sdn_nfv_final_v4

Strategies for SDN and NFV

FierceWirelessAn eBook from the editors ofJune 2015

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2 Editors Note

3 SDN, NFV Rollouts to Escalate Over the Next Five Years

5 Sponsored Content: The Real Opportunity Behind NFV and SDN

6 The Long (but Promising) Slog for Software-Defined Networking

9 Sponsored Content: Operationalizing NFV Requires a Holistic Approach

10 The Promise of OpenFlow in SDN

14 The NFV Evolution Begins

17 AT&T and Domain 2.0: A Case Study in SDN

Thank you to our sponsors:

Strategies for SDN and NFV // June 2015

Editors Note

SDN, NFV Rollouts to Escalate Over the Next Five Years

Sponsored Content: The Real Opportunity Behind NFV and SDN

The Long (but Promising) Slog for Software-Defined Networking

Sponsored Content: Operationalizing NFV Requires a Holistic Approach

The Promise of OpenFlow in SDN

The NFV Evolution Begins

AT&T and Domain 2.0: A Case Study in SDN

FierceWirelessAn eBook from the editors ofshare:

Editors Note

By Sue Marek Editor-in-Chief /// FierceWireless

Operators globally are beginning to take a serious look at software-defined networks (SDN) and network functions virtualizations (NFV), two technologies that promise to accelerate innovation and allow them to deploy new services more quickly and efficiently.

But NFV and SDN represent a huge shift in how networks are architected and many experts say this type of shift only happens every 20 to 25 years. Globally, Infonetics Research estimates that there will be about 20 to 30 operators that deploy SDN and NFV in their networks this year and probably another 50 next year.

In the U.S. both AT&T and Verizon Communications have talked about their plans to virtualize their networks, with AT&T taking a particularly aggressive stance. The company has said it plans to have 75 percent of its target network virtualized by 2020 under its Domain 2.0 initiative.

The incentive for operators is strong. Studies like one by Bell Labs Consulting and Arthur D. Little found that,

collectively, fixed line and mobile operators across 35 European countries could save $434 billion a year by deploying SDN and NFV.

But operators are concerned about standardization and some claim that without standards, the advancement of SDN will be hindered. Chris Emmons, director of network planning for SDN implementation at Verizon said recently that the industry needs to build an ecosystem to foster the development of standards. And he called upon vendors to work on SDN software that can segment different applications in the application layer. He also warned that if the big vendors dont do this, smaller, more nimble software vendors will do it instead and potentially take the lead. If existing vendors dont do it, the up-and-comers will do it, he said.

Standards development aside, the SDN and NFV train is moving quickly. This FierceWireless ebook, Strategies for SDN and NFV, takes an in-depth look at how SDN and NFV are going to dramatically change the wireless network and most likely the entire telecom business. n


Editors Note









SDN, NFV Rollouts to Escalate Over the Next Five Years Cable, wireless and wireline providers are recognizing the need to virtualize their networks so they can introduce new services and revenue streams.

By Mike Robuck

There are big financial numbers floating around when it comes to implementing network functions virtualizations (NFV) capabilities and deploying software-defined networking (SDN) by mobile, fixed line and cable service providers.

Over the past few years, the telecom industry has recognized the need to virtualize and streamline networks in order to implement DevOps strategies that will result in new services and revenue streams. Collectively, NFV and SDN are a tall order and represent an architectural shift in networks that only comes along every 20 to 25 years.

A recent report by SDxCentral said that SDN, NFV and other next generation initiatives would grow from less than $15 billion in revenues this year to nearly $105 billion by 2020. SDxCentrals study said that the combined technologies would influence almost 80 percent of the purchasing decisions associated

with all networking revenue by the end of 2020, which would impact virtually every customer within the networking space.

While current NFV/SDN deployments are largely in contained domains in existing architectures, the appeal of more automation in networks and less reliance on proprietary hardware is worldwide. A study in late May by Bell Labs Consulting and consulting company Arthur D. Little found that collectively fixed-line and mobile operators across 35 European countries could save a total of $434 billion a year by onboarding NFV and SDN into their network domains.

