Telstra to Deploy Cisco Cloud Infrastructure

Last week, Telstra announced its support for Cisco’s global cloud platform

Specifically, Telstra said it will build a cloud infrastructure together with Cisco that provisions cloud and network services in real-time, providing greater speed, security and performance.   This includes investing in the Cisco Evolved Services Platform for its networking infrastructure, enabling seamless and highly secure delivery of cloud applications to customers, across the network and cloud, all the way to the branch and user desktop.

Telstra’s cloud offerings based on Cisco’s global cloud platform will be available in Australia by the end of 2014.

"Our customers will now have the choice of cloud infrastructure from global leaders, allowing them to select the cloud service to meet their requirements and scale network and cloud resources to deliver service agility, security and performance. We are excited to be developing an intelligent network enabled cloud with Cisco,” said Erez Yarkoni, Telstra Global Enterprise & Services, Executive Director, Cloud.

“Applications are critical to delivering business value and we believe we can offer our customers a differentiated solution for managing their applications across clouds. The Cisco relationship allows us to offer deeper and broader service capabilities to help our customers manage their critical applications, making the transition to the cloud simpler and more cost effective,” Mr Yarkoni added.

http://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/media-releases/telstra-extends-its-cloud-capabilities-with-cisco-global-cloud-platform.xml

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A10 Networks Begins Trading on NYSE under "ATEN"

Shares in A10 Networks, which specializes in application acceleration and network security solutions, began trading for the first time on Friday on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "ATEN."

On Thursday, A10 announced the pricing of 12,500,000 shares at $15 per share  ($187.5 million)

A10's solutions are built around its Advanced Core Operating System (ACOS), which serves as the high-performance, application-aware networking platform for all of its Application Services Gateway (ASG) products. In 2013, the company launched its A10 Thunder Series product family, which includes an Application Delivery Controller for data centers, a Carrier-Grade NAT for large-scal address and protocol translations in service provider networks, and a Threat Protection System that provides detection and mitigation against DDoS attacks.

A10 Networks was founded in 2004 and is based in San Jose, California.

http://www.a10networks.com/

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CEO Interview: Bill Barney on Building a Global Cloud Ecosystem

Bill Barney, CEO of Global Cloud Xchange (formerly Reliance Globalcom) discusses the company's new identity, the cloud services opportunity, key network architecture trends, and the prospects for 100G, 400G and terabit services.

See 3-Minute Video: http://youtu.be/pTAn9zP2oT4

Global Cloud Xchange owns the world’s largest private undersea cable system spanning 67,000 route kms which, seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications’ 200,000 route kms of domestic optic fiber backbone, provides a robust Global Service Delivery Platform connecting 40 key business markets worldwide. In addition to providing Managed Services to more than 230 countries/territories, the company also has extensive global VPLS-enabled Ethernet network capabilities.

“We are living in an era where mobile applications, social media, key technology drivers and applications will exponentially boost volume of digital information being shared every second,” said Bill Barney, CEO of Global Cloud Xchange. “Our new cloud ecosystem means delivering an interwoven portfolio of infrastructure and data center solutions with sophisticated cloud orchestration capabilities.” “As innovation continues in the software layer and big data gets even bigger, business requirements become more sophisticated. Our focus will be on further integrating our global assets to serve existing and future requirements of new media companies, carriers and enterprises. We will meet them at the crossroad of where the future Cloud will migrate,” Barney added.

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Bharti Expands i2i Submarine Cable with Ciena

Bharti Airtel Limited has completed a submarine network upgrade of its i2i cable, which connects India to Singapore.

The upgrade uses Ciena’s converged packet optical and network management solutions for a flexible 100G ROADM-based network infrastructure. The deployment includes Ciena’s 6500 platform and leverages a combination of coherent optical technology and wavelength selective switching to enable rapid remote configuration of traffic across the i2i cable. Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System enables point-and-click service provisioning to enable faster service turn-up and end-to-end visibility of network performance.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.ciena.com

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Infonetics: Network Security Market Posted Gains in Q4

The global network security appliance and software market grew 9.8% from 3Q13 to 4Q13, to $1.8 billion and for the full year 2013, network security revenue totaled $6.4 billion, a 2.6% increase over 2012, according to new report from Infonetics Research.

