| | May 20178CIOReviewTransforming the Communication Service Provider Networks with SDN and NFV By Larry Horner, CTO, Solutions Architect, Intel Corporation [NASDAQ:INTC]The Communication Service Provider (CSP) industry is a collection of interconnected network operators totaling over 350 operators that literally span the globe. This unified communications network is under ever increasing pressure as the ARPU remains flat or even decreases while the traffic flowing through the network is ever increasing, thus driving the ARPB (Average Revenue Per Bit) lower and lower. What is an operator to do? Part of the answer comes from observing the source of this problem, the OTT or preferably the Through The Network (TTN) cloud and media providers, they offer some glimmer of hope. This hope comes in the form of the NFV and SDN revolution underway today by the leading CSP's as they transform to a CoDevOps (DevOps tuned to CSPs) operating model. This transformation is becoming a disruptive force within the community.From time to time during conversations with senior leadership around a new disruptive technology, we find that the new vocabulary can introduce some confusion. Such has been the case around SDN and NFV. While these terms are not interchangeable their practical application often contain elements of both NFV and SDN, hence the confusion or mis-speaking that occurs.The guidance that has helped navigate these conversations is to describe SDN and NFV as two different dimensions like the x and y axis from the earliest days of our formative years studying (what for some was the dreaded) geometry. We also need to introduce the z axis to complete the analogy. Interesting applications reside in the three spaces defined by these three orthogonal vectors. If we let the SDN axis represent automated configuration, policy and control; the NFV axis represents the cloud native nature of the software application or processes, and the z axis is the product or integrated functionality of multiple applications then we begin to understand the relationship more clearly. The business realizes benefit from the object with volume that resides in this three dimensional space. Just like our analogy implies, only considering one dimension leaves us with a flat line or if in two spaces, a simple plane that lacks volume.CSP networks of the past have been built with `purpose built' platforms and solutions, while these have volume in the operational space of a CSP, they are static and are difficult to configure, maintain and operate. This scale problem places the CSPs at a significant disadvantage when the network expansion and operating costs are linear and the traffic rate is growing non-linearly. Applying the Cloud like CoDevOps model to a network constructed with Standard High Volume Servers (SHVS) offers the CSP's the transformative model to continue to compete and remain profitable against the ever increasing workloads flowing through their networks.Let's consider the workload on the CSP network vs. their internal business operations network. Today this network loads of 90 percent video traffic are not uncommon, and in some cases in the high 90 percent range, various web and IP traffic, and digital voice traffic. Each of these traffic loads have different demands due to the nature of the traffic. We are all aware of the low latency along with low (relatively speaking) capacity demands of voice on a network. This `real time' traffic cannot be buffered, nor can it be delayed much more than a few hundred milliseconds end to end, it is also `full duplex'. Streaming video requirements that differ from those needed for transporting voice, the first is the massive bandwidth demand this places on the network, and the opportunity to compress into different formats for different display resolutions, and in some cases pre-staging near the consumption point for pre-recorded streams, e.g., non-live video. Rarely is this video content In My OpinonLarry Horner
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