NFV is an $8B Market All of the big operators are heading towards this, said Michael Howard, principal analyst, carrier networks, Infonetics Research. For SDN and NFV in carrier networks, we think there were 10 deployments worldwide in March that were providing live services


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>> SDN, NFV Rollouts to Escalate Over the Next Five Years

to their customers. Most of them are smaller, but we think there will be 20 or 30 more this year and probably another 50 next year so a lot of operators are going to get into what amount to small trials with real customers and then move to widen those trials.

Howard added that by 2018, the firm expects carrier NFV to be an $8 billion market while carrier SDN will be a $3 billion market. Thats kind of the big picture. With NFV, somewhere around 80 percent will be software and about 20 percent will be hardware. The hardware will be the servers, the storage and the switches to run the NFV software in the virtualized network functions plus the management orchestration service chain, and all of the other new NFV technologies that are used to deploy virtualized networks, Howard said.

NFV/SDN Will Reduce CAPEX SDN enables the separation of the control and data planes to provide a centralized controller and a centralized view of the network. NFV consolidates various types of equipment onto server in order to

apply data and control plane functions in fixed and mobile networks, among other implementations. One of the main goals of moving toward NFV/SDN is to reduce the CAPEX costs that are associated with proprietary hardware, but those hardware costs wont totally disappear.

Paul Parker-Johnson, principal analyst for ACG Research said that just the software part of the SDN-enabled element purchases were projected to reach $4 billion to $5 billion across the data center, edge and metro areas by the 2018-2019 time frame.

Even though the momentum and the relevance of the software is tremendous, its part of an overall evolution where everything has to work together. While the software will be worth several billion dollars in licensing revenues to the suppliers going forward, it will also be sold in combination with network infrastructure that has to be able to work with the software and benefit from it, he said.

Sue Rudd, director of service provider analysis at Strategy Analytics said that because margins continue to fall for wireless service providers those companies are looking at ways to save on operational costs.

Most of the benefits of SDN and NFV are going to come from OPEX savings, she said. One of the things that NFV does is it can spin up or spin down capacity based on demand so you flatten the peak. There is going to be a savings because when you get better utilization youre not going to have to spend as much. n

For SDN and NFV in carrier networks, we think there were 10 deployments worldwide in March that were providing live services to their customers.

MICHAEL HOWARD, PRINCIPAL ANALYST, CARRIER NETWORKS, INFONETICS RESEARCH


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Service providers (SPs) continue to focus on developing long-term network evolution plans to accommodate an increasing wave of application usage, a surge of new connected devices, and continuously emerging data services.

While there is an enormous opportunity to increase revenue growth by serving the growing numbers of connected devices, service providers know they must transform their fundamental service delivery models to position themselves to profitably serve the dynamically evolving marketplace. Software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualizations (NFV) will play a critical role in this transformation, ultimately providing networks with the flexibility and agility they need to efficiently deliver new, differentiated services to consumers and enterprises.

Various proof-of-concept trials have helped service providers evolve the standardization of SDN and NFV technologies. These trials have also exposed technical challenges that providers can now address, including management, orchestration, and integration of network elements in these new architectures. Service providers are still working

toward commercializing these network architectures to find new competitive advantages, as well as new ways to grow both top and bottom line revenues.

Virtualize for Business ResultsService providers now fully understand that SDN and NFV architectures can provide much more than just an opportunity to reduce CapEx and OpEx. The real opportunity for service providers is to provide high-availability network services that can be easily provisioned and launched quickly and efficiently, and that provide new benefits for customers.

This is much more than just a technology transformation, but also a business transformation. Service providers can now implement usage-based business models that can leverage networks which can flex on demand, efficiently delivering customer premises equipment from the cloud, as well as new applications and services through an automated and policy-driven process. With the network flexibility and agility that NFV/SDN architectures provide combined with self-service portals, enterprise customers can consume hosted virtual network services on demand, such as network firewall,

network address translation, SSL-VPN, web application firewall, DNS, and load balancing.

VNF Portability and EfficiencySelecting orchestration and management platforms that provide the functionality required for efficient deployment and operation of virtualized network infrastructure is important, but being able to integrate a wide range of virtual network functions (VNFs) to support different use case scenarios is equally important for service providers to be able to truly deliver customizable service chains for customers that enable profitable new business models. VNFs that are scalable with rich sets of APIs are needed to plug and play with high-level NFV orchestration systems and SDN infrastructures.

