This section describes how to design, develop, and submit a Virtual Network Function for use as a Network Resource in the ONAP environment.

A Virtual Network Function can be developed in a stand-alone development environment without most of the tools – or even API libraries – used or furnished by ONAP. The completed VNF is submitted to the Certification Group (see Mailing Lists) as a collection of executable and text files, and must meet the set of requirements described in the Reference Documents for VNF Providers, below.

The primary audiences for this documentation are

• VNF providers: creators of VNFs (executables and related configuration files)
• Acceptance personnel: those tasked with certifying VNFs (approving them to run in ONAP environments)

The following readers may wish to refer to this documentation for a deeper understanding of VNFs, however, for operational information, they should read Using ONAP.

• Service Designers: those who combine Virtual Functions (including VNFs) into Services in ONAP
• DevOps: those who deploy, operate, and monitor ONAP Services containing VNFs

There are three stages in the life cycle of a VNF, shown here:

Figure 1. VNF complete life cycle stages

Reference Documents for VNF Providers

The ONAP release documentation is available at ONAP.readthedocs.io, including VNF Provider guidance: VNF Guidelines, VNF Requirements 

Example VNFs Included with ONAP

The example VNFs distributed with ONAP are:

• vFW (Firewall)
• vDNS (Domain Name Server).

The Setting Up ONAP pages describe how to design and operate Services using these VNFs.

Reference VNFs are managed by the Integration Project.