Some highlights:

• Integrated security products (integrated security appliances, secure routers, SSL VPN gateways, and VPN and firewall software) make up the majority of revenue
• Looking at the top 3 vendors' quarter-over-quarter (4Q13 vs 3Q13) performance, Cisco increased overall revenue 20%; Check Point had a typically strong 4th quarter, and Juniper posted its second consecutive quarter of growth
• Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet once again posted strong quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year growth in 4Q13, and are well positioned to continue gaining share
• Infonetics forecasts the worldwide network security market to reach $7.3 billion in 2018, a 2013–2018 CAGR of 2.5%

"Cisco completed its acquisition of Sourcefire in the fourth quarter of 2013, and in the process posted its highest security revenue quarter ever, gaining three points of market share," says Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research. "The network security market nearly hit double-digit growth in 4Q13, and we expect growth to accelerate this year as service providers and enterprises increase security investment to improve security performance and keep up with a changing threat landscape."

http://www.infonetics.com

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CommScope Boosts Outlook on Wireless Sales

CommScope, which supplies connectivity and essential infrastructure solutions for wireless, business enterprise and residential broadband networks, boosted its sales and earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2014.  The company cited stronger sales with mobile operators.

“We are very pleased to see strength in our wireless business,” said Mark Olson, CommScope executive vice president and chief financial officer. “North American wireless operators continue to invest in our macro cell site and small cell distributed antenna system (DAS) solutions to improve network coverage and capacity. We are also seeing ongoing modernization of 3G wireless networks around the globe.”

The company provided the following Q1 2014 guidance:

• Sales of $900 million to $925 million, up 13 percent year over year at the midpoint of the range.
• Adjusted operating income of $175 million to $185 million, up 36 percent year over year at the midpoint of the range.
• Adjusted earnings per diluted share of $0.43 to $0.47, up 29 percent year over year at the midpoint of the range. The first quarter earnings range assumes 191 million weighted average diluted shares outstanding.

http://www.commscope.com

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Symantec Fires its CEO

Symantec's board of directors removed Steve Bennett as the company's president and chief executive officer and appointed Michael Brown as interim president and chief executive officer.

Symantec also reiterated its guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, which was previously provided on January 29, 2014:

• Revenue of $1.615 to $1.655 billion, compared to $1.748 billion in the year-ago period.
• GAAP operating margin of 18.0 to 19.5 percent compared to 14.6 percent in the year-ago period.
• Non-GAAP operating margin of 24.5 to 26.0 percent compared to 24.1 percent in the year ago period.
• GAAP diluted earnings per share between $0.29 and $0.31 as compared to $0.27 in the year-ago period.
• Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share between $0.40 and $0.42 as compared to $0.44 in the year-ago period.

On behalf of Symantec's board, chairman Daniel Schulman said, "We recognize Steve's contributions to Symantec, including developing and leading a series of successful initiatives focused on organizational realignment, cost reduction and process effectiveness. These changes have helped establish a solid foundation for Symantec's future, and we remain committed to our previously announced greater-than 5% organic revenue growth and better-than 30% non-GAAP operating margin targets by FY17. Our priority is now to identify a leader who can leverage our company's assets and leadership team to drive the next stage of Symantec's product innovation and growth. This considered decision was the result of an ongoing deliberative process, and not precipitated by any event or impropriety."

http://www.symantec.com

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Union Ratifies Contract with AT&T Mobility

The Communications Workers of America voted to ratify a four-year contract covering more than 11,500 AT&T Mobility employees in CWA District 3 – the Southeast Region, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and St. Croix, USVI. The contract covers wages, pension, work rules and disability benefits.

CWA members in October 2012 ratified a separate four-year benefit agreement for all CWA-bargained Mobility employees nationwide covering health care and certain other benefits.

http://www.att.com

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ONF and ETSI Collaborate on SDN + NFV

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced a strategic partnership agreement to further the development of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) specifications.  A formal agreement was approved at this week's ETSI General Assembly meeting in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France.

