The Essential Role Of Network Functions Virtualization In Cable Service

Transcript

>> Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS The cable cloud mandate The essential role of network functions virtualization in cable service migration Network functions virtualization (NFV) is the key to unlocking the true potential of the cable industry’s broadband infrastructure. By supporting the instantiation and delivery of any service—independent of the access and transport technologies—NFV offers multisystem operators (MSOs) a significant competitive advantage. This paper covers several NFV-related topics of keen interest to MSOs. First, an overview of the NFV concept and a look at NFV adoption trends across the telecommunications industry is provided. Next, the implications of combining IP and virtualization technologies for the evolution of networks and services in residential and commercial markets are examined. Last, the formulation of a NFV strategy for the cable industry is proposed and an overview of the cable-optimized NFV framework developed by Alcatel-Lucent is discussed. Introduction N etwork function virtualization (NFV) offers cable operators the opportunity to fully exploit their broadband advantage by implementing a holistically managed distributed-cloud framework that maximizes the power of virtualization in their networks. The ability to leverage NFV at the cable edge is vital to meeting near-term goals—lowering costs and increasing performance of the infrastructure supporting residential and commercial services—while positioning multisystem operators (MSOs) as dominant players in the ultra-broadband services market of the future. By employing NFV, operators will be able to realize the benefits of a flexible edge architecture that seamlessly orchestrates delivery of residential and commercial services across various configurations of hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC), all-fiber, and wireless access networks. Until now, cable decision makers’ interest in virtualization has been focused on instances where the benefits of cost, operational, and service velocity are so compelling they must carefully consider virtualized solutions. By doing so they can address pressing priorities, such as the need to cut content delivery networks (CDN) costs related to multiscreen video service expansion or to reduce CPE expenses by shifting whole-home digital video recorder (DVR) to the cloud. There are also efforts underway to virtualize other network functions such as provider edge, wireless LAN gateway, network access translation, and access control plane. But, generally speaking, the role of network virtualization, as applied to every facet of network and service operations, has not been factored into the decision-making process. Indeed, until now, operators haven’t had the opportunity to consider a cable-optimized NFV framework that could be relied upon to make the transition to fully virtualized control of network operations. Alcatel-Lucent has expanded on its market-leading role in development of NFV solutions with the introduction of a distributed NFV cloud architecture. Combining advances in its CloudBand™ NFV platform and software-defined networking (SDN) control platforms with new IP edge virtualization technology Alcatel-Lucent is able to optimize flexibility, scalability, and cost reductions at the cable edge. These new capabilities add to Alcatel-Lucent’s Flexible Edge architecture, first introduced in 2013. By offering the ability to abstract service forwarding (at Layer 2 or Layer 3) for execution on the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR), this breakthrough edge architecture allowed operators to cut operations, power consumption, and space costs associated with managing multiple services over CCAP, passive optical networks (PON) and other distribution platforms. Now, with virtualization of the service router and the addition of virtualized functions for customer-premises equipment (CPE), Alcatel-Lucent has made it possible for MSOs to achieve even greater efficiencies as they leverage a Flexible Edge architecture. Most importantly, by positioning multiple virtual network functions at the edge, cable operators will be able to execute CPE and other processes within the minimal latency requirements essential to sustaining cable-caliber performance in the virtualized environment. Moreover, this allows operators to proceed with incremental implementations of NFV, in whatever manner works best, with assurance that they will be able to migrate to full realization of the NFV potential at their pace. This paper provides an overview of the NFV concept and looks at the projections for NFV adoption across the telecommunications industry. Then it explores the combination of IP and virtualization technologies and the implications for network evolution in the context of usage trends and new service opportunities in the residential and commercial markets. Next, the formulation of a NFV strategy for the cable industry that satisfies immediate priorities while allowing for expanding virtualization into the all-IP ultra-broadband future is described. Last, an overview of the cable-optimized NFV framework developed by Alcatel-Lucent and how it can be exploited incrementally to satisfy the service and network migration requirements of MSOs is discussed. ALCATEL-LUCENT >2 March 2015 > ScreenPlays >> 1 >> <1 Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS ALCATEL-LUCENT The growing impact of NFV on network evolution NFV standardization initiatives The idea of virtualizing network functions to expedite delivery of next-generation services has rapidly gained momentum worldwide since October 2012 when the concept won backing from 13 leading telecommunications companies. This was quickly followed by implementation of a standards-setting program under auspices of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s (ETSI’s) Industry Specifications Group for NFV (NFV ISG). Since then the inevitability of NFV has been reinforced by major initiatives on the part of service providers, vendors and industry organizations, including the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) project, of which CableLabs is a founding member. OPNFV was launched in September 2014 in close cooperation with ETSI to support validation of performance and interoperability of NFV solutions. In essence, NFV is the application of software-defined networking (SDN) concepts developed over many years by the worldwide IT community to the specific needs of telecommunications networks. NFV abstracts network infrastructure functionalities into network intelligence and