Vodafone demos FlexEthernet with Ciena

Vodafone demonstrated what they believe is the world’s first programmable infrastructure based on FlexEthernet. The testing used Vodafone UK’s Red Stream network and equipment from Ciena.

RedStream is an IP-based converged core network consisting of more than 200 sites connected by more than 11,000 km of optical fibre and with more than 1,000 MPLS-enabled aggregation node. Redstream provides converged connectivity for Vodafone’s mobile base stations, consumer broadband services and enterprise data and voice customers throughout the UK.

In a blog posting, Eva Rossi, Head of Transport Product, Vodafone Group, says the test was capable of delivering speeds of up to 400 Gbps over a single wavelength. Vodafone also tested flexible spectrum based on Ciena’s tunable WaveLogic Ai coherent optics and Manage Control and Plan controller.

http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/what/technology-blog/vodafone-pioneers-flexible-ethernet-in-uk.html

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Trump nominates Geoffrey Starks as FCC Commissioner

President Trump nominated Geoffrey Adam Starks, of Kansas, to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission for a term of five years from July 1, 2017. If approved by the Senate, he would replace Democrat Mignon L. Clyburn, whose term expired.

Starks currently serves as assistant bureau chief for the FCC's Enforcement division. Previously, he served at the Department of Justice as a senior counsel to Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole. He has a JD from Yale Law School.

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IDC: Worldwide Ethernet switch market gros 11% in Q1

The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) recorded $6.29 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18), up 10.9% year over year, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker and Worldwide Quarterly Router Tracker, while the worldwide total enterprise and service provider (SP) router market recorded $3.31 billion in revenue in 1Q18, a 1.4% decrease on a year-over-year basis.

"After modest gains in 2017, the Ethernet switch market started 2018 with a strong first quarter," said Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure at IDC. "There are two macro trends that contributed to growth: The emergence of next-generation software-based network intelligence platforms that add to the intrinsic value of networking, and the push by large enterprises, hyperscalers, and service providers to leverage faster Ethernet switching speeds for cloud rollouts. Both trends bode well for this industry moving forward."

Some highlights from IDC:

• The 1Q18 Ethernet switch market recorded its strongest growth in the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) region, which increased a solid 21.0% year over year. China had the region's most robust growth, rising 29.7% year over year to $769.8 million; Korea also posted strong 24.2% year-over-year growth. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was another standout region, growing 19.5%, with Poland up a strong 39.6% and the region's largest market, Russia, up 19.2%. The Middle East & Africa (MEA) region recorded 11.7% growth, while the United States, the world's largest market, was up 7.0% year over year to $2.44 billion. The Latin America (LA) region's growth continued to lag, up only 1.2%. Japan, meanwhile, dropped 2.0% year over year.
• 10Gb Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) revenue increased 5.1%, coming in at $2.05 billion, while 10Gb Ethernet port shipments rose 41.6%. 
• 40Gb Ethernet revenues were down 4.0% despite port shipments increasing 7.8%, reflecting ongoing price erosion in the market and unfavorable price performance ratios relative to 25Gb and 100Gb products. 
• 25Gb revenue increased 176% year over year with port shipments growing 359% year over year in 1Q18. 
• 100Gb revenue increased 83.8% year over year to $742.5 million and port shipments grew 117.7% year over year in 1Q18. 
• 1Gb Ethernet revenues were up 5.4% in the quarter, with port shipments up 15.8%, which reverses a trend from last year and shows the interest in refreshing campus and branch networks. 
• Overall, across all speeds, port shipments in 1Q18 rose 12.0% year over year.
• Cisco finished 1Q18 with a year-over-year increase of 7.6% in Ethernet switching revenues and a market share of 53.4%, down from its 55.0% share in 1Q17 and down from 58.9% in 1Q16. 
• Huawei continued to perform well in both the Ethernet switch and the router markets on an annualized basis. Huawei's Ethernet switch revenue grew 41.2% year over year in 1Q18 for a market share of 8.1%, up from 6.3% in 1Q17. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's (HPE) Ethernet switch revenue grew 11.1% from 1Q17 to 1Q18 and its market share held steady at 6.0% during that time.
• Arista Networks performed well in 1Q18, with its Ethernet switching revenue rising 39.9% year over year, earning a market share of 6.5%, up from 5.1% in 1Q17.
• Juniper's Ethernet switch revenue fell 4.8% year over year in 1Q18, bringing its market share to 3.7% compared to 4.3% in 1Q17. Juniper also saw a 21.8% decrease in combined service provider and enterprise router revenues, with market share falling to 12.3% compared to 15.5% in 1Q17.