ETSI and ONF have maintained a strong working relationship since ETSI’s unveiling of the NFV Industry Specification Group (ISG) in 2012. The NFV architecture is supported by SDN and benefits from ONF’s work with the OpenFlow protocol. Together, the organizations will explore how SDN can enable forwarding-plane support for some of the most important NFV use cases. In particular, our two organizations will collaborate on the means to build dynamic, programmable Virtualized Network Function (VNF) forwarding graphs. ETSI’s NFV ISG has launched a call for NFV Proofs of Concept (PoC) and published a PoC framework. ETSI is now keen to see PoCs that employ both NFV and SDN and showcase the benefits of both technologies.

"ETSI is focused on addressing the problems that telecommunications networks face today by evolving standard IT virtualization technology to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume servers, switches and storage," said Luis Jorge Romero, director-general of ETSI. "This collaboration with ONF allows us to both significantly contribute to the goals of the NFV ISG, and serve as a relevant source for requirements and use cases for the SDN community."

In addition, ONF released an "OpenFlow-enabled SDN and NFV" solution brief that discusses the network challenges that operators will need to overcome to implement NFV, and presents use cases that demonstrate how OpenFlow-enabled SDN can meet the need for automated, open, and programmable network connectivity to support NFV. The NFV solution brief will provide insight into how OpenFlow-enabled SDN can accelerate NFV deployments by offering a scalable, elastic, and on-demand architecture well suited to the dynamic NFV communications requirements for both virtual and physical networking infrastructures.

https://www.opennetworking.org/images/stories/downloads/sdn-resources/solution-briefs/sb-sdn-nvf-solution.pdf
http://www.etsi.org/news-events/news/764-2014-03-onf-and-etsi-announce-strategic-collaboration-for-sdn-support-of-nfv

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Cloudera Raises $160 Million for Enterprise Apache Hadoop

Cloudera, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, announced $160 million in new venture funding support its Apache Hadoop-based data management software and services. The new funding round was led by T. Rowe Price, along with three other top-tier public market investors, and included an investment by Google Ventures and an affiliate of MSD Capital, L.P., the private investment firm for Michael S. Dell and his family. To date, Cloudera has raised $300 million in venture funding.

Cloudera said it will use the funding to further drive the enterprise adoption of and innovation in Hadoop and promote the enterprise data hub (EDH) market; support geographic expansion into Europe and Asia; expand its services and support capabilities; and scale the field and engineering organizations.

"Cloudera is successfully helping enterprises exploit 'big data' and manage the transition to becoming more data centric," said Henry Ellenbogen, Portfolio Manager, T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund. "With strong leadership, an ability to innovate, a satisfied customer base, and a large partner community, we believe Cloudera is well positioned to build a durable and leading company in this space."

"We see broad demand from enterprises who want a flexible approach to handling large amounts of data, and we expect this market to continue to grow rapidly," said Google Ventures General Partner Karim Faris. "Cloudera is dramatically lowering the cost of reliable storage for the enterprise and is enabling the analysis and mining of large data sets in a way that wasn't possible before."

Recently, Cloudera brought to market the industry's first complete enterprise data hub.  The company said the key advantages for enterprise customers are:

• Frees them from being dependent on expensive, specialized data storage and compute systems, and instead take advantage of the power of industry-standard server hardware and scale-out architecture;
• Enables enterprises to store any amount of data, of any type, and keep it online as long as needed;
• Ensures that data is secure and governed to meet enterprise requirements;
• Makes it possible for customers to "bring compute to the data," to build a single unified data system rather than moving data around from one system to another;
• Lets customers offload selected data and workloads from expensive, specialized data warehouse infrastructure to alleviate the pain of missed SLAs and degraded query performance;
• Can accommodate huge and varied data sets for more meaningful and timely analytics and enable innovative security solutions, such as real-time anomaly detection without duplicating data or building custom, specialized solutions.

http://www.cloudera.com

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Vertical Systems: 2013 U.S. Cable MSO Ethernet LEADERBOARD

Time Warner Cable leads among cable MSOs in the U.S. market in terms of delivering Ethernet services, according to Vertical Systems Group’s latest research.  The next five cable MSOs on the 2013 U.S. Cable MSO Ethernet LEADERBOARD are as follows (in rank order based on port share): Cox, Comcast, Charter Business, Lightpath (formerly Optimum Lightpath) and Bright House Networks.