state control software modules that can be dynamically instantiated across the network utilizing standardized interfaces to enable interoperability across multiple vendor solutions (see Figure 1). The migration of network control from proprietary, purpose-built network devices to generic computing devices allows development of software that can treat the network as a logical entity for delivering whatever services and applications are desired. Applications nabling network agility can be dynamically built and torn down with minimum intervention at the facilities level. This results in lower costs and accelerates response to market needs. One of the principal advantages of NFV (beyond commodity virtualization) is the abstraction of service flow sequencing into an SDN fabric to allow for the dynamic re-provisioning of service flow path to instantiate new service offerings. The benefits of NFV to cable operators are summarized in these blog comments by CableLabs principal architect Don Clarke: “We have more flexibility to select best-ofbreed features; we can deploy them at Internet speed; and we can avoid the nightmare of an accelerating hardware obsolescence cycle driven by consumer devices. At last we can design networks able to adapt in real-time to services demand using industry standard servers that can be loaded with new software on the fly to deliver a different mix of services depending on demand, optimizing equipment utilization while minimizing energy consumption. The ability to implement new types of resilience schemes with almost any fault management capability that can be imagined is particularly exciting.”1 As implied by CableLabs’ embrace of the OPNFV interoperability validation process, openness is a core component of the NFV strategy. By far the most common approach to SDN-related initiatives, inside or outside the telecom industry, is based on the use of the OpenStack OS for virtualizing datacenter storage and processing resources. First introduced in 2010 by Rackspace® and NASA, OpenStack became a formal initiative under the auspices of the OpenStack Foundation supported by members Red Hat, HP, IBM, AT&T and others in 2012 and has since expanded to more than 400 member companies and organizations in 140 countries. In May 2014, NFV officially became part of the OpenStack initiative with the naming of an NFV development team. With the tenth Open- Figure 1. NFV for enabling network agility 2 >> ScreenPlays > To subscribe go to www.screenplaysmag.com Stack release, Juno, issued in October 2014, 9 use cases were identified for NFV workloads running on OpenStack environments with more to come with future releases. Juno also includes general OpenStack enhancements tied to data processing, storage elements and other OS components. Meanwhile, throughout 2014 the ETSI NFV ISG was building on the first 5 specifications it published at the end of 2013. These covered use cases, functional requirements, the architectural framework, terminology, and a framework for coordinating proof-of-concept platforms, with the goal of completing the first release by year’s end. In August of 2014, the group added 9 more draft documents to be incorporated into that release, including: n Specifications describing an infrastructure overview n The virtualized network functions architecture n The compute, hypervisor, and infrastructure domains n A cluster of protocols related to interfaces, security, resiliency, abstraction and management and orchestrations Accelerating NFV expectations and projections As the standardization processes raced ahead, efforts to capitalize on the benefits of NFV were transforming service providers’ network development strategies at an accelerating pace. Light Reading, in a survey of service provider executives in 2013, reported that 53 percent of 338 respondents agreed with the description of NFV as a “game changer” that will have a “massive impact on costs and efficiencies.”2 In another 2014 survey of carriers, this one representing 51 percent of telecom cap ex spending worldwide, Infonetics Research reported that 97 percent of operators planned to deploy SDN and 93 percent planned to deploy NFV in “some aspect of their network at some point.”3 Survey respondents rated business vCPE (virtual CPE using NFV for the delivery of services to enterprises) the number one use case overall for NFV in 2014-2015. Business vCPE was also ranked the top use case for revenue generation. Also in a 2014 report that tracked NFV developments, Infonetics Research predicted global carrier spending on SDN and NFV hardware and software would grow from less than $500 million in 2013 to over $11 billion in 2019.4 According to Infonetics, about 88 per- >> Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS cent of this spending will be directed to software, with virtualized functions software—the applications—accounting for over 90 percent of the software and orchestration and control accounting for the remainder. Spending on hardware suited for virtualized applications— servers, storage, and switches—was expected to account for the other 12 percent of the predicted spend. Some researchers foresee an even more aggressive growth path for NFV. A report issued by ReportsnReports.com in November 2014 projected service provider spending on virtualization software in 2015 will be close to $10 billion.5 The researchers predicted spending would grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 37 percent over the next five years. This would translate into a virtualization software market of about $35 billion. By 2020, these same researchers predict that virtualization will save service providers up to $32 billion in annual capital expenditures. Optimizing NFV for MSOs In order for cable operators to take full advantage of NFV, they need to have access to NFV and SDN resources that have been tailored to their requirements. This applies not only to the unique characteristics of their network architectures and network elements currently in use but, equally important, to the new network technologies and cloud-based service platforms essential to their long-term service migration strategies. The starting point for envisioning a cable-optimized NFV architecture is recognition that the NFV platform must accommodate incremental virtualization in the context of a framework that will meet future, as well as current needs. Piecemeal implementations of NFV solutions, ones that are not tied to a comprehensive framework with the flexibility to adapt to whatever strategies are adopted, will impede growth and risk stranding capital. The best way to formulate an overview of this comprehensive, flexible cable NFV framework is to consider what the cable network (or network of networks) and the services they deliver will look like a few years from now. This can be done by analyzing requirements from a couple of perspectives: 1. The role IT virtualization technology as embodied in SDN will play in conjunction with ever greater reliance on IP technology to push service evolution in the direction of greater personalization, ubiquity of access, faster change velocity and scalability while lowering operations expenses and the costs of equip- ment at all points in the network, from the core to the edges to customers’ premises. 