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS43900818

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Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone test NB-IoT roaming

Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone Group completed an international roaming trial in Europe using licensed NB-IoT technology.

The trial was performed using global SIMs from Deutsche Telekom on Vodafone Spain’s network and global Vodafone SIMs on T-Mobile Austria’s network and commercial NB-IoT modules. The trials will also provide guidance to other operators in delivering a consistent level of implementation.

“The success of these trials is an important milestone in the development of a sustainable roaming environment for Mobile IoT networks, showcasing their capabilities as well as ensuring consistent service across geographical boundaries,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “The market has matured considerably in a very short time and we anticipate that this will be the year that Mobile IoT scales. Undoubtedly this is because only licensed, managed mobile services can provide the secure low power connection that can meet future demand.”

“Deutsche Telekom has successfully introduced and developed NB-IoT networks across most of its European footprint and we are very pleased to see the ecosystem rapidly expanding,” says Ingo Hofacker, responsible for the IoT business in the Deutsche Telekom Group. “First commercial offers are available on a national basis already, but now, operators need to satisfy customer demand for international coverage and service continuity as well.”

Vodafone director of IoT Stefano Gestaut said, “This development shows the successful evolution of the technology and I am confident that it will lead to a raft of new applications for NB-IoT, such as the cold chain monitoring of goods across borders.

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Microsoft to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion, extend reach to developers

Microsoft agreed to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock.

GitHub is the leading repository for open source code. The company has over 28 million developers collaborating on its platform.

GitHub vows to retain its developer-first ethos and to operate independently to provide an open platform for all developers in all industries. Microsoft said GitHub will become part of its Intelligent Cloud segment for accounting purposes.

“Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate and solve the world’s most pressing challenges.”

“I’m extremely proud of what GitHub and our community have accomplished over the past decade, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead. The future of software development is bright, and I’m thrilled to be joining forces with Microsoft to help make it a reality. Their focus on developers lines up perfectly with our own, and their scale, tools and global cloud will play a huge role in making GitHub even more valuable for developers everywhere,” said Chris Wanstrath, Github CEO and co-founder.

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Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 850 for Windows 10 PCs

Qualcomm announced a joint effort with Samsung Electronics to integrate its Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform, featuring the Snapdragon X20 and Qualcomm AI Engine, in a future device.
The Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform leverages 10nm technology to allow for sleeker and more portable, fanless designs for mobile customers, compared to current 14nm solutions. The processor offers advanced graphics and high-quality audio, enabling a Windows 10 experience/

Windows 10 devices powered by the Snapdragon Mobile Compute Platform are expected to be available in retail later this year.

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon

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Three UK supports new MVNO from Superdrug

Superdrug, a health and beauty retailer in the UK, is launching a low-cost, prepaid mobile service that will be priced starting £10 per mont for unlimited calls and texts and 4GB per month. The service will be sold in the retailer’s 807 UK stores and online from 20th June 2018.

Superdrug Mobile will operate a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) over Three's network. Other MVNOs on the Three network include SMARTY, iD Mobile (the UK’s fastest growing MVNO) and B2B communications provider Gamma.

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Aquantia intros USB to Multi-Gig Ethernet Adaptor chip

Aquantia introduced two USB to Multi-Gig Ethernet controller ICs for third-party USB v3.1 adapters and docking stations.

The devices enable a new class of accessories for laptop users who want wired Multi-Gig Ethernet connectivity at their desks. The new controllers offer up to 5Gbps and 2.5Gbps connectivity, respectively and incorporate Aquantia's AQrate PHY technology. They enable connectivity over 100 meters of standard Cat 5e cabling for external Ethernet solutions. Both devices are compliant with the IEEE 802.3bz standard ratified in September 2016 and the NBASE-T Alliance PHY specification.

“The circle of Multi-Gig Ethernet influence is growing steadily. Introducing this new category to the AQtion family supports the Aquantia mission to convert all Gigabit Ethernet ports to Multi-Gig connections,” said LK Bhupathi, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Aquantia Corp. “Partnering with industry leaders like Bizlink, Edimax, Goodway and Sunrich allows us to service an increasing number of customers with a simple, seamless upgrade path to Multi-Gig connectivity.”

