Serverless Computing for NFV: Is it Worth it? A Performance Comparison Analysis

Abstract

Network Function Virtualization has established itself as one of the most important paradigms towards softwarebased networking. While today Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) are typically deployed in the form of serverful virtualmachine or container-based applications, the emergence of serverless computing opens the door to the possibility of implementing them as serverless functions, with benefits in terms of scalability and resource efficiency. This paper aims to assess whether this really makes sense or not, given the system-level overheads that a serverless computing platform naturally brings.We propose an open source platform designed to optimize the execution of network-intensive VNFs and we implement a data-plane and a control-plane function (i.e., NAT and DHCP responder, respectively) as serverless functions. We carry out extensive benchmarking of performance with their serverful counterparts, implemented as stand-alone containerized applications. Our experience makes it possible to conclude that serverless computing is beneficial for the execution of short-lived and request-based control-plane VNFs, while it should be avoided for the execution of data-plane traffic-intensive VNFs.

The Rise of Serverless Architectures: Security Challenges and Best Practices

“…The technology is implemented directly into the apps, allowing developers to impose compliance measures in order to increase the security posture. However, in order to comprehend its importance, it is necessary to take a moment to delve into the concept of serverless architecture [40,41].…”

Serverless computing: a security perspective

“…Imagine that the request is passed to Function 2 and Function 3 if the request originates from administrators, while if the request comes from end-users this is handled by Function 4 and Function 5. In such a case, the application's control flow can easily leak the role of the person issuing the request or the times at which the application is accessed by administrators and end-users attacks are likely to become a more important threat in the near future as serverless platforms evolve to fit the needs of stateful functions (e.g., [47]), since this will require placing more storage closer to the functions. As for countermeasures, in case the usage of warm containers is required to meet the application performance requirements, one possible way to mitigate the exposed issue would be for cloud providers to reduce the size of the /tmp/ folder to the minimum extent possible and to carefully monitor its contents after every function invocation.…”