2. The degree to which IT/IP convergence can be leveraged through NFV to enable virtualization of service functions that will allow all residential and commercial services to be uniformly managed with equal efficiency and velocity across all access facilities. Clearly, for NFV to deliver all the benefits of virtualization a framework that allows operators to position VNFs wherever necessary—in the core or at the edges—to achieve specific goals to maximum affect is required. In this distributed private cloud environment operators must be able to holistically orchestrate the allocation and management of VNFs across all locations with as much speed and efficiency as if they were all running in a single datacenter location. With such a framework in place operators can begin to address immediate virtualization requirements without restrictions on their ability to select and place solutions to optimum advantage. The importance of such flexibility to achieving immediate goals is best illustrated by the requirements that characterize some of the biggest priorities on MSOs’ virtualization agendas. Residential services Virtualizing video processing For most operators experience with software-based network functions running on commodity datacenter resources has been gained with the launch of TV Everywhere services. This is where they’ve observed that software-encoding systems combined with streaming packagers and other software components offered a lower-cost, more scalable approach to delivering video over IP. Now that the processing capacity of commodity hardware has made such solutions competitive with purpose-built hardware, operators are looking at virtualized applications of these systems as the path to migrating all video services to IP, starting in many cases with the shift of traditional video on demand (VOD) infrastructure to the virtualized cloud environment. Obviously this component of the migration to virtualization is tied to maximizing efficiencies and service flexibility through headend consolidation and the evolution of hardware platforms. But as operators add to the functionalities to be performed in conjunction with IP streaming of premium video, the ability to shift some of this processing to edge hubs will be essential to meeting key perfor- mance requirements. One element behind this thinking is the need to minimize the volume of unicast flows between the core and the edge. Rather than streaming video for each session precisely formatted to the display, adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming, digital rights management (DRM) and other device-specific profiles, operators can use edge-based processing to perform these functions from a single high-resolution file cached at the edge (in the case of time-shifted content) or in conjunction with implementation of multicast technology (in the case of live content). Through application of just-in-time packaging functions at the edge, operators can also accommodate dynamic ad insertion based on user and device profiles as well as other elements of personalization tied to each user’s profile. A further consideration in moving much of virtualized video processing functionality closer to the edge is the need to sustain TV-caliber performance in the IP domain. This could also help facilitate more focused ad placement, delivery of personalized navigational features, support for fast-action games, and other essential functions. Reducing residential CPE costs Closely paralleling the move to virtualization of processes tied to IP distribution of premium video is the role virtualization is playing in efforts to reduce the costs and processing requirements of set-tops and residential gateways (RGWs), including whole-home media and Wi-Fi gateways. On the set-top/media gateway side, the emergence of cloud-based middleware systems that support shifting DVR-related functions, composition of the electronic program guide (EPG), personalized navigation features, and other traditional whole-home media gateway functions to the cloud has now made virtualization of these types of RGWs a top priority in the cable industry. Moreover, through cloud virtualization of RGW processes, including visibility into each user’s profile, operators lower the costs and greatly enhance management control over distribution of video service and personalized applications to all devices in the home. And, through cloud virtualization, costs of configuring services in the home are greatly reduced as well. While much of the virtualized processing along with the physical storage associated with virtualized CPE will be centralized in the new cable cloud network, full realization of the ALCATEL-LUCENT >4 March 2015 > ScreenPlays >> 3 >> <3 Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS ALCATEL-LUCENT time-shifting capabilities of IP technology will require application of virtualized storage management to the edge caching system as well. In fact, the primary factor determining the location and duration of storage will be the policies that determine “start-over,” “catch-up”, and network DVR uses of storage facilities. Licensing, as well as time factors underlying these policies will be executed in closely coordinated application of virtualized processes to commodity hardware at the headend and the edges. Where Wi-Fi gateways are concerned, operators are moving beyond Wi-Fi-enabled cable modems to deploy Wi-Fi residential gateways as the new linchpins to ubiquitous connectivity for all services throughout the premises. These services include digital voice as provided through cable modems with embedded multimedia terminal adapters (eMTAs) as well as multiscreen video and broadband services. In this case the cost savings and scalability needed for saturation coverage of high bandwidth throughput all through the home can best be realized by simplifying the Wi-Fi gateway. It becomes a Layer 2 device with all the complex bandwidth, self-care and other feature management capabilities hosted in the virtualized network cloud. Here, again, the ability to