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Klas Telecom launches VoyagerSW26G 26-port GbE switch based on Cisco ESS 3300

Klas Telecom, a Cisco Solution Technology Integrator (STI), announced enhancements to its VoyagerSW26G rugged 26-port switch, which is based on Cisco’s new Embedded Services Switch (ESS) 3300.  The added features are designed for tactical users in the public safety, government and military markets, where low size, weight and power (SWaP) are required. The switch is packaged in a chassis that meets military standard for ruggedization. The switch provides two 10 Gbps uplink SFP+ ports and twenty-four 1 GbE ports, eight of which are PoE enabled.

“The VoyagerSW26G provides next generation IE switch features such as PTP, MACsec and L2/L3 support,” said Klas Telecom Chief Technology Officer Frank Murray. “Our customers can utilize the VoyagerSW26G as an access switch for use with other Voyager products, like the Voyager Tactical Data Center (TDC), to unlock the full potential of our systems. Our collaboration with Cisco has been seamless from an engineering perspective and we greatly value the support the Cisco team has provided in realizing Cisco ESS 3300 as VoyagerSW26G.”

http://www.klastelecom.com

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SES-12 enters orbit with 72 high throughput user spot beams

SES-12 was successfully launched by SpaceX into geostationary orbit at 95 degrees East. It will serve video, fixed data, mobility and government customers across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

SES-12, which is one of the largest geostationary satellites that SES has ever launched, is equipped with six wide beams and 72 high throughput user spot beams.

It also has a Digital Transparent Processor (DTP) that increases payload flexibility to provide much more customizable bandwidth solutions to SES's customers.

SES-12 will join SES’ network of seven geostationary satellites and 16 MEO satellites across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer at SES said, “More content. More immersive viewing experience. Blazing internet speeds. Reliable cell coverage. All of these dynamic customer requirements can now be met with the successful launch of SES-12, which will provide incremental high-performance capacity and offer greater reliability and flexibility to our customers.”

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Telecom Egypt obtains US$200 million in financing facilitated by Huawei

The Bank of China and China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) will provide US$200 million in long-term financing to Telecom Egypt.

The financing was facilitated by Huawei. It is intended to finance the roll-out of Telecom Egypt's 4G network and the deployment of transmission and core networks.

Mr. Terry Liu, CEO of Huawei Egypt Office said: “Throughout the years Huawei has been successful in building and maintaining a strong partnership with Telecom Egypt. Today, we are taking another step towards strengthening this partnership and supporting Telecom Egypt in their strategy to expand by facilitating the financing agreement.”

Mr. Peng Song, Huawei North Africa President added: “Providing such financing facilities enables us to capitalize on the potential of growth in the Egyptian market. It is part of our strategy to support our customers and act as their partners in success.”

Eng. Ahmed El Beheiry, Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt added:

“Telecom Egypt has several strategic long-term expansion plans to be delivered in the coming years. To achieve such plans we have worked on attaining long-term financing at the lowest possible cost as well as the most convenient payment terms to match our cash flow generation while proceeding with our rollout plans. Our success in securing such financing agreement with the Chinese financial institutions and Huawei indicates our strong financial position and credit profile and marks the first of its kind in the telecom sector. The facility benefits Telecom Egypt by providing a simplified purchasing process through a packaged financial solution, while it allows Huawei to further expand its business in Egypt.”

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Palo Alto Networks names Nikesh Arora as CEO and Chairman

Palo Alto Networks named  Nikesh Arora as its new CEO and chairman of the Board of Directors, succeeding Mark McLaughlin, who becomes vice chairman of the Board for Palo Alto Networks.

Arora formerly served as president and chief operating officer at SoftBank and as chief business officer at Google, where he led more than 20,000 employees, and developed a substantial track record of driving innovation and delivering business success. He joined Google in 2004.

Arora has degrees from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, Boston College, and Northeastern University.

"The company is executing extremely well and is the clear leader in next-generation security. Over the course of several quarters, I have been discussing succession planning with the Board and I couldn't be more pleased that we have found a leader in Nikesh who is ideally suited to take the company on the next leg of its journey. I look forward to working with Nikesh as we transition and serving as vice chairman of the Board," stated Mark McLaughlin.

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Orange builds 200G optical backbone across Spain with Huawei

Orange Spain has deployed a national optical transport network using Huawei's equipment.