There is a great deal of opportunity for service providers who must now focus on commercializing SDN/NFV architectures to directly enable customers to consume new services. Expanding their businesses into adjacencies can only be possible with the flexibility and agility that these new network architectures can deliver. n

The Real Opportunity Behind NFV and SDN Launching revenue-generating services with flexible network services By Peter Margaris, Head of Service Provider Product Marketing, F5 Networks


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The Long (but Promising) Slog for Software-Defined Networking Carriers are finally beginning to investigate SDN, which may transform mobile networks. But substantial hurdles remain for the very promising architecture.

By Colin Gibbs

Software-defined networking has long been viewed as a potentially transformative strategy for wireless carriers and other network operators, enabling them to lower capital and operational expenditures. While SDN is well-positioned to play a role in next-generation mobile networks, some major obstacles must be overcome before it gains widespread adoption on a global level.

AT&T has been the most visible U.S. carrier on the SDN front, making the architecture a key component of its Domain 2.0 initiative. Verizon Wireless is also pursuing SDN and recently named five vendors Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Juniper Networks and Nokia Networks as its initial partners in its quest to virtualize its network.

Saving Money, Making MoneyLike a growing number of their worldwide

counterparts, the two largest U.S. carriers are hoping to leverage SDN and NFV to lower costs by increasingly focusing on software and minimizing investments in pricey hardware. But theyre also beginning to consider how they can implement these strategies to generate revenues as well, according to Peter Margaris, head of service provider product marketing at F5 Networks, a developer of application delivery services.

Theres been a shift among carriers, Margaris said. Theyre trying to figure out actual business cases they can apply these new networks for providing virtual application services to enterprise customers, for example, or enabling customers to self-provision services. Theyre really trying to figure out how to apply these technologies to give themselves the ability to introduce new services they can actually profit from.


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Early Opportunities: Backhaul and the IoTSome of these opportunities are likely to come from the Internet of Things, which is spawning a wide variety of connected devices that typically dont require as much data as a smartphone or a tablet, Margaris noted. The IoT may lead to a lot of devices that are not just low-bandwidth devices but also low ARPU, he continued. Carriers are looking at SDN and NFV architectures to support those kinds of devices. I think they are looking for ways to leverage these architectures to leverage new business models.

Another segment where SDN seems particularly appropriate for wireless carriers is in backhaul the delivery of data between the cell site and the core of the mobile network. A 2013 study by Strategy Analytics on behalf of Tellabs estimated SDN could save carriers $9 billion by 2017 by enabling them to dynamically manage traffic and backhaul bandwidth. Those savings are likely to be realized through use cases such as SDN-driven Wi-Fi offloading and video redirect, and SDN-enabled cloud RAN.

Where we have had SDN controller success on the wireless side, it has been in automating the process of backhauling from towers, said Joe Cumello, chief marketing officer at Cyan, which was recently acquired by Ciena for its SDN and NFV capabilities. The first use case weve been forced to tackle is backhaul for towers. Absolutely we see that as a way for us to pry open the (wireless) market.

The Reluctance of Incumbent VendorsThe development of standards for any emerging technology is often a major obstacle, and SDN is no different: Several protocols are in various stages of being developed for SDN and NFV, some of which integrate with each other more efficiently and effectively than others. The more quickly the industry can settle on just a few key standards, the more quickly SDN and NFV will gain adoption.

And while the large incumbents in the telecom gear segment seem to be moving toward SDN to one degree or another, anyway its worth noting that they risk losing their dominance as carriers move toward virtualized networks. Indeed, Ericsson may have signaled some vulnerability last fall when an employee wrote on the companys Research Blog that he was starting to hear doubts about SDN and NFV.

People are starting to say that NFV isnt going to cut it for high-performance applications, James Kempf of Ericsson Research continued, or perhaps even at all.

>> The Long (but Promising) Slog for Software-Defined Networking

Where we have had SDN controller success on the wireless side, it has been in automating the process of backhauling from towers.

JOE CUMELLO, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT CYAN


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>> The Long (but Promising) Slog for Software-Defined Networking

That kind of reluctance from established vendors appears to have hindered the market in these early days of SDN, Cyans Cumello opined. The wireless operators, they have to wait until those large vendors come out with the technology because they have so much installed base. I think Ciscos been aggressive, but when it comes to other large suppliers, those guys have talked about this technology being important. But as far as we can tell we havent seen much in the way of deployments with them.

