Edge Reference Architecture Dell EMC vCloud NFV Edge Architecture is based on VMware vCloud NFV Edge 3-Pod

design that includes Management, Edge, and Resource pods as shown in Figure 9. Near

Edge architecture is based on VMware vCloud NFV OpenStack Edition 3.1 Edge Reference

Architecture with VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO) as the VIM.

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Figure 9 Near edge architecture

5.1 Network Topology Core datacenter to edge site connects via the provider's WAN edge router. Spine-leaf is the

recommended topology for a Near Edge datacenter.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vCloud-NFV-OpenStack-Edition/3.1/vloud-nfv-edge-reference-arch-31.pdf




Near Edge datacenter provides spine connectivity to Far Edge site’s leaf switches. Link-

aggregations with active-active, (LAG and LACP) is required for resilient connectivity

between spine and leaf switches. Bi-directional Forwarding Detections (BFD), prevents an

unresponsive link-state forward traffic, to configure all ToR switches.

Since the Near Edge is aggregation traffic from fronthaul to backhaul of core data center,

compute and network infrastructure requires sufficient bandwidth to handle various Edge use

cases, such as vCDN and vRAN. See Figure 10.

Far EdgeNear Edge

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Figure 10 Near edge to Far Edge topology

5.2 Logical Networking The Dell EMC network switching infrastructure uses VMware NSX network virtualization,

which is part of the VMware vCloud NFV infrastructure.

NSX-T technology enables the decoupling of network services from the physical

infrastructure i.e. logical networks created on top of a basic Layer 2 (switched) or Layer 3

(routed) physical infrastructure can be decoupled from the physical and virtual environments.

This enables agility and security in the virtual environment while allowing the physical

environment to focus on throughput.

The NSX-T platform also provides for network services in the logical space, including

switching, routing, firewalls, load balancing, and VPN services.

NSX-T provides:

• Simplified network service deployment, migration, and automation

• Reduced provisioning and deployment time

• Scalable multi-tenancy across one or more data centers



• Distributed routing and a distributed firewall at the hypervisor, to enable better east-

to-west traffic flow and an enhanced security model

• Providers solution for traditional networking problems, such as limited VLANs, MAC

addresses, and FIB and ARP entries

• Normalization of the underlying hardware, enabling more straightforward hardware

migration and interoperability

In addition, application requirements do not require modification to the physical network. See

Figure 11.

Figure 11 Near Edge Compute Networking

Near site has Edge nodes (VM or Bare-metal) operating its transport and networking

services. Each Near Edge has full NSX deployment, including NSX Manager, NSX Controller

and NSX Edge.



Each Near Edge communicates with and manages multiple Far Edge sites. Each edge site,

Near Edge or Far Edge, is connect with Tier-0 router to telco’s own Provider Edge router(s) in

Figure 12 Network Edge physical to logical topology.

Near Edge / Region / CO

Far Edge Site2Far Edge Site2Far Edge Site1

vCloud NFV

Management Pod

Stack IDStack ID

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CPU2 x16CPU1 x16CPU1 x16

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Figure 12 Network Edge physical to logical topology

Inside NSX configuration, two primary transport zones communicate between Near Edge and

Far Edge sites as shown in Figure 13 VMware Edge NSX-T topology. It also highlights

external VLAN-Based and Overlay Traffic.



Figure 13 VMware Edge NSX-T topology

5.3 Multi-Tenancy VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO) at Near Edge site(s) manages local Resource Pod

which runs VNF workloads such as local EPC and CDN. Concurrently, VIO manages each

Far Edge site as compute resources per tenant and tenant availability zone as shown in

Figure 14 VMware vCloud NFV Edge topology.



Figure 14 VMware vCloud NFV Edge topology

5.4 Near Edge Reference Components

5.4.1 Networking Dell EMC Z9264-ON, S5232-ON/S5048-ON, S4048-T-ON/S4148T-ON (optional NEBS

models)

5.4.2 Servers Dell EMC PowerEdge R640, PowerEdge R740/740XD, PowerEdge XR2 (optional Carrier-

Grade models)