“Cable MSOs headlined the Carrier Ethernet market in 2013 with meteoric growth. Operators across all service territories successfully competed with Incumbents and CLECs on the basis of price and rapid provisioning.” said Rick Malone, principal at Vertical Systems Group. “Within the Cable MSO segment, Time Warner Cable and Cox led in port share, while Comcast led in growth. Overall, cable operators were particularly competitive selling metro Ethernet LAN services and Ethernet Internet access.”

Vertical Systems Group’s LEADERBOARDs measures Ethernet Service Provider market presence based on billable retail port installations. Share results are calculated at year-end and mid-year for the U.S. and Global Provider markets. Year-end results additionally include U.S. provider share analysis for three separate segments: Incumbent Carrier, Competitive Provider, and Cable MSO. Research sources for share calculations include Vertical’s base of enterprise installations, plus direct input and other data from our bi-annual surveys of Ethernet providers throughout the world.

http://www.verticalsystems.com/vsglb/2013-u-s-cable-mso-carrier-ethernet-leaderboard/

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Taiwan Mobile Picks NSN for LTE-Advanced

Taiwan Mobile has selected NSN for a rapid roll-out of its multi-band LTE-Advanced network.  The deployment will use NSN’s Liquid Radio and Liquid Core technology, along with LTE-Ad carrier aggregation technology to increase bandwidth and network performance by combining the 700 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum bands.

Specifically, NSN will implement its high-capacity Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Stations, Evolved Packet Core technology and NetAct network management system. The agreement covers also network planning and optimization services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We have a successful history of collaboration with Taiwan Mobile, which started in early 1997 with the launch of the operator’s GSM network. NSN is now the sole supplier of Taiwan Mobile’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks,” said Markus Borchert, President of NSN Greater China region. “With our innovative Carrier Aggregation solution and network planning and optimization services, the operator can combine its spectrum for significantly increased data throughput and an unmatched customer experience.”

http://nsn.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/taiwan-mobile-selects-nsn-as-sole-supplier-for-its-lte-advanced-network

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ChinaCache to Integrate Caching in LTE Base Stations with NSN

ChinaCache is working with Nokia Solutions and Networks to incorporate content delivery network (CDN) technologies into NSN’s Liquid Applications solution, enabling content to be delivered directly from the LTE base station for greater performance.

The companies said the intent of the collaboration is to further enhance Liquid Applications and strengthen ChinaCache’s capabilities in mobile Internet content delivery. Liquid Applications will enable innovative features for ChinaCache’s current technology, such as improved location capabilities, awareness of user behavior, and real-time adaptation to network conditions.

“Liquid Applications is a disruptive innovation that will enable mobile operators to truly differentiate the mobile broadband experience for their subscribers through accelerated content delivery and exciting new applications and services,” said Markus Borchert, president of NSN Greater China region. “Cooperating with ChinaCache on the next generation of mobile CDN technology will open up the opportunity for unprecedented subscriber experience while allowing mobile operators to introduce new business models.”

http://www.nsn.com
http://www.chinacache.com/

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Padmasree Warrior Joins Box's Board

Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer for Cisco, has joined the board of directors of Bos.

“Padma is an extraordinary leader with deep insights into global technology trends and a wealth of experience leading innovative, world-class organizations,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO, Box. “We are in the midst of a once-in-a-generation shift to a world defined by cloud and mobile computing. Padma will be a great resource for both Box and our customers as we navigate this transition.”

