JOHN WILLIAMSON OPTICAL VIRTUALISATION
FTTH networks in a more cost-effective way that took advantage of new operating models where both Vodafone and its deployment partners are able to differentiate their services over the shared fibre infrastructure. STANDARD ISSUE None of the foregoing is to imply that network slicing – or disaggregation – are completely done and dusted deals. “Defining open standardised software model abstractions and APIs are the main challenges,” remarks Larrigan. “Once this is in place, the network is ready for flexible services orchestration, including the creation of network slices.” Of the several ongoing activities that address such standardisation aspects, Larrigan attaches some importance to the MEF 3.0 Transformational Global Services Framework. This includes virtualised services that will be orchestrated over programmable networks using Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs. WAVES OF THE FUTURE So where might the industry be heading with optical networking and virtualisation? Greater automation is a major given key element of the virtualisation project, and experts anticipate that a high level of task automation will be a critical characteristic of future optical networking. Rungta says that, to deal with massive data streams and bursty, often unpredictable traffic patterns between end users and datacentres, or between datacentres, cloud providers will have to leverage smart software tools to automate recurring tasks, enhance service management and streamline operations. “Emerging technologies like software-defined capacity offer service providers a network model with pay-as-you-deploy bandwidth, flexible bandwidth pools and movable bandwidth across the infrastructure to instantly respond to forecasted and unforeseen events,” he predicts. Open-ness and interoperability will also be major chapters in the future network virtualisation playbook. “From an SDN/ NFV ‘virtualisation’ networking perspective, we see a much more open network SDN architecture with initial focus on addressing services and networking challenges in multivendor networks,” rounds off Larrigan. “Subsequently, we see the deployment of best of breed applications to optimise the network, and/or realise new optical services. These applications will take advantage of NFV to scale.”
hyperscale cloud and Internet Content Providers (ICPs), have brought a different mindset to Information IT and networking technology, and they are now applying it to optical transport
SLICE OF THE ACTION Xenos describes a network slice as a Virtual Network (VN) that is formed from a subset of network resources on a physical network, coexisting with other VNs running on the same physical network. “Although the terminology ‘optical network slicing’, or ‘transport network slicing’ is new, this is an application that Optical Transport Network (OTN) has always addressed with L1 ODUk services,” explains Xenos. “This concept has been referred to as an ‘optical virtual private network’ in the past.” In any event, slicing is currently a much discussed topic in optical network virtualisation circles. According to Stratistics MRC, the global network slicing market accounted for US$120.34 million in 2017 and is expected to reach US$726.27 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 22.1% during the forecast period. Network slicing has a number of attractions. It enables the same physical network to be partitioned and resourced to accommodate different traffic types simultaneously. This would enable, for example, the co-existence of 5G and IoT applications for which the bandwidth requirements are hugely different. Again, different slices could be optimised for the different demands placed on the network by dissimilar traffic types such as residential connectivity, enterprise services and mobile backhaul. A further plus may be the opportunity to slice the network to allow multiple service providers to share the infrastructure. This last was touched on by Matt Beal, director of strategy & architecture, Vodafone Group Technology, on the occasion of the Vodafone Ireland and Huawei’s partitioning of a physical FTTH network noted above. Beal stated that Vodafone had deployed several FTTH networks around the world, and many of these were with partners. Virtualisation of the fixed access network, he said, would help his company build and fill
elements so that the controller can communicate with them using the same commands, it becomes much easier to introduce and manage multi-vendor hardware into the network,” she says. Summarising, Xenos describes the key value of software disaggregation as the improvement of operational efficiencies through increased automation and increased differentiation through accelerated service delivery. “We are also seeing interest from network operators in disaggregating hardware functional blocks from an integrated solution, to be able to procure this hardware from a number of vendors”, she adds. “A popular use case is to deploy a photonic line system from one vendor, and be able to deploy best-in-class and innovative operational mechanisms aren’t the whole of the disaggregation story. Rungta reckons there’s also a different mentality at work at various points in the market. He describes how the newest large-scale network operators, the hyperscale cloud and Internet Content Providers (ICPs), have brought a different mind-set to Information Technology (IT) and networking technology, and they are now applying it to optical transport. “ICPs have led the trend toward optimising the components of their networks, which in many cases has meant disaggregating traditionally integrated systems and building their own systems tailored to their narrower requirements,” he observes. “ICPs started this trend by disaggregating servers into slimmed-down central processing units and disk drives, and have begun to apply the same thinking to networking equipment.” coherent optics that will operate over this system from a number of vendors.” Potent enablers they may be, but new technology
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ISSUE 14 | Q3 2018
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