Network Integration: A Service Provider Perspective Market Watch, OFC 2015 – Los Angeles, CA

March 2015

Patrick Blesso Network Engineering Manager

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GlobeNet: Traditional Submarine Cable Operator, A Carriers’ Carrier [Add subtitle here]

• International wholesale provider of data services.

• Operates in 5 countries: Bermuda (St Davids) Brazil (Rio de Janeiro , Fortaleza) Colombia (Barranquilla) Venezuela (Maiquetia) USA (Boca Raton, FL & Tuckerton, NJ).

• Own subsea network infrastructure (CLS and backhauls) and extends to iPoPs in Bogotá, Cúcuta, Caracas, São Paulo, New York and Miami.

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Wholesale Carriers’ Challenges

•Tremendous price pressures, leading to commoditization of services.

•Still very high demand for bandwidth driven by live content, video, OTT players.

•Consolidations (Mergers and acquisitions)

•New Entrances in the markets:

•Content providers

•Large local carriers

•Traditional Metro providers

•Limited Network Capillarity issues affecting distribution and TTM.

State of the Market

•Diversification of products portfolios:

• IP transit and IP related services

•Content management (CDN etc.)

•Video transport services

•Financial networks services

•Tremendous time and resources spent in researching new sources of revenue.

•Cost Leadership

•Telecom & IT Services convergence (Datacenters)

•Costly acquisitions or Partnerships with local Carriers.

Proposed Solutions / Trends

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Wholesale Carriers’ Challenges

• Complexity of dealing with several layers, several services, several vendors per technology.

•Multiple Management Systems: - Existing umbrella systems are

very costly, difficult to implement, and often ineffective.

• Complex provisioning process affects time to market.

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Wholesale Carriers’ Challenges

• Difficult Network Inventory - Several layers / technologies /

vendors

- Mergers, acquisitions often exacerbate the problem

• Complex NNI Management

• Ineffective Bandwidth Management

•Multiple High Operational and Technical Skills Needed

Network (Layers) Integration has always been seen as a Solution to lower network operating costs….

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Early Attempts at Integration

• One stop shop for all technologies. • Equipment Manufacturers have

expanded their product portfolio and offering often beyond their core capabilities.

• Single management system for all

solutions.

• Ease of management, fault detection.

• Speed of provisioning / service deliver.

• One Stop shop

Single Vendor Solution Single Equipment Solution

• Jack of all trades “box”. • Equipment

Manufacturers/Providers have attempted to solve the problem by providing an all encompassing Network node.

• “Transport Routers” or

“Switching/routing DWDM, ADMs”

.

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Early Attempts at Integration

• Not the best of breed in all

technologies.

• Not always cost effective overall.

• Vendor dependence (“Lock in”).

• Does not alleviate operational complexities. (No automation).

• Not full featured.

• No choice in features

Single Vendor Solution Single Equipment Solution

• Not full featured.

• Does not alleviate operational

complexity.

• No clear demarcation of responsibilities.

• Often not cost effective.

• Not the best of breed.

• Jack of all trades “box”.

• Vendor dependence (“Lock in”).

.

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Could SDN Provide a Solution and Add value?

Note: (1) A simplified view of SDN architecture (2) Source: IEEE paper, Software-Defined Networking: A Comprehensive Survey

Decoupling Control Plane & Forwarding Plane

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Could SDN Provide a Solution / Add value?

• Through centralized view SDN can simplify network monitoring,

management.

- Provide Data, Analytics for automation. - Increased service performance and availability. - Reduced provisioning time - Programmable Network Interfaces (solution for vendor specific CLI/syntax ?) –

Simplified device configuration.

Addressing Operational Issues

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•Offers Bandwidth Optimization Tools (Successful use cases) •Optimized Network Inventory • Could Reduce the Complexity of NNI Management, Providing View of

Partner Network Resources

Addressing Operational Issues

Could SDN Provide a Solution / Add value?