New Business ModelsAnd as often is the case in the tech industry, the technology itself might not be the biggest hurdle.

Instead, the carriers biggest challenge is likely to be restructuring their businesses to adapt to supporting the services and applications that run on virtualized networks.

The one thing I see is that service providers are really wanting to push this forward, more so than the vendors, Margaris said. I think thats a driving force weve never seen before. But operating these networks, thats the tough thing, because they need to transform their talent pool. That might be the trickier part now. How they have their operations set up, how they operate their networks today, its very much around the networks of the past. Theyre going to need to revamp their business processes entirely. n


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Operationalizing NFV Requires a Holistic ApproachBy Mark Bieberich, Senior Director, SDN/NFV Strategy, NEC/NetCracker SDN/NFV Solutions

The communications industry is still in the early stages of bringing NFV-based applications to market. Although many vendors have announced solutions or built ecosystems to create virtualized applications, the market is negligible and will remain so until real progress is made towards operationalizing NFV, i.e. implementing on-demand, cloud-based environments for creating, fulfilling and assuring NFV applications.

Although NFV and SDN are fundamentally shifting the way communications service providers (CSPs) operate and compete, operationalization cannot be accomplished through technology alone. CSPs must develop rich ecosystems for open networks and application development, embrace across-the-board cultural change and align cross-functional objectives. Therefore, players throughout the NFV value chain must contribute to operationalization with holistic approaches that incorporate technology, industry ecosystem and organizational innovation.

Technology Among the most important technological advancements in NFV is creating a closed loop among three essential functions: end-to-end service orchestration, policy management, and real-time and offline network monitoring and analytics. Taken together these functions encompass the

elements needed to automate NFV application fulfillment and assurance and generate revenue from those applications. Without automation, operators will not be able to improve time to market and service agilitytwo key goals of implementing NFV.

A closed-loop environment ensures proactive, real-time learning of customer and network behavior through advanced monitoring and analytics. This allows it to update the policy engine, which provides instructions to the orchestration platform to fulfill and assure services on demand. Closed-loop automation is critical for virtualized services for which service-level agreements may change dynamically based on end-user application policies.

Industry Ecosystem Operationalizing NFV extends beyond the capability of any one operator, vendor, open source group or standards organization. An architectural shift this significant requires cohesion among all of these groups. Unsurprisingly, at this early stage of NFV adoption the activities among key ecosystem groups are disjointed. There are too many competing agendas among standards organizations; open source efforts are progressing but many lack maturity for the communications market; and too many vendors are resisting the inevitability of openness.

Operators are holding back investment until an ecosystem is more fully formed and works to their advantage. Ideas for remedies to this problem are not in short supply but all must start with the same premise: each group in the ecosystem must work across boundaries and contribute to each others missions to accelerate NFV innovation and adoption.

Organizational Alignment Compared to previous architectural shifts, like the migration from TDM to IP, network virtualization is not an overlay deployment but an integration of solutions throughout the network and operational stacks. Therefore the number of internal stakeholders with vested interest in NFVs success is large and diverse, making alignment across key groups difficult to achieve.

Within CSPs, CTO, CFO and CIO groups often have divergent objectives that impede adoption and confuse broader NFV business cases. The first step in addressing this problem is establishing cross-functional, dedicated NFV organizations that anticipate how virtualization will change corporate cultures.

Operators that have taken these steps are not only leading in bringing virtualized services to market; theyre influencing the direction of NFV technologies and standards in their favor. n


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The Promise of OpenFlow in SDN OpenFlow offers lots of opportunities for SDN developers, but real world deployments are moving slowly.

By Jason Bovberg

OpenFlow has gained traction in the software defined networking (SDN) space by enabling more effective use of network resources than is possible with traditional networks. OpenFlow is particularly strong in applications such as virtualization and next-generation IP-based mobile networks.

Over the past few years, SDN has evolved beyond the formal definition of separate control and data planes. As use cases have developed, it has become clear that businesses are looking for increased flexibility, agility, scale, and programmability in their networks. In the data center world, this is driven by the need to deliver cloud infrastructure and accelerate application deployment.

