Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV); Testing Methodology; Report on NFV Interoperability Testing Methodology

The present document provides methodology guidelines for interoperability testing of NFV features, starting from a review of some basic concepts for interoperability testing and their fit in an NFV environment and a methodology for the development of interoperability test specifications illustrated with examples of basic NFV operations. A high level analysis of some core NFV capabilities allows to identify a generic architecture for the associated System Under Test configurations, and to classify some initial Interoperability Feature areas.
 
The present document is organized as follows:

• Clause 4 provides an overview of common interoperability concepts and testing methodology guidelines.
• Clause 5 identifies a generic system under test (SUT) architecture and some initial SUT configurations for interoperability testing of basic NFV capabilities.
• Clause 6 identifies and analyses some initial NFV interoperability feature areas and outlines for each of them the impacted functional blocks and interfaces, as well as the applicable SUT configurations described in clause 5.