The optical backbone offers up to 96x200G transmission capacity. The new network consolidates the traffic of several different DWDM systems that arose as the result of several mergers.

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Telecom Egypt acquires MENA cable for $90 million

Telecom Egypt announces that its 50% owned subsidiary, Egyptian International Submarine Cables Company (EISCC), will acquire the Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA) for a total value of US$90 million from Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E.

Telecom Egypt said the decision to acquire MENA Cable comes in line with its strategy to achieve a short-term return from this investment and to preserve the revenue stream of the submarine cable systems.

MENA Cable is licensed in Egypt and Italy to operate a submarine telecommunications system connecting Europe to the Middle East and South East Asia.

"The decision to acquire MENA Cable is one of the most important steps towards implementing the company’s strategic plan to ensure the sustainability of submarine cable revenues and reinforce the contribution of the USD revenue stream. The new cable will add to Telecom Egypt’s network of submarine cables fortifying TE’s network offering to the maximum number of routes between India and Europe as well as add a new gateway to Europe through Italy," stated Ahmed El Beheiry, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

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A look at COBO and the drive for on-board optics

The Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO) was formed three years ago to develop specifications to permit the use of board-mounted optical modules in the manufacturing of networking equipment, such as switches and even servers. The specifications will cover electrical interfaces, pin-outs, connectors, thermals, etc.  The idea is to drive the development of interchangeable and interoperable optical modules that can be mounted onto motherboards and daughtercards. Microsoft is a founding member of COBO, as are Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Juniper, and Mellanox. In April, COBO issued its first on-board optics specification targeting 400 Gbps and 800 Gbps data rates and leveraging two electrical interfaces: 8 and 16 lanes of 50-gigabit PAM-4 signals.

I caught up with Brad Booth, president of COBO, at the recent NetEvents 2018 in San Jose, California. In his day job, Brad is also a Network Architect with Microsoft Azure.

Jim Carroll, Optical Networks Daily – Hi Brad, good to see you again. Tell us about your work and the latest developments in the drive toward on-board optics.

Brad Booth, COBO:  I am the president of COBO. That is my volunteer job. My full-time job is a Network Architect for Microsoft Azure. 

A few months ago, COBO, the Consortium for Onboard Optics released our specification 1.0 specification in time for OFC and now we're going around letting people know about it because it is a game changer for how to use embedded optics. Traditionally, embedded optics have been proprietary solutions. We knew that as we progress the technology and move from 10G to 40G to 100G to 400G, and whatever speed comes next, the ability to continue to use faceplate optics is presenting greater complexities. 

First, the thermal environment was getting a little harder to deal with. Signal integrity was becoming more difficult to deal with. The fact that you had people plugging these modules in, which were very sensitive to ASD and sensitive to noise, resulting in damage. And we decided that we needed to start the progression of moving the optics away from the faceplate and closer to the ASIC, if not on to the same footprint of the ASIC eventually. We knew that at 400G it was possible to do faceplate pluggable. We knew in time people would figure out how to do an optics embedded with ASICs, but what was going to be the thing that would allow us that transition in between. What would allow us to have the learnings and the understanding of how this will change our business models. That’s why we came up with COBO.


What is COBO implementation actually going to look like?

Brad Booth, COBO: This is a COBO module. It is a by 16 wide, which means it is a 16-lane interface on one side. This module was designed for the output of four 100G PSM4 signals  This is the medium size version of the module. It comes in a by-8 and a by-16 version. It comes in three lengths: slightly shorter than this, this length, and slightly longer. That allows us to be able to use this module literally from multimode fiber all the way up to long-haul coherent transmission. 
The module at its widest form factor is capable of accepting up to 40 watts of power to drive whatever component tree we need in it. 

It's capable of having a full 1RU heatsink, or greater if we want. You can even do liquid cooling on this if you want. There's the capability of latching either on the high-speed pins or the low-speed pin connector on the bottom. We separated the low-speed power and ground and control away from the high speed to improve the signal integrity. The nice thing is these pins on the bottom are .8mm pitch, which means that we get lots of good contact and power. There is also .6mm pitch, which should be able to handle up to 100 Gbps PAM4 electrical signaling. This means that future iterations of this module will be capable of 1.6 Tbps worth of bandwidth.


What kind of support or feedback are you getting from the industry?