“The cloud and mobile devices are dramatically changing how people use and share their content, and Box is at the forefront of building both an innovative product and an enterprise platform that can define this new era of work,” said Padmasree Warrior. “I’m thrilled to be joining the Box board and to be a part of a team and company with such potential.”

http://www.box.com

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Dell'Oro: Shifts in the Evolved Packet Core Market

The overall Wireless Packet Core market grew two percent during the fourth quarter of 2013 versus the year-ago period, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.  The higher growth portion of the market that is used to manage LTE wireless networks, called Evolved Packet Core (EPC), experienced significantly higher growth than the total market.

"This year, 2014, will see significant shifts in the packet core market," explained Chris DePuy, Vice President of Wireless Packet Core Research at Dell'Oro Group. "The introduction of NFV systems and new LTE projects emerging outside of US, Korea and Japan will offer both challenges and opportunities for the wireless packet core market."

Some highlights:

• North American growth slowed significantly.  Asia-Pacific growth, specifically, China, is expected to contribute significantly to growth in 2014.  Vendors with significant exposure to Chinese EPC contracts include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NSN, ZTE, and others.
• Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), is now available from many vendors.  This is a software-only version of packet core products that can be run on computer servers.  Its use represents a significant departure from traditional bundled software and hardware deployments.
• Average price per license dropped noticeably in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter, as vendors offered new licensing terms to service providers.
• Installed base of MME licenses as a percentage of total mobile subscribers in North America is ten times greater than each of the other three major regions.

http://www.DellOro.com

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Open Data Center Alliance Plans Fall Conference in SF

The Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) will host its annual, flagship "Forecast" conference from September 22-24 in San Francisco.

The following underwriters are aboard: Intel (underwriting sponsor), HP (platinum sponsor), Verne Global (gold sponsor), Appnomic Systems (silver sponsor) and CohesiveFT (lanyard sponsor). In addition, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the Cloud Credential Council (CCC), Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and TM Forum will join Forecast as collaborative sponsors.

The mission of the ODCA is to advance the deployment of enterprise cloud solutions and services that are interoperable, secure and free of vendor lock-in.

http://www.opendatacenteralliance.org/forecast2014

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Blueprint: NFV, SDN and Carrier Ethernet Make Progress

By Prayson Pate, Chief Technology Officer and SVP of R&D at Overture

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) have been getting a lot of airplay recently, and everyone is coming out with their SDN or NFV stories.  With all the airplay on Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN), some critically important information is getting lost in the hype. NFV and SDN are not standalone technologies, and they are not sufficient for building commercial, revenue-generating services. What about the metro access network that is used to reach customers? It is Carrier Ethernet that has become the foundation on top of which all next generation services are being built, and which must team with SDN and NFV.  After all, you can’t virtualize pipes.
Each of these three technologies (NFV, SDN and Carrier Ethernet) is powerful in its own right.  What are the keys to their individual success, and how can they be combined?

Ethernet – Heart of the Access Network and the Data Center

Carrier Ethernet got its start as a cost-effective technology based on the native format for enterprise networks.  The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) created a standard set of definitions and interfaces to facilitate the use of Ethernet, both as a service and as infrastructure.  These definitions were initially covered by tests specified in the MEF 9 and MEF 14 standards.  Later, this standardization was expanded into CE 2.0, with increased capabilities for management, multiple service classes and features that supported interconnect between service providers.

Ethernet is also the core of cloud/datacenter connectivity.  Modern data centers are built upon a framework of Ethernet switches, both physical and virtual, and almost all data center elements have Ethernet interfaces. Going forward, Ethernet promises continuing growth, both in speed and capabilities.

Carrier Ethernet has become the foundation for all future networking services in the cloud, whether at the edge of the network or in the data center.  While necessary, Carrier Ethernet is not sufficient for constructing modern services.  The evolution of services at the edge of the network will require harmony between Carrier Ethernet, SDN and NFV.

NFV – Bringing the Cloud to the Network

NFV is a concept introduced by a group of leading service providers.  The idea is to achieve the benefits of the modern datacenter and to bring them to the communications network: virtualization, low cost standardized hardware, ecosystems of software components coupled by open APIs, and rapid development and deployment of services, as shown in this figure.

