MEF Provides Strategic Update For Agile, Assured & Orchestrated Third Network Services |
Advances Work On Dynamic CE 2.0 & Layer 3 IP Services, LSO, New Open Initiatives |
Los Angeles, 17 March 2016 – The MEF (www.mef.net) is pleased to provide an update on its expanded scope of work that is accelerating the industry transition to agile, assured, and orchestrated services optimized for the digital economy and the hyper-connected world. The MEF now has more than 30 ongoing projects & initiatives to enable creation of Third Network services that offer user-directed control over service capabilities and cloud connectivity.
The MEF’s strategic work is focused on the following three major areas:
Third Network Services Third Network services combine the on-demand agility and ubiquity of the Internet with the performance and security assurances of Carrier Ethernet 2.0. Optimized for real-time, QoS-enabled, secured traffic and integration of value-added network functions-as-a-service, Third Network services are delivered over automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks powered by CE 2.0, LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), SDN, and NFV.
Lifecycle Service Orchestration The MEF is defining LSO capabilities and supporting APIs to streamline and automate the entire service lifecycle in a sustainable fashion for coordinated management and control across all network domains responsible for delivering an end-to-end connectivity service (CE 2.0, IP VPN, MPLS, SDN/NFV, etc.). This increasingly important area of work enables service providers to transition away from today’s silo-structured BSS/OSS approach towards flexible end-to-end service orchestration that leverages the benefits of SDN and NFV.
With the LSO Reference Architecture in place, the MEF is now focused on describing the functional components of the service orchestrator and on defining the APIs that enable LSO interoperability.
Industry Collaboration & Open Initiatives As part of the UNITE program, the MEF is playing a major role in aligning the ecosystem of industry standards and open source players to accelerate the industry transition to more agile, assured, and orchestrated network services.
OpenCS is a network ecosystem that enables a SDN and NFV reference implementation of open source software and open spec hardware for MEF-defined services, starting with CE2.0 and evolving to Layer 3 IP and above.
OpenLSO is an orchestration ecosystem that enables a reference implementation of open source solutions and interfaces that adheres to the MEF LSO specification. OpenLSO will focus on real working open source code for core LSO functions and open standard APIs for traditional and emerging SDN & NFV network infrastructures, such as OpenCS.
Roopa Honnachari, Industry Director, Business Communication Services & Cloud Computing Services, Frost & Sullivan “What we see today with this important strategic announcement from the MEF is that the whole industry is behind the Third Network and working in collaboration to develop end-to-end LSO as the enabler to make it happen. The transition to agile, assured, and orchestrated services for the hyper-connected world is now truly underway.”
Erin Dunne, Director of Research Services, Vertical Systems Group “Operators worldwide are actively integrating SDN and NFV into their networks in order to support advanced capabilities like dynamic Ethernet connectivity that are not possible to deliver using legacy service infrastructures. The MEF’s initiatives combining CE 2.0 as a foundation, LSO, plus Open Source provide operators with an essential standardized framework to help drive the industry transition towards more flexible network services.” |
About the MEF The MEF is the driving force enabling agile, assured and orchestrated Third Network services for the digital economy and the hyper-connected world, with user-directed control over network resources and cloud connectivity. Optimized for real-time, QoS-enabled, secured traffic and integration of value-added network functions-as-a-service, Third Network services are delivered over automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks globally powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV. The MEF leverages its global 200+ network operators and technology vendor community, builds upon the robust $80 billion Carrier Ethernet market, and provides a practical evolution to the Third Network with LSO, SDN, and NFV implementations that build upon a CE 2.0 foundation. The MEF has established a technical and implementation framework that includes architecture, information models, service definitions, operational processes, open source community, and certification programs. MEF work is conducted internally and – under the guidance of the MEF UNITE program – in collaboration with global standards organizations and open source projects. MEF16 (www.MEF16.com) is the MEF’s global networking event that will bring together the ecosystem of players enabling the transition to Third Network services and showcase demonstrations of leading-edge service & technology innovations for the hyper-connected world. |