deliver these applications at extremely low latency across thousands of residential Wi-Fi gateways will likely require the positioning of a significant amount of the virtualized functionality at the edge. Adding to the Wi-Fi gateway virtualization imperative is the fact that these devices are increasingly being used as hybrid hotspots to support outdoor public access. In a recent worldwide survey of 40 MSOs and mobile network operators (MNOs), researchers from Real Wireless and Rethink Technology found that 77 percent of companies plan to use “homespots” to expand public coverage, compared to 30 percent who are doing so today.6 Research conducted for Wi-Fi network operator iPass by Maravedis Rethink found that fixed-line operators with “superfast broadband in the ground” are converting residential customers to community hotspot providers at the rate of one per second.7 This study predicted the number of public Wi-Fi hotspots will expand from 47.7 million today to 340 million worldwide by 2018. Such findings show that the cable industry is well on its way to establishing a ubiquitous Wi-Fi footprint that will allow operators to fully participate in the commerce flowing from consumers’ and businesses’ reliance on wireless to make very high-speed broadband access available everywhere. Edge-based virtualization of Wi-Fi gateways will lower device costs while providing the controls operators need to manage the complex interplay between public and in-home use in dual-use scenarios. Virtualizing Internet of Things services Beyond the current priorities pointing to the need for a distributed cloud NFV architecture is the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) service paradigm, which brings with it the need to support and manage far more devices than ever before. The prospective device picture for IoT is described in recent research by Gartner, which predicts the number of installed IoT-related devices, not counting smartphones, tablets or PCs, will grow to 26 billion by 2020. This represents close to a 30-fold increase over the 0.9 billion devices the firm tabulated for 2009.8 This 2020 IoT unit total is alongside the installed base of 7.3 billion units of smartphones, tablets and PCs Gartner projects for that same year. Gartner also notes that by 2020 it’s likely IoT component and connectivity costs will be so low that just about everything—light fixtures, windows, doors, appliances, toys, and sporting equipment—will be equipped for IoT connectivity to support control, monitoring, and sensing. Taking a service perspective on the global IoT trend, U.K.-based researcher IHS released a study in May 2014 predicting the global installed base of cloud-based home management services, which includes over-the-top (OTT) as well as network service provider offerings, would grow from about 5.6 million at the end of 2013 to 44.6 million by the end of 2018.9 IHS put the year-end 2014 projection at 9.1 million, up 63 percent from the year-end 2013 total. In June 2014, looking at the penetration of smart home services in the U.S. and Canada, ABI Research predicted that nearly 30 percent of North American households will have a managed smart home automation system installed by 2014.10 Worldwide, ABI predicted the market for automation controllers—control panels, gateways, and bridges—serving at the center of the smart-home ecosystem to deliver either single-point or whole-home solutions would hit $6 billion by that year. These and many other recent research reports underscore not only the size and scope of the emerging IoT market but the challenge to service management presented by the proliferation of IoT devices. Cable operators’ opportunity to compete in this market rests on their ability to mount a holistic, cloud-based 4 >> ScreenPlays > To subscribe go to www.screenplaysmag.com approach to providing managed service support that greatly simplifies and personalizes the consumer experience across an endless array of potential applications. This means cable operators will have to support a massively scalable environment for accommodating all the cloud-based processing essential to managing individual devices and orchestrating coordinated usage of generic devices like sensors across multiple applications. By nature, these devices are designed to minimize battery power consumption in the interest of maximizing longevity, which means they will rely heavily on cloud-based processing to drive their responses to specific application requirements. Virtualization of IoT devices will be essential and it will likely need to be hosted at multiple cable network edge locations. This will be the case for 2 reasons: first, because of the sheer volumes of devices that will need to be managed in any given local service area and second, because operators will have to keep latency levels low so that devices that rely on cloud processing can react to conditions as if the processing were hosted on the devices. Furthermore, to maintain centralized control over the entire ecosystem of IoT services, virtual operations in the local cloud will have to be tightly integrated with the core NFV infrastructure. The direction for virtualization of residential services and CPE is clear. The more operators rely on IP distribution of premium video content to the home and Wi-Fi distribution of all services throughout the home, the more the coordination of these virtualized network functions at the core and edge will be essential to maintaining bandwidth efficiency and quality assurance across all applications. Virtualization of cable edge-based network appliances The migration to IP video has also brought into play technology platform advances that must be factored into the edge virtualization discussion. Most immediately, operators’ use of Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) to support a more flexible and scalable approach to allocating bandwidth to IP services than has been possible with legacy Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTSs) has sparked strong interest in virtualizing the CCAP functions. While there are some benefits to be gained from proposed centralized approaches to abstracting service provisioning as a way to virtualize CCAP, this strategy significantly underplays what can be done through use of edge-based >> Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS CCAP virtualization. By leveraging edge cloud virtualization in coordination with core cloud processes, cable operators will be able to decouple and virtualize service-related provisioning, management, and routing processes. This initial step in the process is the redefinition of the network from a fixed architecture