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Could SDN Provide a Solution / Add value?

• Lowers OpEx through Reduced Operational Procedures, with a Unified

Multi-layer Control Plane • Reduces the need for Multiple High-skilled Personnel per specific

Vendor Technology / CLI •More Dynamic and Faster Provisioning

ￚ Reduced TTM = Increased Revenue

Addressing Business Issues

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Addressing Business Issues

Could SDN Provide a Solution / Add value?

• Increases Efficiency in CapEx • New Product Opportunities – New Revenue Streams

- Network virtualization (Network as a Service) for SP & enterprise customers. - Bandwidth on Demand - Take advantage of IT and Telecom convergence - Potential entry point / synergy with datacenter business.

SDN has the potential of adding tremendous value….. CARRIER GRADE SDN?

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•Must Address All Layers

Carrier Grade SDN

Especially layers 1-3 for Carriers. Source: ONRC research

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• Must be Based on Open Protocol, Vendor Agnostic to Allow for:

Carrier Grade SDN

Multivendor, Multilayer Unification. Facilitating Carrier NNIs. Preventing Vendor lock-in. Keeping best operational practices. Preventing Network-wide bug Leveraging industry technological advances.

Source: sdxcentral.com

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•Must Provide a Path to Migration

Carrier Grade SDN

Legacy

Hybrid

Full SDN

Brown fields & Interoperability • Migration best practices

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•Must Support (Or at the very least Emulate) OAM Protocols

Carrier Grade SDN

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• Must Address Security Concerns

Carrier Grade SDN

• Controller DDOS attack / Mitigation • Malware/applications designed specifically for Controller • Isolation of Internet routers from controllers

Source: Kreutz, D. et al. SDN, A comprehensive survey

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Carrier Grade SDN

• Scalable : 1000’s of devices geographically dispersed. • Resilient / Fault Tolerant

• SLA: Latency sensitive services, service differentiations • Protection switching (APS, SNCP, sub 50 ms)

Carrier Grade SDN

Resilient

SLA

Sensitive Services

Scalable

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Potential Hurdles

• Potential of Losing Competitive Advantage / Market Share for Establish Players • Lowers Entry Barriers in Market, Creating New Competition • Creates a New Market Driven by Software – For Most Not Core Competency

DISRUPTION IN NETWORK EQUIPMENT PROVIDER ENVIRONMENT.

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Potential Hurdles

• Requires a Different Operational Skillset • Can Facilitate Entry of New Competitors; Especially Greenfield Deployments • Co-Existence / Migration Could Present Challenge

DISRUPTION IN SERVICE PROVIDER ENVIRONMENT.

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www.globenet.net

US Headquarters Ft. Lauderdale

+1.561.314.0500

Brazil São Paulo

+55.11.3131.5605

Venezuela Caracas

+58.212.740.4160

Colombia Bogotá

+57.1.650.5200

THANK YOU!

Carrier Grade SDN

• MULTI-LAYER • VENDOR AGNOSTIC • SECURE

• SCALABLE • RESILIENT

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References

1. Kreutz, D. et al . Software defined network: a comprehensive survey. Oct 2014. Available from : http://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.0440v3.pdf 1. Darbha, S. et al. Impact of Software-Defined Networking on Infrastructure Management. 2105. Available from :

http://www.ca.com/us/lpg/ca-technology-exchange/impact-of-software-defined-networking-on-infrastructure-management.aspx 1. Halachmi, N. Differentiating a carrier-grade service offering . Oct.. 2013. Availlable from: http://www.telco.com/blog/differentiating-a-

carrier-grade-service-offering/#.VRBJlEbW7eM. 1. Liu, C. Why Managing the Underlay With Multi-Layer SDN Matters. Nov. 2014. Available from:

https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/contributed/managing-underlay-multi-layer-sdn-matters-chris-liou/2014/11/

Q&A