OpenFlow grew out of the idea that most switch/router hardware supported a flow tablebased system and that a common abstraction for modeling the flow table could be built in software on a wide variety of

fixed-function switching devices, whether physical or virtual, said Mark Carroll, CTO of HP Networking. As SDN has evolved, we learned that flow tables are only a tiny percentage of the software capabilities of modern switching devices and that we needed a similar abstraction layer for the rest of the solution to become disaggregated (mix and match hardware and software from competitive multi-vendor ecosystem).

As a result, extensive work has been done in SDN organizations such as the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) to define abstractions for the configuration and management of commodity switching elements, and that has expanded the range of automated solutions that can be built with SDN.

At the same time, the goal-posts have moved. In the early days of the clean-slate work at Stanford, Carroll said, one could assume that the software operating system for a switch and the resulting APIs for


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>> The Promise of OpenFlow in SDN

control and management planes were permanently installed at the equipment manufacturer and changed rarely, if ever, during the lifecycle of the device. In recent years, this has changed.

OpenFlow EvolutionFor some time now, the ONF Extensibility Working Group has been extending the OpenFlow protocol to address new applications, and at the same time it has been adding capabilities to allow the protocol to be extended by others (inside or outside ONF). The latest version of OpenFlow (1.5.1) allows SDN developers to define their own extensions to address many new network applications including, for example, SDN for optical and electrical circuit-based transport networks, said Ben Mack-Crane, ONF specification area co-director and principal architect at Huawei. These extensions can be defined and used by communities of interest without requiring any change to the OpenFlow specification.

As with any software application, the size of these communities of interest will vary from custom applications to applications that are deployed in a large number of SDNs. Thus, OpenFlow provides a common framework within which the extensibility mechanisms enable SDN developers to address varied problems and markets independently.

Patrick Hubbard, Head Geek at SolarWinds, said his company sees hardware vendors such as HP and Juniper Networks improving support for OpenFlow.

APIs are becoming stable and more full-featured, and controller software solutions are likewise becoming more robust consumers of OpenFlow services, he said. Cisco and VMware continue to focus on proprietary alternatives to protect market share. More importantly, with regard to SDN management of the forwarding plane, operators are slowly beginning to experiment with greater autonomous control of physical routing services by OpenFlow controllers not just the internal service networks of OpenStack or other virtualization platforms.

The keyword, however, remains slowly. OpenFlow real-world deployment still hasnt caught fire, as uneven vendor support, complex deployment for admins, and continued convergence into VM platforms decreases the number of deployed routers and switches.

Carroll envisions an OpenFlow roadmap. In the next 3 to 5 years, I think we can expect strong commercial

OpenFlow grew out of the idea that most switch/router hardware supported a flow tablebased system and that a common

abstraction for modeling the flow table could be built in software on a wide variety of fixed-function switching devices, whether physical or virtual.

MARK CARROLL, CTO OF HP NETWORKING


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availability of interoperable switches based on OpenFlow 1.x, combined with NETCONF and Open vSwitch Database Management Protocol (OVSDB) support. Also, expect incremental network features based on overlay-style SDN services and a reduced emphasis on standardizing device/flow-table protocols. HPs millions of OpenFlow-enabled ports in the existing network will allow new SDN services without forklift. In 5 to 10 years, well see switches with more programmable device interfaces, ONF standardization of a next-generation wire-protocol that enables far more programmable and extensible hardware devices, and an increased emphasis on service-level APIs.

Operator ImpactFor operators that have the resources to experiment, OpenFlow is an interesting technology, especially for those with transport-focused rather than data-focused networks. In the data center, switching and routing is becoming increasingly virtualized, and the physical network infrastructure requires less maintenance after initial installation or major redesign. For transport-focused operators, said Hubbard, convergence is more limited and demarcation between specialized hardware is more common. In those cases, automated configuration and ideally self-configuring service networks can provide considerable benefit for both cost management and business agility.

