 | Issue: | Latin America 2015 |
| Article no.: | 7 | |
| Topic: | Network Virtualization and SDN, the starting point for network flexibility | |
| Author: | Steve Hratko | |
| Title: | Director of Service Provider Marketing | |
| Organisation: | Ruckus Wireless | |
| PDF size: | 214KB |
About author
Steve Hratko is the Director of Service Provider Marketing of Ruckus Wireless. He has extensive experience in product marketing in the wireless industry. Steve has been with Ruckus since 2012. Prior to Ruckus, Steve served as Product Marketing Manager – Mobility for Juniper Networks, where he was responsible for marketing of all Juniper solutions related to the mobile packet core including evolved packet core, service layer solutions, Wi-Fi offload, and mobile security. Steve has also worked at Cisco. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and has a MBA in Finance & Telecommunications from the University of San Francisco.
Article abstract
While the debate continues about the benefits of NFV and SDN, many companies are greatly surprised by not having to wait two or three years to see progress. But is it worth it to update or renew their network infrastructure? Virtualization creates a highly available environment that ensures access to apps at any moment. The challenge is to redefine processes to streamline and speed up things, and change the habits of the entire organization. There will be 889 million mobile connections in Latin America by 2020. Network virtualization enables Latin American telecom operators and enterprises to realize monetization opportunities.
Full Article
Latin Americans are increasingly connected to the Internet. They access it from their mobile devices, they use social media and a variety of applications, they watched Copa America from their computers and tablets, and are using services like Netflix instead of regular TV. In addition, according to GSMA Latin America, there will be 889 million mobile connections in Latin America by 2020. The number of devices is causing bandwidth congestion. Network virtualization fulfills the requirements of Latin American telecom operators by managing the increase in data traffic.
In 2013, most people were talking about software defined networks (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). Companies showed solutions and software that put SDN/NFV in a broader context in 2014. Businesses are seriously thinking about their options for SDN and Latin American service providers are aligning with North America and Europe to define and apply the requirements. While the debate continues about the benefits of NFV and SDN, many companies are greatly surprised by not having to wait two or three years to see progress. SDN applications are a reality so it is clear that operators and service providers should begin their transition to NFV and SDN. In 2015 we expect to see more NFV and SDN deployments in telecommunication networks around the world.
NFV standardization is being led by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). The ETSI NFV ISG (Industry Specification Group) was created in November of 2012 by seven telecommunications operators (AT&T, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Verizon).
Linux Foundation announced the project Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV). OPNFV aims to be an integrated reference and carrier-grade open code platform that enables operators to accelerate product and service launches through virtualization. OPNFV doesn’t intend to create a standard – that’s why it announced its intention to collaborate with ETSI ISG to deploy standards in this open code platform.
But is it worth it to update or renew the network infrastructure? On one side are the users, who always want higher speed data services, but aren’t willing to pay more for the service, and on the other hand are the operators who are willing to invest in new infrastructure, but only when a return on investment is assured. That is where scalability, flexibility and reliability become synonyms for the future.
Virtualization creates a highly available environment that ensures access to apps at any moment. If one of the servers fails, all virtual machines can automatically restart in another machine without down time, nor data loss. In addition, virtualization provides the foundation for disaster planning and preparation.
Network function virtualization is the first step towards building an agile network that truly leverages software defined networks. SDN separates the control layer from the data layer, it enables centralized control and provides the capability to program and automate network behavior.
Even though it’s possible to have a SDN deployment without meeting the strict definition of NFV or to have network function virtualization that doesn’t meet SDN requirements, when used together these technologies complement each other to provide a robust, efficient, and flexible solution.
There are platforms that will be self-configuring according to geographic distribution or peak demand, which optimizes the consumption of computing resources and network backhaul. Some networks may be able to reuse a common infrastructure, and can be instantaneously reconfigured according to demand.
The introduction of new services in legacy networks is very slow and expensive because of the increasing number, and greater complexity of network equipment. This involves a long process of employee certification. NFV can accelerate the deployment of new services or the updating the existing ones, which streamlines ROI. Sharing resources among different services, applications and users provides a better use of them and more flexibility to scale to greater capacities. New services can be introduced in a more controlled manner with less risk and costs. With a fast network, operators and service providers can offer more data efficiently and pioneer new income sources while increasing customer satisfaction. NFV changes the business model. Services have a fee per usage which means that subscribers pay for what they consume.
One of the main tasks in network virtualization is to integrate all policies and habits of physical networks within an automated scheme with new tools to manage virtual networks. The challenge is to redefine processes to streamline and speed up things, and change the habits of the organization regarding infrastructure consumption. In addition, a component of network virtualization within the data center can benefit the growth and flexibility to deliver applications to mobile devices.
There are interesting perspectives in wireless LAN networks because businesses are replacing their legacy wired networks with a hybrid configuration. There is also a trend toward “bring your own device” or BYOD. The three main problems faced by organizations regarding Wi-Fi and BYOD are onboarding of new devices, interference and scalability.
Onboarding of new devices refers to process by which a credential can be downloaded to the users device in a secure manner. That is an essential part of any BYOD solution.
Interference problems in wireless networks, like set up and the constant changes in the radiofrequency environment (RF), have to be solved, too.
When it comes to scalability, Wi-Fi as a technology has demonstrated that it’s ready to offer reliable and high performance solutions that can support data, voice and video collaboration requirements for corporate networks, carriers and service providers.
In order to accommodate current data demand in addition to future offers there is a need for the network to work like a platform: open, dynamic and flexible. Software defined networks promise to provide this openness and flexibility enabling mobile operators to stop being just an access provider and become a provider of a wide range of monetizing services. Using the network as a platform enables service providers to introduce new features, capabilities and services. This approach will also enable the service provider to create user experiences that satisfy the growing expectations by subscribers of a more customized service.
SDN promises to streamline network operations as well as expand network capacities in the virtualized era. However, SDN attributes don’t make the network simple. Instead, SDN puts a complex layer of abstraction, resulting in a simpler interface but not a simpler network.
Currently companies have to survive in a complex business environment where competition is more aggressive, consumers are very demanding and regulators are increasingly more stringent.
Thanks to virtualization a company has the ability to continue operating 24/7, 365 days a year getting important additional benefits. It doesn’t just generate cost savings; you have to go beyond that and discover the full potential of virtualization. Software defined networks will transform the way network infrastructure is consumed through virtualization, allowing to create and enable any type of topology in seconds with a library of logical network services (switches, routers), policies and functionalities enabled as templates to be rapidly consumed.
At the end of the day, carriers, service providers, and businesses want to have the best service with the best network. And users don’t want to hear about megabits per second but about a fast and reliable service. Virtualization can help them deliver just that.
