Telefónica conducts T-SDN tests with Huawei

Telefónica completed laboratory tests on a T-SDN (Transport Software-Defined Network) solution provided by Huawei that included an SDN controller with capabilities for planning, management, monitoring and diagnosis of Telefónica España’s photonic mesh.

T-SDN aims to improve network operations in the photonic mesh.

In 2009, Telefónica began deploying an all-optical, mesh network with more than 200 nodes throughout Spain. This network leverages flexible ROADM technology along with an advanced network control plane. While this improved the reliability and flexibility of the service, it also posed challenges for Operation and Maintenance (O&M).

Huawei said its new centralized controller can be used to obtain real-time information and to conduct incident simulations with the goal of identifying risks to an optical service and preventing network disruptions before they happen.

The centralized T-SDN algorithm can also be used to optimize the spectrum and to improve the reliability and performance of the WDM network. In addition, Huawei is developing a new platform known as NCE (Network Cloud Engine) to integrate the online WDM planning tool, the control plane and the network management system.

María Antonia Crespo, Director of IP Connectivity and Transport at Telefónica España, commented: “we were interested in seeing how T-SDN technology can help Telefónica in many different areas. Firstly, we’d like to improve the performance of the WDM control plane, helping to reduce restoration times. We also hope that it will enable Telefónica to manage its resources more efficiently and improve its network diagnoses. Finally, it will be very useful for us if we can move towards the automation of the network, as this is one of the key goals in Telefónica’s strategy for the coming years.”