In the short term, said Carroll, operators should deploy switches with OpenFlow capability based on the most recent versions of the 1.x evolution. Its worth

considering a purchase of switches with a network boot loader for installing the switch operating software. You can get both OpenFlow and non-OpenFlow personalities from a variety of emergent vendors. SDN services will be provided by software developers with deep knowledge of OpenFlow 1.x. These solutions will work with limited hardware choices due to differences among standards-compliant switches. In the longer term, operators should focus on buying services independent from controller/device wire protocol. The SDN controller platform and resulting software ecosystem will become the focus of system designers, rather than the details of the wire protocols, which will be abstracted away from the consumer APIs.

Operators will begin to see SDN solutions that not only rely on the base OpenFlow protocol but also include packages of technology-specific or application-specific extensions. Thus, the requirements for a particular SDN application might include a subset of the features defined in the OpenFlow specification with the

ONF is looking at how we can make it easier for operators to evaluate application-specific OpenFlow requirements and

determine whether particular vendors offerings meet these requirements.

BEN MACK-CRANE, ONF SPECIFICATION AREA CO-DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT AT HUAWEI


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addition of extension features defined by developers addressing that specific application area.

ONF is looking at how we can make it easier for operators to evaluate application-specific OpenFlow requirements and determine whether particular vendors offerings meet these requirements, said Mack-Crane. This could include developing with operators input protocol conformance requirements for some common SDN applications. Ultimately, there might be an opportunity to define application-specific

conformance tests that can be used to certify product offerings for commonly deployed SDN applications.

In the end, operators will simply have more options than ever before, and they will need to understand and evaluate a range of technology choices. I always recommend that operators focus on the problems theyre looking to solve with an SDN solution and let that drive their decision-making process, said Mike Cohen, director of product management for open source policy-based solutions at Cisco.

Beyond OpenFlow, several new standards have emerged as SDN building blocks, such as VXLAN, BGP-EVPN, and Opflex, which have had an even larger impact on SDN, Cohen said. Looking further on the horizon, theres also an early technology called P4, which offers a new programming language for network switches. Its dubbed by some as OpenFlow 2.0. While largely academic at this point, it offers some interesting new capabilities in how packet parsing and matching can be controlled by software. n


I always recommend that operators focus on the problems theyre looking to solve with an SDN solution and let that drive their

decision-making process.

MIKE COHEN, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT FOR OPEN SOURCE POLICY-BASED SOLUTIONS AT CISCO


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The NFV Evolution Begins NFV will give operators operational efficiencies but the transition away from hardware-centric networks is challenging.

By Mike Robuck

Thanks to network functions virtualizations the migration to next-generation networks is underway, but there are still some potholes to navigate along the way.

NFV is a key element in the move away from integrated, hardwarecentric solutions to software-based network functionality across virtual and standard hardware. Working in tandem with software-defined networking (SDN), NFV reduces CAPEX costs and streamlines networks to provide a centralized view. With NFV, service providers can ditch proprietary hardware by using standard servers and accelerate time to market for new services and revenue streams, according to Don Clarke, chairman of the European Standards Telecommunications Institutes (ETSI) NFV Network Operations Council.

Software networking enables an unprecedented level of operations automation as demonstrated in the cloud, said Clarke, who is also principal architect at CableLabs. Significant infrastructure efficiencies can be achieved

by re-use of hardware resources and the ability to dynamically scale in/out as network demand changes. NFV enables operators and vendors to take advantage of open source software for common components, enabling focus on differentiation. Open source simplifies the journey for integration.

But Clarke noted, to obtain these benefits, operators need to design networks in a new way similar to cloud. This requires new skills and new organization, which requires time and investment.

Other big drivers for NFV and SDN also include service agility and operational efficiencies, according to Infonetics Researchs Michael Howard, principal analyst, carrier networks.

The automation of different parts of the network reduce operational expenses, Howard said. Operators in the main have somewhere between, if I generalize, 10 percent and 13 percent of their annual revenues


Editors Note









spent on CAPEX, and then 50 percent, 60 percent or 70 percentit depends which study you look atare operational expenses. The big target is operations expense. So operators are looking for ways to more efficiently invent new services, deploy new services, and charge for new services. By putting the necessary changes in the network, when the customer wants to buy a new service it can be done fairly automatically.

For wireless carriers in particular, theres NFV-related work occurring for the virtualization of the radio access network (RAN), the evolved packet core (EPC), IMS and assets in data centers.

