Israeli Universities and Research Institutions Announce the Formation of the Neptune (Network Programming) Consortium
Leading telecommunications vendors and universities backed by the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS), in the Israeli Ministry of Economy, collaborate to lay foundation for Network Programming
ISRAEL —August 7, 2014 –Ten leading Israeli companies along with ten Israeli universities and research institutions announced the formation of the Neptune (Network Programming) consortium. Its goal is to develop efficient methods to automate and programmatically manage service provider networks, irrespective of their underlying network technologies. The ability to program and automate networks will increase the efficiency and flexibility of service provider networks, thereby simplifying deployment and operation and reducing dramatically associated costs.
With financial support from the “Magnet Program“ of the Office of the Chief Scientist in the Israel Ministry of Economy, the founding members include ECI Telecom, RAD Data Comunications, Gilat Satellite Networks, Elbit Systems, Ceragon Networks, BATM Telecom, ADVA Optical Networking Israel, Mellanox Technologies, Mobilicom, Bezeq International, the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Ben-Gurion University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan University, Tel-Aviv University, University of Haifa, Tel-Aviv Jaffa Academic College, Holon Technological Institute, the Lev Academic Center in Jerusalem, and IDC Herzliya.
Tighter financial restrictions along with ever-growing demand for bandwidth as well as the dynamic introduction of various new services and applications are forcing service providers to adopt ever more efficient, automated, and service-aware networks. This necessitates a totally new network architecture, enabling simplified network provisioning, fast creation of new services, real time network optimization, as well as CAPEX and OPEX reduction.
Future heterogeneous networks will additionally benefit from optimized combined terrestrial and satellite technologies. Service providers are looking for ways to integrate wired and wireless networks into a single orchestrated network. “By applying sophisticated multilayer optimization algorithms combined with new virtualized network functions, we will enable what we call the AutoMagically configured Network – a new level of network programability solutions, allowing the operator to shift from ‘network planning’ to ‘network programming’, says Gali Malkiel ,Chairman of the Neptune Consortium and Head of ECI Telecom’s SW & SDN Solutions Line-of-Business. “By exploiting the expertise in and synergies between Israeli industry and academia, the Neptune consortium will employ a unique blend of skills, guaranteeing the success of the project and a better future for open service provider networks.”
Research and development efforts are already in progress worldwide towards two complementary technologies: Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). The goal of the Neptune consortium is to exploit SDN and NFV technologies in order to enable Carrier-grade automated network solutions.
Topics currently being reasearched under the aegis of Neptune include:
· Automatic and dynamic network resource allocation
· Multilayer and cross-layer network resource optimization
· Real-time congestion control and resiliency mechanisms
· Joint SDN and NFV optimized orchestration
· Fast setup of complex services including network path computation and virtual function placement
· Coexistence and migration from conventional networks to new SDN/NFV empowered networks.
Neptune has already initiated activities for attaining the aforementioned goals over the next three years. It will work closely with the relevant global standards development organizations and open-source communities.