to a software defined model which allows for both rapid provisioning and also dynamic chaining of flows to build new services incorporating new network functions. Critically this step also allows for the dis-aggregation of the integrated CMTS or CCAP into component functions and parts that provide higher density, lower cost and greater flexibility. Looking longer term, many operators are contemplating the architectural implications of so-called distributed architectures. This is where physical processes contemplated for DOCSIS 3.1 or PON functions would be hosted deeper in the access network, allowing operators to replace today’s amplitude-modulated fiber links with digital fiber links as a step toward lowering optical operations costs. In such applications, the physical processes at the node would be managed by intelligence hosted remotely, which in the NFV environment would add to the VNF instances to be hosted in the cable edge cloud. Another near-term priority on the appliance side is the need to reduce deployment costs of private CDNs through virtualization of the caching, streaming, and other processes. As previously mentioned, CDNs will be part of the RGW virtualization process in support of time-shifted applications. More broadly, virtualization of CDNs at the edge when combined with centralized SDN-based control over all CDN locations will allow operators to turn up CDN capacity wherever and whenever necessary in response to increasing traffic densities and other needs. And this edge virtualization of CDN processes will also facilitate blending and coordinated scaling of the just-in-time packaging and other edge video processes discussed earlier. Commercial services Immediate priorities In parallel with the consumer service and CPE virtualization priorities, MSOs are finding that virtualization is fast becoming an integral component of commercial services as well. It appears that in order to compete in the fast-changing small and medium business (SMB) market cable operators will need to pursue NFV fairly aggressively to keep pace with market developments. Of course, the service velocity, person- alization, cost, scale, and other benefits of virtualization for the consumer market apply equally to facilitating operators’ ability to serve businesses. In fact, the popularity of the cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) model has outgrown the traditional network services model, where manual change control processes are becoming a bottleneck to fulfilling the changing needs of business customers. And, as with consumer services, one of the early priorities for service providers is to lower business CPE costs. MSOs gained invaluable experience with the benefits of virtualization in telecommunications when they introduced hosted IP-PBX service as part of the product portfolio in the SMB market. As that experience showed, virtualization of CPE utilizing shared network resources to support multiple customers greatly accelerates the speed of service innovation with minimal capital investment. Virtualizing VPNs Another important trend is the extent to which the use of personal devices by employees, especially tablets, has created a need for businesses to ensure personnel are seamlessly networked to internal processes and assets wherever they are located. This requires a radical move away from the old virtual private network (VPN)-style of connectivity (that only relatively large companies could afford) where employees had to go through the cumbersome process of setting up VPN clients on their personal computers to gain remote access. Now, by combining virtual cloud capabilities with high-speed data connectivity over wireless it’s possible to provide software-defined VPNs to companies of all sizes so that employees utilizing enterprise-specific software plugins can be easily connected with automatic device authentication and logins. As a result, virtualized edge service support for ubiquitous employee connectivity is rapidly becoming essential to operators’ ability to compete in the SMB market. This, in turn, is opening a highly efficient SDN approach to providing commercial services. With virtual VPNs in place, operators can support an unlimited range of cloud-hosted services and applications with features that provide administrators complete dashboard control over usage and other policies on a per-employee basis. These IT cloud-based capabilities can be configured to support customer self-help portals with feature sets that allow users to customize applications precisely to their needs. The key to cost effectiveness and scalability is the ability to use the NFV framework to position VNFs wherever necessary in the dis- tributed cloud domain to make the best use of datacenter resources. Needless to say, the virtualized VPN and service model will not instantly replace every circumstance where SMBs are relying on current IP and carrier Ethernet services. However, the ability to leverage NFV and SDN to begin to consolidate and streamline use of commodity facilities running VNFs will bring important benefits. These include reducing overhead associated with provisioning processes to the existing service domains while supporting rapid scaling of virtualized services. IoT services Adding to the need for NFV support for commercial services, the consumer IoT trends listed earlier will be as much, if not more, in play with businesses. Here, in addition to the challenges posed by device and application proliferation at each office location, operators must also be able to mount IoT services for individual customers that coordinate use of sensors and other devices across multiple locations. A cable operator’s wireless footprint will be a major factor in their ability to compete for this business. As a result, management of the virtualized IoT domain will have to be tightly coordinated across outdoor and premises access points at widely dispersed locations. Virtualizing operations across multiple access facilities As mentioned earlier, planning the NFV framework also brings into play the need to consolidate operations across multiple types of access networks (see Figure 2). Presently, along with the dominant residential HFC infrastructure, operators are using PONs and switched point-to-point Ethernet networks as they extend commercial service offerings to larger businesses, multi-tenant facilities and industrial parks. On the residential side, fiberto-the-premises is also starting to take hold through the use of RF over glass (RFoG) or PON technology to serve multi-dwelling units, new developments, and remote communities from existing headend facilities. As much as indoor Wi-Fi