Of all of the use cases that apply specifically to wireless operators, the one case that is getting the most attention from the service provider and technology community is the virtualized evolved packet core, said Mark Bieberich, senior director of SDN & NFV strategy at NEC/NetCracker.

As mobile traffic continues to proliferate and become more dynamic, virtualized EPC was one of the first proof-of-concept (PoC) demonstrations picked and

approved by the ETSI NFV Working Group as a NFV use case that could deliver immediate benefits.

In order to connect calls or data beyond the point of the cell tower, operators have built out EPC networks, which connect the cell tower mobile backhaul links to the core of the Internet, Bieberich said. Whats getting virtualized is the core of the network. I would say over the last two years thats where the operators have focused their attention when it comes to virtualization.

Bieberich added that by year-end he thinks we will begin to see virtualization solutions deployed.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), which is the North American counterpart to ETSI, recently published eight inter-provider use cases for service providers. The use cases for ATIS network functions virtualizations (NFV) Forum included virtual network operator (VNO); cooperative, cloud-based CDN; roaming; efficient home-routed VoLTE roaming and enterprise voice/collaboration arrangements.

In some ways perhaps the CDN use cases might be more accessible in the short term, said ATIS Senior Technology Consultant Iain Sharp. I think one area where we see some relevance in the scenarios were showing is into 5G. I think when you start looking at 5G systems that its pretty much assumed that NFV will be the platform that theyre built on top of.

NFV: Its a processWith NFV-related commercial deployments beginning, as well as proof-of-concept trials moving towards field

>> The NFV Evolution Begins

Software networking enables an unprecedented level of operations automation as demonstrated in the cloud.

DON CLARKE, CHAIRMAN OF THE EUROPEAN STANDARDS TELECOMMUNICATIONS INSTITUTES NFV NETWORK OPERATIONS COUNCIL


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>> The NFV Evolution Begins

trials, the transition to virtualized networks is happening. But there are still some sticking points.

Both Infonetics Howard and NetCrackers Bieberich cited the proliferation of standards bodies as one area that still needs sorted out. Howard said that almost by definition standards fly in the face of agile deployments due to the time it takes to get them in place. While organizations such as ATIS and ETSI are working to further refine NFV use cases and interfaces, operators are moving forward with their best effort NFV/SDN deployments by using open source software.

The big problem for all operators, and the bigger they are the bigger the problem, is that there are existing networks and you just cant build a brand new network, Howard said. You have to fit the new technology into existing networks or you overlay it without disturbing the existing networks because the bigger the carrier the more revenue they have and that means the more risk whenever they change their main networks. Theres lot of revenue bearing traffic on existing networks, and carriers have to be very careful to not disturb that as they roll out new services.

While service providers will be able to cut back on some hardware CAPEX going forward, the vendors are no doubt looking forward to increased software licensing

fees, as well as providing professional services to implement NFV/SDN.

Aside of technical challenges, ATIS Sharp said theres also human skills and process challenges for operators when it comes to the virtualization of networks.

Its also methods, procedures and operations as well as pricing models and contract changes because you can start to do things like lease software with a limited right to use rather than buying chunks of hardware that has embedded software, said Tom Anderson, principal engineer, Cisco Mobility CTO, and co-convener of the ATIS NFV Forum. The license models change how you buy software. n

Whats getting virtualized is the core of the network. I would say over the last two years thats where the operators have focused their

attention when it comes to virtualization.

MARK BIEBERICH, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF SDN & NFV STRATEGY AT NEC/NETCRACKER


Editors Note









AT&T and Domain 2.0: A Case Study in SDN AT&T is blazing a trail as it transitions to a virtualized network that focuses on software rather than hardware. But its aggressive strategy isnt necessarily appropriate for every carrier looking to leverage a new network architecture.

By Colin Gibbs

AT&T is moving boldly into software-defined networking, vowing to virtualize 75 percent of its target network by the year 2020 under its Domain 2.0 initiative. Verizon Wireless is ready to follow suit although perhaps not as aggressively and its likely that Sprint and T-Mobile will eventually do the same. Indeed, a 2014 survey from Infonetics Research found that an overwhelming 97 percent of carriers plan to deploy SDN at some point, but the architecture is still very much in the trial and experimentation stage.