Brad Booth, COBO:  We have over 60 member companies participating in COBO now. Many of them are very well known in the industry. Cisco, Arista, Juniper. Mellanox. We have connector companies involved too., like SEMTECH, TE Connectivity, Luxtera. We have companies that specialize in optical connectors, like SENKO, Huber+Suhner, etc. We have a strong ecosystem. 

We have to figure out how to move those optics from the faceplate further inside the systems to improve the signal integrity, and we have to be able to do it without drawing massive amount of power. And that's one of the advantages of having so many people in the ecosystem that play in this area, we have a lot of good contributions.

Filmed at NetEvents 2018 in San Jose, California

Is COBO targeting 400G and above? Are higher rates going to be supported? 

Brad Booth, COBO: This module is actually a four by 100. So it has 400 gigs worth of bandwidth in it right now. If you were to build it to handle 400G Ethernet, you could put two 400G Ethernets in it, and so that would be 800G worth of bandwidth. When this electrical interface goes to 100G PAM4 in the next version of our specification, this module will be able to do 1.6 terabytes. 

Is that the endpoint? Probably not, because we've actually designed the module to be able to handle the coherent light, or the 400 ZR, which is being worked on by the OIF. That's a 15 watt part and it does 400G per lambda. If the power of that technology continues to drop, you could potentially put more of those in this and actually achieve even greater bandwidth. 

What about the manufacturability of COBO? How is the industry progressing in this regard? 

Brad Booth, COBO: The interesting aspect of building something like this is being able to dissipate the power and the heat. The biggest thing for heat dissipation is actually the maximum height that you can make the heat fin on the heat sink. So, if you get a full 1RU height, you get significantly better thermal performance than just a small one. We've done some general evaluations here. We’ve actually done some thermal modeling. As a next step, we're looking forward to building out true thermal systems and testing it. 

One of the key aspects of this is that you've got a full 1 RU height. Second, you're not blocking the faceplate with optics, and you don't need as much airflow to pull through the system. That means you don't need fans running full out just to be able to pull enough air through to cool it. Another aspect is that COBO will allow you can to change how you implement your system design. You could place these modules in different spots across the motherboard that are potentially cooler or further away from the hotter ASIC. You could implement airflow channels to cool the optics, separate from the actual switch ASIC. 

There is the possibility of using liquid cooling. This module doesn't have a heat sink on it right now, so you could drop a liquid cooling plate on top of it. There's also the expansion capability provided by extra pins on the bottom of the module, which could be used to provide more power and more control signals if necessary for some next-generation technologies. 

What about the challenge of fiber alignment with COBO?

Brad Booth, COBO: Regarding fiber alignments, an interesting aspect is that we expect most people in the first generation to build these modules with pigtail optics. In other words, the optics will already be pre-attached. This module, which is just a mock-up, is shown without them. 

We have work going on to actually do a connectorized interface. We have some people working on how that would actually be implemented. If we can connectorize it here and connectorized it on the faceplate, that means that you wouldn't have to worry about it at manufacturing. You could attach the module in the factory when they build the switch. They could put the optics right in. Then, after the optics and systems are all installed, you could come and hand fiber, trace it out to the pigtails or to the front faceplate and that would actually help eliminate the worry, if you have to replace this, that you have to unstrand the whole pigtail. This provides the option for people to be able to do both. We’ve discussed even short pigtail versions within our optical conductivity study group. 

We invite people to contribute their thoughts and opinions. Come and work with us on this because this is an area that we think is going to become critically important as we start progressing towards actually putting optics embedded with ASICs. 

http://onboardoptics.org/

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Deutsche Telekom invests a further EUR 284 million in Greece's OTE

Deutsche Telekom has purchased another 5 percent of Hellenic Telecom’s (OTE) shares for EUR 284 million. This brings DT's equity stake in OTE to 45 percent.

“This move underscores our long-term commitment to Greece. OTE is a strong cornerstone of our strategic ambition to become the leading European telco,” says Srini Gopalan, Deutsche Telekom Board Member for Europe, adding: “Growth can be achieved primarily through convergence and digitization and OTE is an essential part of our coordinated strategic efforts to make this happen.”

At the end of 2017, OTE served 1.8 million broadband customers, almost 8 million mobile customers and 525,000 TV customers in Greece.

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European Investment Bank extends credit to Ericsson

The European Investment Bank has granted Ericsson a credit facility of EUR 250 million. The funds are intended to bolster Ericsson's 5G research and development effort.