Model System info Firmware

R640/R740XD BIOS 2.1.8

iDRAC 9 3.32.32.32

BOSS 2.5.13.3020

HBA330 16.17.00.03

Intel X710 – QP – SFP+ rNDC 18.8.9

Intel XXV710 – DP- SFP+ 18.8.9

Table 1 Servers

S4148T-ON (ToR) OS10 10.4.3.1

Z9264-ON (Spine) OS10 10.4.3.1

S5232/S5248-ON (Leaf) OS10 10.4.3.1

Table 2 Switches

5.5 Software requirements vCloud NFV 3.1

ESXi 6.7u1 Build 11675023

vCenter 6.7u1 Build 10244745

NSX-T 2.3.0

VIO 5.1.0

vRealize Log Insight 4.7.0

Table 3 Software Requirements



5.6 Recommended BIOS Settings

Components BIOS Settings Proposed Settings

Processor Logical Processor Enabled

CPU Interconnect Speed Maximum Data Rate

Virtualization Technology Enabled

Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch Enabled

Hardware Prefetcher Enabled

DCU Streamer Prefetcher Enabled

DCU IP Prefetcher Enabled

Sub NUMA Cluster Disabled

UPI Prefetcher Enabled

Logical Processor Idling Disabled

x2APIC Mode Disabled

Dell Controlled Turbo Disabled

Number of Cores per Processor All

Memory Memory Operating Mode Optimizer Mode

Node Interleaving Disabled

Correctable Memory ECC SMI Enabled

Opportunistic Self-Refresh Disabled

Power Power Cap Disabled

Redundancy Policy A/B Grid Redundant

Hot Spare Enabled

Primary PSU PSU1

Power Factor Correction Disabled

Fans Thermal Profile Optimization Default Thermal Profile

Boot Mode BIOS

Boot Order Hard Drive, NIC

HDD Boot Order Internal SD: IDSDM

System Profile Performance

CPU Power Management Maximum Performance

Memory Frequency Maximum Performance

Turbo Boost Enabled

C1E Disabled

C States Disabled

Write Data CRC Disabled

Memory Patrol Scrub Standard

Memory Refresh Rate 1x

Uncore Frequency Maximum

Energy Efficient Policy Performance

Number of Turbo Boost Enabled Cores for Processor 1 All

Number of Turbo Boost Enabled Cores for Processor 2 All

Enabled

CPU Interconnect Bus Link Power Management Disabled

PCI ASPM L1 Link Power Management Disabled

SR-IOV Global Enable Enabled

Internal SD Card Port On

Internal SD Card Redundancy Mirror

Internal SD Primary Card SD Card1

Wake on LAN Disabled



6 Edge virtualized functions – Use Cases Disaggregation enables decoupling of Network Functions from traditional proprietary

equipment. Network functions like vBBU, vCU/vDU, vEPC deployed as a virtualized

deployment on standard x86 hardware permit CSPs to deploy network services promptly on a

distributed and highly scalable architecture.

6.1 MEC Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) is a framework defined by ETSI. MEC enables Service

Providers to deliver newer applications, services, and content to end-users and devices that

can take advantage of the real-time, high-bandwidth, and low-latency environment available

at the edge.

MEC allows a service provider to open and share Radio Access Network (RAN) APIs to

develop and deliver mobile or multi-access applications such as AR/VR, gaming,

autonomous vehicles, content caching and video streaming at the edge.

MEC is not limited to enable radio access usage, but also Wi-Fi and wired access

technologies. It is an enabler for 5G network service evolution.

The key benefits of MEC:

• Accelerate priority services to edge network for optimized performance (latency and

throughput) for LTE and 5G RAN

• Enable better media content services to customer’s QoE and edge caching reduce

transport backhaul cost

• Hosting IoT/M2M services

6.2 vCDN and Content Acceleration An increasing number of users are accessing their favorite content, including ultra-high-

definition (UHD) media over multiple devices from fixed-access to wireless. vCDN allows

Service Providers to bring the media content distribution model to the edge. The device can

then access the media content at the Network Edge in a low-latency environment and avoid

network congestion to the CSP’s backhaul.

To address vCDN datacenter requirements, operators or content providers are looking at the

bandwidth, media delivery efficiency, and resource capacity at the Near Edge and Far Edge

of the network.

For example, the network bandwidth calculation is the key to the design for vCDN to deliver

HD or UHD (4K or 8K) data. 4K UHD format requires 15 Mbit/s to 25 Mbits/s per stream while

8K UHD format requires 80 Mbit/s or higher per stream.

The content providers need to right-size and architect the network infrastructure to handle

multiple streams simultaneously. Each compute node requires enough bandwidth to handle

at least 1000 concurrent streams (UHD) to edge devices and caching contents from internet



or core content storages. The concurrent stream numbers can vary based on the location

and the populations.

Caching is also key to accelerate the content delivery to devices. A server equipped with

traditional hard drive disk (HDD), is not suitable for data caching purposes. Solid-state-

drives(SSD) are needed to meet the performance needs for caching.

However, for optimizing the caching performance, in-memory (RAM) type of storage is an

essential requirement for the vCDN’s caching. Each site hosting vCDN infrastructure should

have SSD and in-memory storage to process and prioritize the contents based on the

accessing frequency. Frequently accessed media should be stored in in-memory storage

and lesser-visited media in SSD/NVMe storage.

Compression is another key to optimizing vCDN deployments. Every vCDN deployment site

needs to reduce the size of the image or media by compression of the content files. Lossy

compression can be used to reduce the amount of data stored. Accelerator HW such as Intel

Quick Assist Adapter can be used to improve the compression/decompression performance.

