Evolution of MANO Towards the Cloud-Native Paradigm for the Edge Computing

The Management and Orchestration framework (MANO) is the main element of the Network Function Virtualization paradigm. It is in charge of managing the life cycle of virtualized functions, from instantiation to manageability, live configuration, and termination. This kind of framework was originally designed to orchestrate network functions over virtual machines. However, the Cloud-Native approach, based on containers and microservices, has emerged and needs to be included as a part of MANO, to leverage all the inherent benefits that it brings. This contribution identifies the key enablers that have to be addressed, from the MANO perspective, to fully exploit the capabilities and to obtain real added value from implementing this novel approach, focusing mainly on resource-constrained environments. Besides, an analysis of current status of open-source frameworks aiming at the Cloud-Native adaptation is presented, showing that while Cloud-Native approaches vís-a-vis network functions are widely accepted (at least, by the research community), there is still room for further research and integration.