Mobile network operators in the U.S. arent exactly known for betting big on cutting-edge technologies and strategies, of course. So why is a behemoth like AT&T taking a lead with SDN?

Were moving from hardware-centric network appliances to much more software-, virtualized-network functions, said Andre Fuetsch, AT&Ts senior vice president of Domain 2.0 architecture and design. The

big motivation is really around building more flexibility, building more speed, and reducing cost.

And AT&T is uniquely positioned to move into SDN, Fuetsch claims, because it focuses as much on developing innovative technologies as it does on providing traditional mobile services to its wireless customers.

Traditionally, in our industry segment, were operators; were not viewed as software companies, Fuetsch said, pointing to AT&T Labs, the telecoms research and development division. We take a very long view. We see the shift to becoming a software company being really key. This is much more like what the Web-scale companies have been doing.

Starting slowlyAT&Ts plans are unquestionably ambitious, but the early stages of its SDN network will take time. The


Editors Note









company said it plans to virtualize only five percent of its network this year as it lays the foundation for the broader SDN deployment. The transition has already proved fruitful, however: AT&T processes 190 billion Domain Name System queries per day and recently suffered an outage at a California-based DNS facility that handles consumer wireline traffic. But most of its DNS lookups now occur through automated virtual machines running in the cloud, and the system automatically routed queries to an alternate location. It ramped up without a hiccup, a senior AT&T executive wrote on the companys Innovation Blog.

The carrier claims the transition to SDN will also enable it to add capacity more rapidly and issue network upgrades more quickly and efficiently than through traditional, hardware-centric architectures. More than 2,000 AT&T employees are charged with transitioning to the new, software-centric architecture. This year AT&T launched its first SDN-enabled network service, an offering branded Network on Demand that provides a way for customers to increase or decrease their bandwidth as needed in near real time. Its virtualizing mobile network functions starting this year with its Connected Car applications and MVNO services.

Its also virtualizing its enterprise and consumer VoIP architecture including VoLTE and combining those offerings to run on a single network.

An industry-wide transitionAnd while AT&Ts transition to SDN is still very much in its infancy, the carrier is already enjoying some financial dividends. Its capital expenditure in 2015 is expected to be roughly $18 billion, down from $21 billion last year. That decrease can be traced not only to a lesser need for traditional telecom hardware but also to AT&Ts newfound ability to extract pricing concessions from legacy vendors that find themselves threatened by the emergence of SDN and NFV architectures. So incumbent vendors such as Adtran, Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks must strike a difficult balancing act as AT&T and other carriers embrace SDN and NFV: They must continue to develop and market traditional telecom equipment as they move to leverage newer technologies and strategies.

All vendors must show their commitment to SDN/NFV; that much has been made clear, wrote Jason Marcheck, research director for Current Analysiss Service Provider Infrastructure Service, in a recent post. Vendors that cant demonstrate a sustained commitment to this road will fail. Some will die. Likewise, all vendors need to demonstrate the wherewithal to prod, help, and in many cases, facilitate organizational change within the operators.

Many carriers, many strategiesMeanwhile, the eyes of the telecom world are on AT&T as it moves into the SDN/NFV era. But while

We take a very long view. We see the shift to becoming a software company being really key. This is much more like what the Web-scale companies have been doing.

ANDRE FUETSCH, AT&TS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF DOMAIN 2.0 ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

>> AT&T and Domain 2.0: A Case Study in SDN


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it may be the most visible carrier pursuing the new architecture, analysts warn that its strategies and tactics arent necessarily applicable to other service providers and other markets. Few telecoms around the world can match AT&Ts deep pockets, and most are likely to embrace the new technologies more circumspectly.

Vendors need to engage with carriers on the orchestrated, business-focused aspects of NFV (potentially leading with them) but be prepared to start smaller and support narrow use cases, wrote Peter

Jarich, vice president of Consumer and Infrastructure Services at Current Analysis. Operators, meanwhile, cannot let lofty orchestrated service-enablement NFV goals get in the way of single use-case investigations; nor can they ignore the need for those use cases to be linked into broader service-enabling platforms going forward.

If this all sounds like a complex dance, thats because it is, Jarich concluded. But the payoff promises that its a dance worth learning. n

>> AT&T and Domain 2.0: A Case Study in SDN

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