Service providers have embraced NFV because it promises lower costs and higher revenues through service innovation.  In particular, NFV offers the following:

• Service providers will be able to define and deploy new services without installing or replacing network elements.  Upgrades will take the form of installing new VMs, which is a much lower impact process than replacing physical appliances.
  
• Service providers will be able to define new services independently from equipment providers.  They will be able to construct a new service from virtualized network functions provided by independent software vendors ISVs) or even create them internally.
  
• Finally, service providers will be able to unite the connect, compute and storage components.  Doing so will expand the scope of the types of services that can be offered today.  For example, with NFV, it is possible to couple storage utilities such as Content Delivery Networks (CDN) with private networking and cloud in order to enable applications like online education.

SDN – Control and Automation

In contrast to the service provider push for NFV, SDN came out of the universities and found its way into the modern data center.  SDN provides improvements in how cloud components can be configured, connected and operated.  SDN brings network operators a model for modernizing how they control their networks, including a movement from closed proprietary systems.  As with NFV, open ecosystems of providers and components are an essential part of SDN.

Much of the early promotion of SDN has been on the use of the OpenFlow protocol used to program the forwarding behavior of the network in a standard and open way.  By deploying OpenFlow-enabled devices, a service provider could develop new services, and even new protocols, without upgrading the network.  This OpenFlow-centric view of SDN has been hampered by its limited support of equipment in the network.  Even so, it does hold great promise for the future. In addition, alternatives such as NETCONF and RESTFUL interfaces may also be paths through which to gain the benefits of SDN.

Combining NFV, SDN and Ethernet

NFV, SDN and Ethernet are all powerful components in their own right.  This figure shows how they are being combined.

• Ethernet and SDN currently co-exist in the data center, especially inside virtual switches (vSwitches).  Today’s vSwitches are controllable by OpenFlow to provide interconnection of virtual machines.
  
• SDN and NFV currently intersect in the Central Office (CO), which is the next generation data center.  As such, it is a ripe target for early deployments of NFV with SDN being used for control.
  
• NFV and Carrier Ethernet can be combined to provide some interesting applications, such as Virtual Service Edge (VSE).  VSE is the replacement of dedicated customer-located appliances (e.g. routers and firewalls) with software-based applications running on a standard compute platform and connected via Carrier Ethernet to the wide area network.

What Changes will be Required in Carrier Ethernet?

Combining all three technologies will get us to the sweet spot for future innovation.  However, doing so will require continued evolution of Carrier Ethernet, which has been constantly growing and changing to meet the evolving needs of its users. What are the next changes that are needed?

Better Coupling with SDN

As described above, vSwitches currently provide a virtual way to connect cloud components under the control of OpenFlow.  However, OpenFlow provides a degree of arbitrary flow identification that is often not needed, and which is not compatible with much of the deployed base of equipment.  For example, OpenFlow can define a flow based on parameters such as MAC addresses and QoS markings.  A simpler forwarding model and standard focused on Carrier Ethernet virtual connections would facilitate the use of SDN principles with existing infrastructure. This leads to the next area for growth.

Simpler Standardized Interfaces

Because OpenFlow can be used to control arbitrary flows, its control protocol must be equally flexible.  What is needed is a simpler model for an API and data structure that matches current capabilities.  The MEF has an opportunity to drive innovation and consistency related to controlling Carrier Ethernet infrastructure.  In particular, the definition of a schema to match the current CE 2.0 capabilities would be very useful.

Definition of New Services to Support Cloud

Despite its power, Carrier Ethernet has some limitations, especially with respect to VLAN and MAC scaling.  These limits have driven work on new protocols for network virtualization such as VxLAN and NVGRE.  These technologies allow the construction of overlay networks to decouple the VLANs needed by virtual machines from those used to provide the underlying connections.  There is still disagreement, however, about exactly what new capabilities are needed, causing divergence in how network virtualization is being implemented.

