KDDI has announced that it is deploying TIP’s DDBR as the internet
gateway peering routers. DDBR carrying live internet traffic will start
helping KDDI to reduce power consumption by about 46% and the rack space
by about 40% compared to the traditional routers in KDDI production
networks.
As 5G services expand use cases in mobile communications, 5G traffic is
expected to increase rapidly due to the wide range and increase of
connected terminals. To sustain this growth, further system optimization
such as lower power consumption, smaller size and lower cost systems are
required for the 5G network infrastructure. Furthermore, since dedicated
routers are needed to be deployed in each area of the carrier backbone
networks, such as core, edge, and internet GW, the equipment capital
cost and complexity increase.
To handle these issues, KDDI became a TIP participant to promote the
development of open and disaggregated technologies for telecommunication
systems. KDDI completed the DDBR technical requirements document in May
2021 [1] and TIP announced the DDBR-compliant vendors in March 2022 [2].
In March 2022, KDDI completed a final phase of commercial testing for
DDBR.
KDDI’s DDBR architecture has two key advantages:
1. Optimal Merchant Silicon Selection and Configuration
Traditional routers comprise software, hardware and semiconductor chips
chosen by one vendor. DDBR enables a multi-vendor architecture and
comprises of DriveNets’ Network Cloud software, 40×100GE line card
systems from Delta Electronics, Inc., and merchant silicon (Jericho2)
from Broadcom, Inc. A single Jericho2 inside the hardware box has enough
capability to fulfil software/hardware features and scalability in KDDI
production networks. As a result, DDBR leads to reduce power
consumption, equipment capital cost and rack space.
2. Sharing of Hardware Resources
Traditionally, carriers have needed dedicated routers for core, edge and
internet GW. However, DDBR can utilize the same white box hardware
infrastructure for multiple areas of the network, such as core, edge and
internet GW. As a result, it will enable KDDI to share hardware spare
parts in our backbone networks, leading to the reduction of the
equipment capital cost.
KDDI will continue to lead the carrier-grade white box router deployment
in conjunction with global TIP activities.