Alexander Stubb, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, says: “The development of 5G technology is easily one of the most important innovation initiatives for the telecom industry in the coming years. Ericsson has been one of the defining contributors to what mobile telephony is today and I think we can only be proud to support this. Apart from supporting European technology, this project will also make sure that thousands of highly-skilled jobs will stay in the EU.”

Ericsson noted that invested SEK 37.9 billion in research and development during 2017. The company holds some 45,000 patents and has more than 23,600 staff working in research and development.

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AWS offers $0.30 per session for its QuickSight analytics

AWS announced pay-per-session pricing for Amazon QuickSight -- its cloud-powered, business analytics service.

Pay-per-session pricing for Amazon QuickSight dashboards starts at $0.30 per session (30 minute window) up to a maximum of $5 per user, per month, and is available in Amazon QuickSight Enterprise Edition in all supported AWS regions.

“With highly scalable object storage in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), data warehousing at one-tenth the cost of traditional solutions in Amazon Redshift, and serverless analytics offered by Amazon Athena, customers are moving data into AWS at an unprecedented pace,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Vice President of Amazon QuickSight at Amazon Web Services, Inc. “What's changed is that virtually all knowledge workers want easy access to that data and the insights that can be derived. It's been cost-prohibitive to enable that access for entire companies until the Amazon QuickSight pay-per-session pricing-- this is a game-changer in terms of information and analytics access.”

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MEF advances MEF 3.0 Ethernet, IP, SD-WAN, and Layer 1 Services

Work continues to advance on MEF 3.0, which is the global services framework unveiled last November for “defining, delivering, and certifying agile, assured, and orchestrated communication services across a global ecosystem of automated networks.”

MEF reported progress on the standardization of orchestration-ready Ethernet, IP, SD-WAN, and Layer 1 services that form a core element of the MEF 3.0.

Specifically, MEF has published two new MEF 3.0 Ethernet and IP specifications, progressed two major MEF 3.0 SD-WAN projects, and moved closer to finalizing a MEF 3.0 Layer 1 service definition specification as soon as 3Q18.

“Expansion of MEF 3.0 standardization work beyond Ethernet to include IP, SD-WAN, and Layer 1 services is critical for enabling the streamlined interconnection and orchestration of a mix of connectivity services across multiple providers,” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF. “Combining this work with the ongoing development of our emerging suite of LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) APIs will pave the way for orchestrated delivery of on-demand, cloud-centric services with unprecedented user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities.”

Here are some highlights:

MEF has just published the Managed Access E-Line Service Implementation Agreement (MEF 62), which defines a new service with a specific set of management and Class of Service (CoS) capabilities designed to accelerate service provisioning and to simplify management of services that traverse multiple operators. The MEF 3.0 Managed Access E-Line (MAEL) service is derived from the MEF 3.0 Access E-Line service specified in MEF 51.

MEF 62 reduces ordering and provisioning complexities when a service provider requires an Operator Virtual Connection (OVC) service from an operator by defining a MAEL service with a simplified set of CoS requirements – e.g., a single CoS name per OVC – coupled with a simplified set of management requirements for SOAM fault management, SOAM performance management, and latching loopback. By leveraging the management capabilities in the MAEL operator’s network, MEF 62 also intends to eliminate the need for a service provider to deploy hardware – e.g., a NID – at the subscriber’s location to monitor services.

AT&T, Bell Canada, Canoga Perkins, Ciena, Cisco, HFR, and Zayo joined Verizon in contributing to MEF 62.

MEF has published the Subscriber IP Service Attributes Technical Specification (MEF 61) as the first in a planned series of MEF 3.0 IP specifications aiming to address these challenges. MEF 61 specifies a standard set of service attributes for describing IP VPNs and Internet access services offered to end-users and will be used as a starting point for defining attributes for operator IP services. It introduces IP UNIs and IP UNI Access Links for describing how a subscriber is connected to a service provider as well as IP Virtual Connections and IP Virtual Connection End Points for describing an IP-VPN or Internet access service between those UNIs. Specific service attributes and corresponding behavioral requirements are defined for each of these entities. These include support for assured services – e.g. multiple classes of service, with performance objectives for each class agreed using a standardized set of performance metrics in a Service Level Specification. Bandwidth Profiles that can be applied to IP services are also described, allowing the bandwidth assigned to each class of service to be agreed in a standard way.