Carrier Class Orchestration

In the data center, orchestration refers to automated provisioning, coordination and management of physical and virtual resources.  In the data center, resources are homogeneous and fungible, and we can assume fat pipes for connection.  This is not the case for application of SDN and NFV to the access network using Carrier Ethernet.  We need orchestration that can take into account such parameters as cost and availability of resources, location and latency, and available bandwidth.  In addition, elasticity and multi-tenancy are key attributes of a carrier-class orchestrator.

Summary

By combining the powerful technologies of NFV, SDN and Carrier Ethernet, service providers will be able to reach their goals of modernizing their networks, cutting costs and, most importantly, accelerating the creation and deployment of lucrative new services.  Continued innovation is required for Carrier Ethernet to be able to support this evolution.  Adding new capabilities will enable efficient expansion of new services beyond the data center into the Carrier Ethernet-powered metro service edge.

About the Author

Prayson Pate is Chief Technology Officer and SVP of R&D at Overture, where he is also a co-founder. Prayson is a technology leader and evangelist with a proven track record leading teams and delivering products. Since 1983 he has been building Carrier Ethernet and telecom products for service providers and network operators around the world - both as an individual developer and as a leader of development teams. Prayson spends much of his time driving adoption of Overture's new Ensemble Open Service Architecture, which includes aspects of automation, virtualization, SDN and NFV. He has a BSEE from Duke, an MSECE from NC State and is the holder of nine US patents.

About Overture

Overture is the preferred provider of Carrier Ethernet solutions for the metro service edge. By leveraging Overture’s Carrier Ethernet expertise and its new Ensemble Open Service

Architecture™ for software-defined services, network operators and service providers worldwide are maximizing operational efficiencies and introducing new revenue-generating services on a scale never before possible. Overture is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC, with sales offices around the globe. For more information, visit http://www.overturenetworks.com

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Huawei Posts SDN IPv6 in Google Play and Apple App Stores

Huawei released a Software-defined Networking (SDN) App, SDN IPv6, in both Google Play and Apple App Store.

Making use of the northbound interface of the SDN controller, SNC, and the innovative flow table technology, Huawei's SDN IPv6 solution flexibly generates and loads various transition technologies on simple SDN forwarding devices to streamline the deployment of IPv6 transition and to reduce complexity in shifting between different transition technologies. The publically downloadable SDN IPv6 App fully demonstrates the DevOps features of this solution in that it is easy to generate, load and shift the transition technologies through open API interface, which provides a good platform for operators to flexibly adjust and select appropriate transition technologies during its network evolution.

The SDN Enabled IPv6 Transition App provides a guide for IPv6 transition technologies.The app-controller interface has to provide a data model for describing v4-v6 transtition technologies. The controller-switch interface is pure OF (including the IP-in-IP extensions).

Huawei said there are many challenges in IPv6 deployment, including long transition times, accommodating various transition technologies, and implementing complex transition devices, etc.  SDN addresses the challenges of IPv6 migration by simplifying the network architecture so that it is dynamic, manageable, cost-effective, and adaptable, with the advantage of simple network devices and the flexible implementation of network technology.

Huawei noted that its SDN IPv6 solution has provided Internet services for several top-level standards development organization (SDO) meetings, e.g., ETSI NFV ISG, SDN Leadership and the Open Networking Summit.

Mr. Zha Jun, President of Huawei's Fixed Network Business Unit, said: "Huawei's SDN IPv6 App is the industry's first carrier SDN infrastructure-based app to realize the fast provisioning of telco services, fully demonstrating the service agility features of ICT technologies. Huawei is committed to helping carriers achieve business success with flexible and open network solutions."

http://pr.huawei.com/en/news/hw-329662-sdn.htm#.UykgyfldVF4

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Ericsson Launches Software-based Virtualized Encoding Solution

Ericsson introduced a software-based Virtualized Encoding solution designed to remove the complexity of TV Anywhere video processing.

Ericsson Virtualized Encoding supports all input-types (compressed off-air or mezzanine and uncompressed), all output-types (traditional linear broadcast on cable, IPTV, DTH satellite and DTT, Multiscreen ABR delivery over IP) and all codecs (MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC). It can be implemented on processing platforms containing a combination of dedicated programmable hardware such as Ericsson's video processing chip, in customer premises and software or GPU-based servers on premise, or potentially deployed in the cloud.