6.3 vRAN NFV and SDN are changing the game and this new virtualized RAN architecture provides the

same benefits that the Operators have seen with the deployment of virtualized services in the

CORE (vEPC, vIMS, etc). Virtualization which is becoming very common in the core data

centers is now moving to Edge locations for NFVI based Cloud Solutions at the Edge.

Important Benefits of Virtualized RAN:

vRAN decomposes the traditional radio stacks and maps them into discrete elements.

Decomposition allows the hardware solutions to be decoupled from software

implementations, enabling an eco-system of vendors to emerge that will deliver the

infrastructure for more cost effective and efficient access networks.

A truly open virtualized RAN helps in several areas, including:

• Leveraging economical and ubiquitous Ethernet and/or IP based transport to support

lower

• cost, future-proof deployments

• Utilizing COTS hardware and NFV to provide elasticity of capacity

• Pooling capacity resources and licenses to cater to large sets of devices with diverse

needs

• Providing a flexible platform for Edge Computing essential for a new generation of

services

• Allowing dynamic orchestration of 5G slices



A.1 Bill of Materials

GMDY9LU Dell EMC Z9264F-ON Switch, 64x 100GbE QSFP28, PSU to IO air, 2x PSU, OS10

Table 4 Spine - S9264F-ON

G8LUBKE Dell EMC S5232F-ON Switch, 32x 100GbE QSFP28 ports, PSU to IO air, 2x PSU, OS10

Table 5 Leaf - S5232F-ON

G4S0GLF Dell EMC S5248F-ON Switch, 48x25GbE SFP28, 4x100GbE QSFP28, 2x100GbE QSFP-DD, PSU to IO, 2xPSU, OS10

Table 6 Leaf – S5248F-ON

R640 VSAN Ready Node (Management and Edge Pod)

5103690 960GB SSD SAS Mix Use 12Gbps 512n 2.5in Hot-plug Drive, PX05SV,3 DWPD,5256 TBW

5103865 900GB 15K RPM SAS 12Gbps 512n 2.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive

R640 PowerEdge R640 Server

NTPM No Trusted Platform Module

5099278 2666MT/s RDIMMs

5098888 16GB RDIMM, 2666MT/s, Dual Rank

5101341 Riser Config 4, 2x16 LP

X710DP Intel X710 DP 10Gb DA/SFP+, + I350 DP 1Gb Ethernet, Network Daughter Card

X710FP Intel X710 Dual Port 10Gb Direct Attach, SFP+, Converged Network Adapter, Low Profile

5102436 IDSDM and Combo Card Reader

5100615 2x 16GB microSDHC/SDXC Card

5101051 2.5” Chassis with up to 10 Hard Drives and 3PCIe slots

5101090 Intel® Xeon® Gold 6132 2.6G,14C/28T,10.4GT/s, 19M Cache,Turbo,HT (140W) DDR4-2666

12GBRC HBA330 12Gbps SAS HBA Controller (NON-RAID), Minicard


Table 7 R640 (Management and Edge Pod)



R740XD VSAN Ready Node (Resources Pod)

R740XD PowerEdge R740XD Server

NTPM No Trusted Platform Module

5099278 2666MT/s RDIMMs

24HD2P Chassis with Up to 24 x 2.5” Hard Drives for 2CPU

5098890 32GB RDIMM, 2666MT/s, Dual Rank

5101074 HBA330 Controller, 12Gbps Adapter, Low Profile

5103619 BOSS controller card + with 2 M.2 Sticks 240G (RAID 1),FH

X710SP Intel X710 Quad Port 10Gb DA/SFP+ Ethernet, Network Daughter Card

G2WY1IJ Intel XXV710 Dual Port 25GbE SFP28 PCIe Adapter, Full Height

5101685 Riser Config 4, 3x8, 4 x16 slots, Double-Wide GPU compatible

5106652 480GB SSD SATA Read Intensive 6Gbps 512e 2.5in Hot-plug Drive, S4500, 1 DWPD,876 TBW

5103923 1.8TB 10K RPM SAS 12Gbps 512e 2.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive



Table 8 R740XD (Resources Pod)



A.2 References

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vCloud-NFV-OpenStack-Edition/3.1/vloud-nfv-edge-

reference-arch-31.pdf

https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/technical-guides-support-

information/solutions/bill_of_materials_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf


information/solutions/hardware_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf


information/solutions/architecture_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf



https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/technical-guides-support-information/solutions/bill_of_materials_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf

https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/technical-guides-support-information/solutions/bill_of_materials_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf

https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/technical-guides-support-information/solutions/hardware_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf

https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/technical-guides-support-information/solutions/hardware_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf

https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/technical-guides-support-information/solutions/architecture_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf

https://www.dellemc.com/resources/en-us/asset/technical-guides-support-information/solutions/architecture_guide_v3.1_for_vio_automated_deployment.pdf

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