“The immediate value of MEF 61 is that it establishes common terminology and provides the ability to standardize service level agreements for IP services with customers,” said David Ball, editor of MEF 61 and Senior Software Architect, Cisco. “In the longer term, MEF 61 provides the basis for specifying operator IP service attributes, and it will enable standardization of LSO APIs for orchestration of IP services across subscribers, service providers, and wholesale operators.”

Albis-Elcon, Ceragon, Ciena, Coriant, Cox, Ericsson, HFR, RAD, TELUS, TIM, Verizon, Zayo, and ZTE joined Cisco in contributing to MEF 61.

MEF 3.0 SD-WAN -- there are two major SD-WAN initiatives underway: the Multi-Vendor SD-WAN Implementation project and the SD-WAN Service Definition project.  The first project is focused on addressing the rapidly growing problem of orchestrating services over multiple SD-WAN deployments that are based on different technology vendor products. MEF member companies – including SD-WAN vendors Riverbed, VeloCloud (now part of VMware), and Nuage Networks from Nokia and software development services provider Amartus –  are collaborating to use MEF’s new, standardized LSO Presto Network Resource Provisioning (NRP) API to meet these interoperability challenges.

In the second project, MEF members are collaborating to develop an SD-WAN service specification that defines the service components, their attributes, and application-centric QoS, security, and business priority policy requirements to create SD-WAN services. This initiative is led by Riverbed and VeloCloud, now part of VMware, with major contributions from Fujitsu.

MEF 3.0 Layer 1 -- MEF is in the final phase of the review and approval process for a new specification that defines the attributes of a subscriber Layer 1 service for Ethernet and Fibre Channel client protocols – used in LAN and SAN extension for data center interconnect – as well as SONET and SDH client protocols for legacy WAN services. Nokia, Bell Canada, Cisco, and HFR have contributed to this project.

Work already is underway on a companion specification defining Operator Layer 1 services between a UNI and an OTN ENNI (access) and between two OTN ENNIs (transit). This will provide the basis for streamlining the interconnection of multi-domain Layer 1 services.

What is included in MEF 3.0

There are four spokes to the MEF 3.0 wheel

       

• Standardized, Orchestrated Services - including Carrier Ethernet, wavelength, IP, SD-WAN, Security-as-a-Service, and other virtualized services that will be orchestrated over programmable networks using LSO APIs. MEF 3.0 CE R1 is the first release within the MEF 3.0 framework, while work on standardizing orchestration-ready wavelength, IP, SD-WAN, and security services currently is progressing within MEF.
  
•         Open LSO APIs - MEF’s LSO Reference Architecture guides the agile development of standardized LSO APIs that enable orchestration of MEF 3.0 services across multiple providers and over multiple network technology domains (e.g., Packet WAN, Optical Transport, SD-WAN, 5G, etc.). MEF recently announced the first releases of two LSO SDKs (software development kits) that feature inter-provider APIs for address validation, serviceability, and ordering and an intra-provider API for network resource provisioning. The LSO APIs included in these SDKs are available for experimental use by MEF members and associated MEF programs.
  
•         Service and Technology Certifications. MEF is increasing the agility of its popular certification programs to accelerate availability and adoption of MEF 3.0 certified services and technologies. Iometrix continues as MEF’s testing partner, but the certification process is now being virtualized and taken into the cloud. A subscription model will be used for that vendors and carriers will be able to certify that their services and technologies comply with the latest MEF 3.0 standards. This should speed up the certification process considerably from days to minutes.
  
•         Expanded Community Collaboration. MEF is working with service and technology providers, open source projects, standards associations, and enterprises to realize a shared vision of dynamic services orchestrated across automated networks. MEF has created a new compute, storage, and networking platform – MEFnet – that enables development, testing, integration, and showcasing of prototype MEF 3.0 implementations using open source and commercial products. MEFnet projects will help accelerate the understanding and adoption of MEF 3.0, as well as provide immediate feedback for standards development within MEF.

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Advancing MEF 3.0 - Ethernet, IP, SD-WAN, and Layer 1 Services

Dan Pitt provides an overview of recent development with MEF 3.0, the transformational framework for defining, delivering, and certifying agile, assured, and orchestrated communication services across a global ecosystem of automated networks.

Filmed at NetEvents at the Dolce Hayes Mansion in San Jose, California.

See video: https://youtu.be/D_edtEpuu0s

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