Ericsson said it developed the new solution to be completely task and service-oriented, intelligently allocating resources and simplifying the process of selecting the right encoding method and platform based on the operator's priorities for deployment speed, video quality and output.

Dr. Giles Wilson, Head of TV Compression, Ericsson says: "In today's TV Anywhere world there is no 'one-size fits all' solution to video processing and a variety of compression platforms are being used to balance investment, architecture and performance. With the launch of Ericsson Virtualized Encoding we are unifying all these processing platforms under one intelligent software abstraction layer to ensure best-in-class performance, simplification of processes, reduced operational burden and far greater agility in deploying services. Our customers are especially welcoming our approach in removing the burden of deploying HEVC compression, and the inevitable platform upgrades as performance demands increase rapidly."

http://www.ericsson.com

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Harris Broadcast Splits into Imagine Comm and GatesAir

Harris Broadcast, which is owned by The Gores Group, will split into two companies: Imagine Communications and GatesAir at its inaugural MediaDay held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.


Imagine Communications will be headquartered in Dallas, with offices in Denver, Toronto, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and Beijing. The company's five decades of media software and networking innovation has secured more than 3,000 customers spanning 185 countries, with more than 3 million products deployed that support over half of the world's video channels, along with a rich portfolio of patents.

Imagine Communications is also introducing Software Defined Workflows (SDW), a capability enabled by the company's MultiService SDN architecture that improves the way video is managed through broadcast facilities by allowing the entire workflow to be software defined, bringing all media into the IP layer and separating the media content components from control. Additionally, significant investments in TV Everywhere will leverage Imagine Communications MediaCentral and Multiservice SDN frameworks, further reducing the infrastructure required to allow for the multiple formats of the evolving multiscreen world – from the largest Ultra High Definition screens down to the smallest screens of smart phones and wearable devices. By optimizing the highest quality video stream for delivery over the variety of bandwidth users consume, Imagine Communications' TV Everywhere solutions will enable all networks to dynamically adapt to the amount of available bandwidth.

GatesAir will be headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, with its state-of-art manufacturing, supply chain and fulfillment center in Quincy, Illinois. GatesAir has been pioneering over-the-air TV and radio transmission innovation for nearly 100 years.

"With vibrant new identities and focus, Imagine Communications and GatesAir are well-positioned to serve our industry and customers," said Charlie Vogt, CEO of Imagine Communications and GatesAir. "Our vision, product direction and strategy further align Imagine Communications and GatesAir with today's transformational trends, the networks of the future and our customers and partners. We have created two laser-focused companies that are innovating across different ends of the technology spectrum. Imagine Communications will lead the media and entertainment markets to a future defined by IP, software, the cloud, and TV Everywhere, with an architecture vision for delivering and monetizing multiscreen content. Likewise, GatesAir will continue to lead the next-generation TV and Radio over-the-air market, with a focus on providing wireless innovations that reduce power consumption and carbon footprint, while leveraging the growth in digital radio and TV transmission across the globe."

http://www.imaginecommunications.com
http://www.gatesair.com

In January 2014, Harris Broadcast completed its previously announced acquisition of Imagine Communications, a supplier of digital video solutions for content providers and system operators, for an undisclosed sum.

Harris Broadcast said the acquisition enhances its solutions portfolio as its builds the first true "MultiService SDN", integrating sales, scheduling, automation, playout and delivery throughout both linear and non-linear content distribution networks. It also brings advanced transcoding technology utilizing cutting edge software breakthroughs that run in high density, low power commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) and blade-server environments, consistent with Harris Broadcast’s vision of software-centric, virtualized operations.

Imagine Communications supplies TV Everywhere transcoding that utilizes software running in a virtualized blade server environment.  The solution combines video processing, Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) transcoding and statistical multiplexing technology to provide the bandwidth efficiency and density needed to meet the demand for TV Everywhere services.

• In Dec. 2012, Harris agreed to sell its Broadcast Communications business to an affiliate of The Gores Group $225 million.

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