access points are already managed as an integral part of the cable access network, it’s also essential that operators are able to more tightly integrate operation of their outdoor Wi-Fi infrastructure with other facilities operations. Over time, Wi-Fi access points that are connected to neighborhood coax or fiber links serving shopping malls and other commercial locations, will be holistically managed to provide contiguous ALCATEL-LUCENT >6 March 2015 > ScreenPlays >> 5 >> <5 Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS ALCATEL-LUCENT connectivity to cable customers wherever they go within the cable metro service area. Currently, the service and applications layers associated with managing residential and commercial services over these various networks are siloed. Abstracting and virtualizing processes common to provisioning and managing services and applications across all these networks will allow operators to scale different physical facilities as they see fit. Equally important, given the role of ubiquitous wireless connectivity in the fast-changing broadband services marketplace, operators will be able to massively scale services and operations across multiple facilities. This assures that wireless coverage can be broken into ever-smaller areas as usage densities increase and when wireless becomes the primary means of connection for all customers wherever they are located. Achieving this level of convergence and scalability will require the flexibility to continually adapt the assignment of VNFs to the edge and core clouds to accommodate usage and latency requirements, as well as to capitalize on innovations in virtualization software platforms and datacenter hardware. In other words, MSOs require an NFV framework that will allow them to dynamically orchestrate use of all cloud locations as the network edge enables the flexibility and scalability necessary to maximizing the benefits of NFV. MSOs ubiquitous Wi-Fi access networks will need to operate with wireless industry standard core network services to provide both real-time Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi mobility as well as cellular to Wi-Fi mobile integration. Today the cellular industry is already embracing NFV for the deployment of core network functions. MSOs will be able to use all of the same technologies, products, and architectures in the core, regardless of the different radio access network technology. Performance assurance in the virtualized environment As cable operators virtualize more consumer and commercial services functionalities they need to monitor and analyze performance from end to end (from every cloud location to every virtualized network component, including CPE). In other words, they must be able to implement customer experience management at the same level of rigorous support for service assurance, customer care and data analytics that is required in legacy residential and commercial service operations. The Alcatel-Lucent cable NFV framework Core components The NFV distributed cloud framework for the cable industry developed by Alcatel-Lucent meets all the requirements discussed in Figure 2. Today’network s network silos Today’s silos 6 >> ScreenPlays > To subscribe go to www.screenplaysmag.com 2 the previous section. This cable-optimized framework builds on Alcatel-Lucent’s expertise as a long-standing leader in the development and supply of cloud, SDN and NFV solutions worldwide. In October 2012, a year before ETSI launched its NFV standards-setting process, Alcatel-Lucent introduced CloudBand. An OpenStack-based NFV framework, CloudBand was the industry’s first open, multivendor NFV management platform. Since then, growing numbers of network service providers have deployed the Alcatel-Lucent framework to support a variety of NFV implementation and evolution strategies. The Alcatel-Lucent cable-optimized NFV framework employs a wide range of advancements embodied in CloudBand release 2.0. Along with supporting greater network control, broader open industry standard technologies, and more virtualized network functions, these advancements comprise all the key components of an end-to-end service provider SDN operational environment. One of these components is Alcatel-Lucent’s Nuage Networks™ Virtual Services Platform™ (VSP). Its SDN controller leverages Alcatel-Lucent’s service router networking technology to enable automated, highly programmable setup and orchestration of NFV components and the services and applications that run on them within all datacenter locations. >> Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS In the distributed cloud environment, the Nuage Networks VSP interconnects all SDN operations so that virtual machines (VMs) can be implemented dynamically to optimize resource usage across multiple datacenter facilities at core and edge points. This allows operators to achieve the full benefits of NFV in accordance with evolving distributed architecture strategies enabling them, for example, to leverage edge facilities to meet stringent low-latency requirements for virtualized CPE and other applications. Complementing the SDN overlay capabilities of the Nuage Networks VSP is the Alcatel-Lucent WAN SDN Platform (WSP). This “underlay” component applies SDN functionalities to IP optical metro and wide area network (MAN and WAN) facilities to support dynamic connection of applications to remote users and other datacenters. By converging these IP optical layers, the WSP automates the operator’s ability to leverage the transport architecture to deliver exactly what customers want while making optimal use of network assets. Alcatel-Lucent’s NFV portfolio also includes a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) for wireless mobility, signalling and service integration, along with a virtualized advanced IP communications solution, both of which are critical to delivering massively scalable cloudbased services. A vEPC serves to automate the authentication and management of subscribers and the services they access with support for creation of and connectivity to services at high levels of performance across a range of radio access networks (RANs), including Wi-Fi. Meanwhile, a virtualized advanced IP com- munications solution is capable of supporting advanced IP multimedia services at the same level of carrier-class performance achieved in currently deployed infrastructures with Alcatel-Lucent customers worldwide. As illustrated in Figure 3, Alcatel-Lucent has applied these advancements to create the cable NFV distributed cloud framework. Also shown in Figure 3, the ability to implement NFV functions where they can be used to greatest advantage