MEF18 PoC - Multi-Vendor Orchestrated SD-WAN

MEF18 Proof of Concept, 29 - 31 Oct - Towards a Multi-vendor Orchestrated SD-WAN: LSO-Enabled Solution with Open Source Orchestrator and Container-Based uCPEs. PoC Participants: Sparkle and Amartus.

Speaker: Daniele Mancuso, EVP, ICT Engineering, Sparkle.

Sparkle is moving into the SD-WAN space and regards SD-WAN as the technology of the future for managed services.

'SD-WAN technology is great, but it's having a critical factor that is really disturbing a little bit the business plan. This is the universal CPE. In order to create virtualized services running in the customer premises, today the market is offering universal CPEs that are based on X86 servers. Those are still consuming a lot of power. They are requiring a level of interaction done by customer specialists. And this is something we want to bypass."

Sparkle and Amartus have developed a solution orchestrated by Cloudify - an open source, cloud-based orchestrator - that is designed to stimulate the market to produce uCPEs based on containers rather than standard virtual machines.

"We believe the next step is to decompose virtual network functions into smaller footprint of microservices...If we reduce the VNF to a minimal set of containerized microservices, the space and the power that they need in order to run at the customer premises will be much reduced."

This PoC showcases an LSO Presto-enabled SD-WAN solution and illustrates how LSO Presto is a key enable for multi-vendor SD-WAN. The LSO Presto implementation is based on the MEF 60 Network Resource Provisioning Interface Profile Specification and was built using artifacts from the LSO Presto SDK in the latest published version (2018R2). The LSO Presto implementation consists of an LSO Presto NBI endpoint and an inventory/topology engine that allows the exposure of SD-WAN resources in an LSO Presto compliant fashion. Input data and inventory are used to create TOSCA (graph) descriptors for resources and the SD-WAN service. Southbound provisioning is handled by a TOSCA-enabled orchestration component. Cloud native (containerized) virtual functions are provided by customized uCPE appliances.

Save the date for MEF19, 18-22 November 2019, JW Marriott, LA LIVE, Los Angeles.

https://youtu.be/bG9vSI-qeHg

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MEF18 PoC video - Boosting uCPE with SDN/NFV/Legacy Capabilities

MEF18 Proof of Concept, 29 - 31 Oct - Boosting uCPE with SDN/NFV/Legacy Capabilities Including Network & VNF Service Chain Monitoring & Plugware for Universal Access & Brownfield Deployments. PoC Participants: AT&T and RAD.

Speakers: Elie Francis, Director of New Technology and Advanced Development, AT&T Labs and Eitan Schwartz, VP, Service Provider Line of Business, North America.

This PoC addresses the challenges of adapting uCPE to fit real world needs and requirements. The PoC shows three key innovations: (1) multiple services running on a universal CPE; (2) multiple access technologies that terminate on the uCPE; and (3) management of this virtual infrastructure.

The PoC demonstrates uCPE implementation where an enhanced white/grey box provides NFV infrastructure, networking, and orchestration of value-added services with service assurance, as well as network connectivity to existing core routers over TDM using PPP/MLPPP protocol.  Such enhancements reflect real AT&T needs to have Flexware address both greenfield and brownfield deployment needs.

The PoC presents a comprehensive and disaggregated uCPE solution with orchestration and automation of physical and virtual network functions. The uCPE includes Silicom's white box as a hardware platform equipped with RAD's open vCPE­-OS operating system. To facilitate brownfield deployments without losing the white box's open qualities, the uCPE is enhanced with RAD's Plugware. These are multi-functional pluggable devices that are coupled with VNFs to allow effective access over TDM networks. In addition, RAD's Plugware supports legacy voice services such as T1 PRI, along with cutting edge VNF-enabled VAS and service assurance in the combined virtual-physical environment.   Furthermore, the solution features advanced performance monitoring, diagnostics, and traffic analysis tools; this functionality is also provided with RAD's vAccess VNF that optimizes compute resource utilization by combining multiple functions in a single VNF. One more Plugware-enabled functionality is effective hardware-based security that enhances white box functionality. All such enhancements boost white box performance and ensures uCPE a compelling, sound business case.

The PoC draws from AT&T’s broad experience in delivering international services efficiently even in cases where fiber is unavailable or uneconomical. Similarly, RAD draws from a rich experience in Carrier Ethernet, miniaturization, and legacy migration solutions as well as vCPE where RAD has been a leader since ETSI PoC#4 in early 2014 where RAD demonstrated the first multivendor vCPE solution at the customer premises.

Save the date for MEF19, 18-22 November 2019, JW Marriott, LA LIVE, Los Angeles.

https://youtu.be/xSb1XUqbsSc

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MEF18 PoC- Blade Runner - Orchestrated Multi-Domain AR

MEF18 Proof of Concept, 29 - 31 Oct - Blade Runner – Orchestrated Multi-Domain Augmented Reality. Formal PoC Participants: Vodafone, Verizon, Ericsson/CENX, EXFO, and Fortinet. Other companies also supported the PoC and are mentioned in this video.

Speakers: Yogesh Pathare, Director, Product & Strategy, Ericsson and Ihab Mahna, Solutions Architect, EXFO.

Modern networks are ushering in a new era of unlimited data and Internet of Things (IoT) use cases, such as smart cities, smart industries, connected cars, and remote surgery. Aligned with modern cloud-based and software-defined networks, the Blade Runner PoC showcases how AI-based augmented reality can be used to support the maintenance of remote industrial equipment and vehicles, all facilitated by using the latest in multi-access edge computing technology.

The PoC's primary focus is to enable a diverse ecosystem of partners that includes multiple operators to seamlessly provide a composite set of cloud services. It makes use of industry standards, including open APIs and modelling languages (TOSCA), to allow shared service catalogues and faster deployment of cloud services, and to provide end-to-end, multi-operator closed loop assurance and wholesale enterprise billing/charging operations.

The PoC uses the TM Forum Open Digital Architecture (ODA) at its core to demonstrate the need for abstract orchestration layers, properly integrated through MEF LSO Interlude APIs and TM Forum Open APIs. It demonstrates how a modelling language can enable a shared definition of complex 5G service chains that can be deployed by different operators. In addition, standard models provide a set of common policies/rules to serve the needs of closed loop assurance, even across different enablers.

Save the date for MEF19, 18-22 November 2019, JW Marriott, LA LIVE, Los Angeles.

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