Network Element Drivers for Cisco Crosswork Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) Data Sheet

Exceptional Multivendor Support through Network Elements Drivers

Cisco^® Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) provides a single pane of glass for orchestrating a multivendor network. To offer support for an exceptional range of multivendor devices, it uses Network Element Drivers (NEDs). Traditionally, device adaptors are a major roadblock, since they cannot be upgraded at the same pace as device interfaces, and adding support for new devices can take months. Cisco NSO NEDs, in contrast, are either generated automatically from the device YANG model, or can add new commands and devices in a matter of weeks. Using NEDs, NSO makes device configuration commands available over a network wide, multivendor Command Line Interface (CLI), APIs, and user interface. In addition, NSO services, like VPN, can configure a complex multivendor network.

NED overview

Network element drivers comprise the network-facing part of NSO. They communicate over the native protocol supported by the device, such as Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF), Representational State Transfer (REST), Extensible Markup Language (XML), CLI, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

NEDs in Cisco NSO

Drivers are rendered based on a Yet Another Next Generation (YANG) data model, which provides several benefits:

●      Drastically shortened development and update cycles: In other systems, adaptors are normally handcrafted. In NSO, however, the NEDs are rendered from a YANG data model that can automatically generate the corresponding commands, such as CLI commands. Typically adding new commands to an existing NED takes a couple of weeks, and creating a new NED takes six to eight weeks. This may however vary with the size and complexity of the configuration.

●      Uniform data model across the network: Across the NSO interfaces and APIs, it appears as though all devices support YANG, although the underlying mechanism can be CLI or REST, for example.

●      NSO NEDs also provide transactionality for nontransactional devices. The NSO transactional engine can drive the NEDs to do atomic changes and rollback on failure, even when a device has no native support for transactions. Transactional behaviour significantly reduces the volume of code, cost of development and maintenance, and time to market for your service applications.

Table 1.        Snapshot of available NEDs

Note that the NEDs listed in Table 1 is a subset of those available as of April 2023. New NED types are added every month resulting from customer requests.

Table 2.        Features and benefits

Multivendor service agility

Cisco NSO enabled by Tail-f simplifies the process of provisioning and controlling applications and services in both physical and virtual networks. It decouples network services from specific components, while automatically configuring the network according to the service specifications.

Few other products on the market can perform network service orchestration with the multivendor capabilities supported by the NEDs. Real networks are always a mix of vendors. To reduce cost and introduce new capabilities, this mix is constantly changing, and devices are upgraded. If an orchestrator cannot address these changes, the network very soon degrades.

Because the list of NSO NEDs is constantly growing, the Cisco NSO allows true multivendor service agility as changes are implemented, today and in the future.

Cisco environmental sustainability

Information about Cisco’s environmental sustainability policies and initiatives for our products, solutions, operations, and extended operations or supply chain is provided in the “Environment Sustainability” section of Cisco’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report.

Reference links to information about key environmental sustainability topics (mentioned in the “Environment Sustainability” section of the CSR Report) are provided in the following table:

Cisco makes the packaging data available for informational purposes only. It may not reflect the most current legal developments, and Cisco does not represent, warrant, or guarantee that it is complete, accurate, or up to date. This information is subject to change without notice.

Cisco Capital

Flexible payment solutions to help you achieve your objectives

Cisco Capital makes it easier to get the right technology to achieve your objectives, enable business transformation and help you stay competitive. We can help you reduce the total cost of ownership, conserve capital, and accelerate growth. In more than 100 countries, our flexible payment solutions can help you acquire hardware, software, services and complementary third-party equipment in easy, predictable payments. Learn more.

Document history