Network Transformation“NFV represents a game-changing shift the likes of which telecommunications has not experienced since the emergence of IP communications.”

SDN and NFV represent a revolution in cost-optimization and future-proofing for operators. The motivations for this technology shift become even more compelling with the added benefits of flexible geo-redundancy and geo-distributed cloud/SDN infrastructure that allow the location of assets to change dynamically under software control.

Solution BriefIntel® Network Builders ConteXtream ContexNet*

SummaryMillions of smartphone users and fast 4G mobile data networks provide the perfect environment for mobile telecom service providers to deliver profitable value-added services, ranging from premium video delivery to security features for consumers.

ConteXtream, an Intel® Network Builders ecosystem member, is delivering an essential component for advanced service delivery with its ContexNet carrier grade software- defined networking (SDN) fabric. ContexNet also leverages network functions virtualization (NFV) and Intel® Open Network Platform Server Reference Design (Intel® ONP Server Reference Design) technologies to set up, implement, and enforce services for tens of millions of users.

ConteXtream & Intel Deliver Subscriber-Aware SDN/NFV Solutions for Carriers

Challenge Driven by the opportunity to provide profitable, value-added services and improved customer service, mobile telecom operators have been implementing subscriber-aware networks for years.

But these carriers have been limited in the realization of their subscriber-aware network objectives by the underlying IP network itself. Today, services processing and functionality is deployed on standalone servers known as appliances. Ideally, the network would allow a data flow to be routed only to the appliance that it needs, for example a firewall. For services that need multiple processing steps, for example decryption, deep packet inspection and then encryption, the subscriber-aware network would let packets shuttle between these appliances.

But IP networks can only support services inline with the data path, which means all packets go through every function. The impact is to limit the types of functions available and to drive up the cost of the network infrastructure because new appliances are needed to provide the services, and each of them must be have enough processing power for the entire network stream – even if only a subset of the traffic needs this processing. This solution is inflexible and expensive.

SDN / NFV Bring Dynamic Data Processing to Service Aware NetworksWhen it comes to this massive service provisioning task, SDN and NFV bring the promise of a dynamic processing of data so that the virtual network directs the data to just the services that the subscriber needs. Services software running on virtual machines (VMs) drive down the cost of providing the service by dramatically reducing the hardware costs of the application.

The ContexNet carrier-SDN solution provides a distributed SDN fabric that gives operators the ability to create a service abstraction layer on top of their physical network that simplifies the set up of service rules and then communicates them to the physical network for implementation. The solution is virtualized and can be run on high-performance Intel® Architecture-based servers.

SolutionContexNet delivers logical connectivity on top of the physical network connectivity of the IP network by dynamically linking network functions. This service function chaining (SFC) capability associates data flows with a customer to make the most appropriate traffic-related networking decisions.

By using an SDN distributed controller, the ContexNet solution gives operators extensive visibility into the network, and also provides increased security levels through identifying and isolating problem data flows.

The flow mapping to functions capability of ContexNet links, chains, and balances virtual network functions, thus maximizing concurrency and leveraging elastic allocation of virtual network function instances while separating and protecting flows from crossing tenancy and access control boundaries.

The key elements of ContexNet include:

ContexMap is a mapping subsystem that enables lookup of any global key-value, from any network virtual edge (NVE) in the system that needs to map and encapsulate subscriber flows to network functions.

ContexControl is a set of application-specific flow handlers that operate by looking at the beginning of each subscriber flow, assigning it to the relevant flow handler and mapping it to correct network function (chaining, steering, balancing) which is based on global mapping information.

ContexSwitch is the high performance software flow switch that augments the flow-aware capabilities of hardware switches. This includes scaling flow granularity where millions of rules can be supported.

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Other elements of ConteXtream’s solution include:

ContexView delivers performance analytics and anomaly detection that provides service providers with visibility to network performance, potential issues and subscriber usage patterns. ContexView can generate reports on both ContexNet and the operator network, allowing the operator to view the impact of changes to the network or to services. The software also alerts the operator when there are problems that could impact subscriber service so that proactive corrections can be made before it impacts users.

RESTful APIs provide connection between ContexNet and external applications such as orchestration/OSS, authentication servers, CloudStack Orchestration applications, OpenStack and other virtual network functions (VNF).

Key Intel Technologies

ContexNet is optimized to run on Intel Architecture-based servers and is first deployed on HP servers that use Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 and Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 v2 processors and leverage 10Gb and 40Gb Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapters.

Another key Intel technology built into the solution is the Intel® Data Plane Development Kit (Intel® DPDK) Open vSwitch. The Intel DPDK Open vSwitch is a set of software libraries that are used by ContexNet to accelerate packet processing. The Open vSwitch is optimized for interconnecting virtual machines in a server to enhanced data plan processing performance and has been optimized to switch large numbers of small packets.

The Intel DPDK Open vSwitch is part of the Intel® Open Network Platform Server Reference Design (Intel® ONP Server Reference Design), which is a reference architecture that includes key Intel technologies designed to streamline the development and adoption of SDN and NFV solutions for telecom service providers and also for data-center operators and cloud service providers.

Key features

The high performance SDN, NFV, and Intel technologies that are built into the ContexNet solution provide the following features for service providers:

• Federated Control: The solution features distributed controllers and virtual switches to efficiently load balance traffic on all resources, whether virtual or physical.

• Application Awareness: Service function chaining is essential to the service-aware network, and the solution identifies and steers traffic to the specific network functions or services needed to support each subscriber flow.

• Distributed Mapping: The solution provides an overlay abstraction layer formed by the nodes and allows the mobility of the users, VMs, content or any other endpoint while maintaining consistent policies across the network. It has global knowledge of policies and the network environment.

ContexNet is compliant with industry standard-based mechanisms such as OpenFlow, LISP and OpenStack to fully separate control from forwarding, location from identity, and orchestration from networking.

OpenFlow

Cont

exN

et S

olut

ion

Context View(Performance Analytics)

Orchestration Apps

RESTful APIs

Orchestration

ContexControl(SDN Controller – LISP Federation)

ContexMap(Distributed Mapping)

ContexSwitch(Software Switch)

OpenStack CloudStack

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• Overlay Network: Overlay is shielded from the states of the underlying network switches and routers and it does not have to sync with them. Through simple APIs, it enables fine-grained traffic engineering while mitigating the increasing burden of packet tagging and various other virtualization workarounds.

• Standards-based: ContexTream solution provides standards-based extensibility using LISP, OpenFlow, OpenDaylight, NV03, OpenStack and more.

• Standard Hardware Deployment: It runs on off-the-shelf Intel Architecture-based computing platforms and is hypervisor-agnostic.

Customer benefitsContexNet delivers service agility to carriers by creating an SDN fabric that is subscriber- and service-aware through its ability to see data flows at a very granular level and its ability to direct those flows to virtualized services. With this level of service awareness in the network, a service provider can manage and deliver customized services corresponding to every existing customer relationship.

Another advantage is new service introduction. The service abstraction layer creates a programmable network that makes new service roll-out simpler and faster. With the ContexNet service-aware SDN fabric, operators can test and roll out new services, and introduce them in production networks without downtime or network upgrade cycles.

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For more information about contextream solutions, visit www.contextream.com

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