rests on coordination of VNF processes across the entire cable metro footprint. CloudBand utilizes OpenStack-based SDN instantiation of VNFs in all locations while the Nuage Networks VSP supports interconnection of VM instantiations across all servers in each datacenter and across all the distributed clouds. Though use of the Alcatel-Lucent WAN SDN Platform (WSP) operators are able to virtualize the functionalities of the IP optical transport infrastructure. By enabling automated allocation of facilities resources, NFV capa- Flexible cable edge bilities can be extended where they’re needed with maximum transport efficiency. The role of virtual service router technology Fundamental to bringing NFV to the cable edge is Alcatel-Lucent’s introduction of the Virtual Service Router (VSR) software suite. Introduced in 2014, it adds another level of flexibility and scalability to the flexible cable hub architecture. At that time, Alcatel-Lucent’s Flexible Edge provided operators a way to eliminate the need for dedicated routers for each type of service and distribution facility by shifting routing functions to the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router, thereby separating the service layer from the access technology. By eliminating multiple IP aggregation layers, operators can deliver residential, commercial, wireless and network services with ALCATEL-LUCENT >8 Figure 4. Flexible cable edge The cable NFV distributed cloud framework Figure 3. The cable NFV distributed cloud framework 4 COPYRIGHT © 2014 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. March 2015 > ScreenPlays >> 7 P >> <7 Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS ALCATEL-LUCENT service awareness and differentiation over any access medium, including DOCSIS, PON, direct fiber, and carrier Wi-Fi. As illustrated in Figure 4, this greatly reduces space and power consumption in the hub. This includes, for example, the requirements for CCAP facilities, which could now be configured as non-routing devices without the need to support implementation and management of multiple routing tables and functionalities within each unit. With VSR, Alcatel-Lucent has enabled its field-proven Service Router Operating System (SR OS) to run on x86 facilities as required by the NFV environment. This maximizes the benefits of the Flexible Edge architecture by allowing operators to accelerate service expansion at lower start-up costs across all access modes (see Figure 5). VSR relies on a high-performance network edge control plane utilizing Figure 5. Evolution of the IP network edge Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) to schedule and run different tasks on different processor cores concurrently in the multi-core processing environment. Para virtualization techniques are used to communicate directly with hypervisors to load specific drivers and optimize data path performance. VSR offers a comprehensive, carrier-grade availability approach to scaling IP edge routing by supporting the full range of routing functions used with residential and commercial services, Ethernet, IP VPN and other business services and MSO Wi-Fi. Operators can incrementally and optimally introduce these VSR NFV capabilities in conjunction with use of Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR platforms running on the same SR OS. They can deploy VSR on a single VM and scale up from there, or they can follow a distributed model where different applications are shared across multiple VMs running on the x86 infrastructure. With Application Assurance (leveraging deep packet inspection techniques), VSR also provides operators Layer 4 to Layer 7 visibility into all the traffic transported over their IP networks. Data generated by the VSR Applications Assurance platform make it possible for operators to execute policy-driven control of IP applications with per-application, per-subscriber granularity. Virtualizing CPE Another innovation introduced by Alcatel-Lucent is the Virtual Residential Gateway (vRGW) capability. It enables the virtualized cable edge to support virtualization of residential gateway functions within the cable Virtual residential Wi-Fi gateway Figure 6. Virtual residential Wi-Fi gateway 8 >> ScreenPlays > To subscribe go to www.screenplaysmag.com edge, an initial application being residential Wi-Fi. This greatly reduces the processing complexities and costs of the Wi-Fi residential gateways by supporting cloud instantiation of Layer 3 services and a wide range of functions such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) relay/proxy server; subscriber-aware Network Address Translation (NAT); per subscriber bandwidth control, and per-subscriber firewalls. This virtualization of residential Wi-Fi gateway enables scalability in the management of low-cost Layer 2 residential devices as well as the ability to rapidly implement new management functions essential to meeting new service requirements. Along with automating service instantiation as operators introduce new service options, this eliminates the need for installation truck rolls, enhances operators’ ability to support customer self-service, simplifies performance auditing, and allows operators to manage CPE independently of the transport network. Alcatel-Lucent’s vRGW application, illustrated in figure 6, can be supported by deploying a 7750 SR (in its role WLAN Gateway) or as a Virtualized Service Router (VSR) application (VSR-RGW). The vRGW acts as an anchor enabling local switching of traffic between devices in the home and as a gateway into the WAN for transmitting traffic to the Internet, the service provider’s data center or to other subscribers. Home users can configure and control their virtual residential Wi-Fi gateway instances through a Web portal just as they do with a traditional Wi-Fi gateway to >> Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS Nuage Networks VNS Figure 7. Nuage Networks VNS enable or disable Internet access, manage parental controls, change firewall security tiers, revise account information, and add 7 COPYRIGHT © 2014 ALCATEL-LUCENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. new applications. Where businesses are concerned, the Alcatel-Lucent Virtual Network Services (VNS) allows operators to virtualize enterprise CPE in support of more advanced and scalable services, illustrated in Figure 7. While lowering CPE costs, and through the application of policy driven services, operators can support virtualized firewalls, applications assurance, NAT and DHCP functions, per-host and per-subscriber bandwidth controls and enhanced subscriber management deployed as virtualized applications in the network. VNS also enables the virtualized implementation of VPNs. As discussed earlier, virtualized VPNs deliver the benefits of secure, dedicated connectivity for employees on the go for businesses of all sizes. After all, the ability to scale the delivery of virtualized services and applications to personal devices in both the fixed and wireless access domains is vitally important to cable operators’ as they look to address the commercial services market. Motive Dynamic Operations (MDO) Management tools for NFV operations The Alcatel-Lucent portfolio of NFV solutions provides cable operators the back-office tools essential to executing operations. This includes the data aggregation and advanced analytics capabilities that enable operators to ensure that every function in the virtualized environment is performing as required. This NFV-optimized subset of Alcatel-Lucent’s widely deployed Motive™ Customer Experi- ALCATEL-LUCENT >10 Figure 8. Motive Dynamic Operations (MDO) March 2015 > ScreenPlays >> 9 >> <9 Market Intelligence >> VIRTUALIZING NETWORK FUNCTIONS ALCATEL-LUCENT ence Management (CEM) platform comprises a modularized, fully automated and programmable operations support system (OSS). It can be employed to dynamically identify and track network resources, fulfill orders, assure services, and facilitate self-healing with automated recovery, predictive management, and other processes. As illustrated in Figure 8, the Motive Dynamic Operations (MDO) provides all NFV stakeholders the tools they need to manage operations across all transport networks, access facilities and NFV elements. Insofar as all components of the Alcatel-Lucent cable NFV framework are designed to interface with legacy back-office systems, operators have the flexibility to choose whichever MDO elements they need to fulfill their specific NFV OSS requirements. Fundamental to meeting requirements, the platform makes it easier to define, publish and execute advanced troubleshooting and management logic wherever needed. By applying MDO analytics, operators can quickly identify anomalies and implement improvement processes at all points. At the virtualized device level, MDO leverages the advanced device management capabilities of the Motive CEM platform to allow operators to accelerate the introduction of new virtualized devices and to maintain control over performance throughout their lifecycles. Utilizing fixed and wireless management industry standards, including the Broadband Forum CPE WAN Management Protocol TR-069 and associated protocols, these capabilities empower operators to perform real-time CPE diagnostics and troubleshooting, including zero-touch provisioning, configuration updates, software upgrades, and performance management. The cable industry’s ability to deliver very high-speed broadband services over HFC, fiber and wireless infrastructures puts it in a strong position. The key to unlocking the true potential of the cable industry’s broadband infrastructure lies with NFV. Its ability to support the instantiation and delivery of any service independent of the access and transport technologies offers MSOs an undisputed competitive advantage. The cable NFV advantage greatly depends on operators’ ability to execute a vast range of functions at the edge. A virtualized flexible cable edge offers 3 critical advantages: n It minimizes the space and power consumed by equipment. n It enables operators to handle the complexities of managing an ever-expanding array of services on a personalized basis across an ever-expanding array of devices. n It puts these processes in sufficiently close proximity to achieve the extremely low latency thresholds essential to sustaining the highest levels of performance on virtualized CPE. By applying its CloudBand™ NFV platform, SDN controllers and IP edge virtualization technologies to a cable flexible edge, Alcatel-Lucent has made it possible for MSOs to realize the full potential of their broadband infrastructures in the new residential and commercial services marketplaces. By bringing each NFV-enabled edge cloud into the multi-cloud architecture, Alcatel-Lucent provides MSOs with a complete end-toend framework for implementing NFV at the < pace and scope to suit their needs. ■ MAC Media access control MAN Metro area network MDO Motive Dynamic Operations MSO Multisystem operator MSPP Multiservice provisioning platform NAT Network address translation NFV Network function virtualization NSG Network services gateway OLT Optical line terminal ONT Optical network terminal OPNFV Open Platform for NFV OSS Operations support system OTT Over-the-top PON Passive optical network QAM Quadrature amplitude modulation QoS Quality of service RAN Radio access network RGW Residential gateways SaaS Software-as-a-service SDN Software-defined networking SMB Small and medium business SMP Symmetric Multi-Processing SR Service Router SR OS Service Router Operating System SURE Service and Unified Resource Engine UPnP Universal plug and play vCPE Virtualized CPE vEPC Virtualized Evolved Packet Core VM Virtual machine VNF Virtual network functions VNS Virtual Network Services VOD Video on demand VSC Virtualized services controller VSD Virtualized services directory VSP Virtual Services Platform VSR Virtual Service Router WAN Wide area network Conclusion Glossary ABR Adaptive bitrate ACL Access control list CCAP Converged cable access platform CDN Content delivery network CMTS Cable Modem Termination System CPE Customer-premises equipment CX Customer experience DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol DRM Digital rights management DVR Digital video recorder eMTA Embedded multimedia terminal adapters EPG Electronic program guide ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute HFC Hybrid fiber-coxial HSD High speed data IoT Internet of Things Footnotes 1 CableLabs, “CableLabs Founding Member 5 ReportsnReports.com, SDN, NFV & Network Virof Open Platform for Network Function tualization Bible, November, 2014. Virtualization,” 6 Amdocs-sponsored Real Wireless-Rethink Tech 2 LightReading, “Poll: NFV Will Be Massive,” nology survey, December 2014 August, 2013 7 Maravedis Rethink, “iPass Wi-Fi Growth Map 3 Infonetics Research, SDN & NFV Survey, April, 2014 Shows 1 Public Hotspot for Every 20 People on Earth by 2018”, November 2014 4 Infonetics Research, Carrier SDN & NFV Hardware & Software Report, November, 2014 10 >> ScreenPlays > To subscribe go to www.screenplaysmag.com 8 Gartner, Inc., ”Forecast: The Internet of Things Worldwide, December 2013 9 IHS, ”Smart Home Subscribers & Services Intelligence, May 2014 10 ABI Research, ”Smart Home, STB & Home Networks Market, June 2014