Program Access 4.0 / A4and the Role of the CommunityAccess 4.0 TeamPresenters: Manuel Paul, Bjoern Nagel

Access 4.0 is the Design of a new access platform with tight coupling to a cost model

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e.g. located in the CO

FTTH/xPON

FTTB/G.Fast

FTTC/xDSL

4G / 5GAccess 4.0

Design

Cost Case

…

A4-PoD1)

1) Access 4.0 Point of delivery: production of broadband IP

BackboneIP

• Cost model developed from day one

• Strong interworking between architecture / design and Cost modelling

• Comprehensive application of Design-to-costmethods

Gigabit ready Technology Cost model

production of Gigabit IP

Hybrid

Access 4.0 / A4 – Scope & Objectives

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BackboneB/OSS

Spine-Switch Spine-Switch

Leaf /ToR Service Edge

Local Management

Control x86

WDM

Control x86 Control x86

GPON LT

GPON LT

GPON LT

GPON LT

GPON LT

GPON LT

XGS-PON LT

XGS-PON LT

WDM

GPON LT

GPON LT

GPON LT

XGS-PON LT

XGS-PON LT

Leaf /ToRService Edge

Leaf /ToR Service Edge

Central EMS

x 900

x 1

GPON LT

ONT

DPU

Scope of Access 4.0

Extensive D2C project for FTTH/B

Everything monitored in a comprehensive Cost Model

Design and engineering using bare metal / OCP hardware, lots of open-source software as well as merchant silicon

Application of data center principles, leaf/spine fabric, CI/CD, …

Clean IT architecture (Las Vegas principle)

Objectives of Access 4.0

Save CapEx and OpEx

Reduce vendor lock; bring in new players

Drive automation

Time-to-Market for services (keep business logic SW in house)

Increase flexibility for capacity mgmt, change-over, migration, …

Platform Compatibility Framework with standard set of APIs avoids hardware lock-in provides compatibility to apps/features

through common protocol and data model for forwarding provides compatibility of management tools and practices

Anything south of the dotted line to be provided by hardware vendor

Design paradigm: Control plane / user plane splitno fragmentation, please…

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Forwarding Plane

Control Plane

CP/UP Mediation LayerDrivers

D1 D2 D4D3

D1 D2 D4D3

App1 App2 App3Fixed / mobile or converged control applications (usually on x86)

Programmable hardware on bare metal(Differentiate through performance & exposed feature sets)

VOLTHA: Successful instantiation of The key Design Principles

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Open hardware

Bare metal switch platform, carrying …

… programmable switching & PON chipsets

… a PC board (for drivers, services)

Modular, based on carrier requirements

e.g. specified at Open Compute Project

Customize like a PC

Transparent regarding technology and cost

Open software

Open driver & application platform, building on VOLTHA

Modular, scalable

Standard interfaces & protocols

Mediates towards SDN Control

Integrates vendors’ drivers

Reduced testing & integration efforts, community-driven

*picture sources: EdgeCore Networks, opencord.org

Hardware Design: Motivation & Design Guidelines

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Motivation for OCP Specification Design guidelines

Eco system for white box PON devices leaves room for

improvement !

Few devices from few vendors – with little telco experience

Carriers want at least two suppliers – need more choice !

DT wishes to foster the community & there was a need for more participation …

Last but not least :

We hope to instigate other contributions to create competition, innovation and better economics ...

After some great joint efforts with partners the spec went through the administrative process and is published now!

Reuse existing work to allow for quick implementation

Use mainstream merchant silicon & COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) components

Comply to relevant standards

Allow & promote the use of open source software

Aim for state of the art performance at optimum total

cost of ownership

Create something that „the world“ needs !

Design choices and details :

Specification selects a first straight forward solution, derive from what works for XGS-PON :

Well known merchant silicon combination from Broadcom (Maple/Qumran) with off the shelf driver software (BAL) to be integrated into open source VOLTHA framework.

32 and 64 port variants : good fit to chip granularity, uplink capacity and Central Office size (as number of subscribers)

Redundant AC/DC PSUs (hot swappable, 110-230VAC, 50-60Hz autoranging & 48VDC), high efficiency

Flexible Uplinks :

2x100G as QSFP28 to allows in-rack AOC/DAC

plus 8x10/25G SFP28 cages or (C)WDM transceivers for longer reach and WDM for fiber saving

Telco environment implies a long life span – 10 years is typical

The control SW & interface is evolving rapidly - Our spec explicitely embraces this fact !

Dt olt specification at ocp

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Programmable hardware: a4 switching fabric

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What has changed …

SDN was never only about central flow / path management … it also is about programmability

It might not have worked at the beginning as planned but now…

There is programmable silicon

ASICs, NPUs, Smart NICs, ….

Powerful SDKs for proprietary chipsets

Open, domain-specific languages like P4/P4 Runtime

Application inside access 4.0

Programming the FIB into silicon on the backplane

Distributed routing control plane

Programming a service edge into merchant silicon

programmed the data path for PPPoE termination

Enhanced debugging features

abstract to have a common control API independent on hardware used below

Open components in access 4.0 prototype

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Hardware

XGS PON OLT + ONT

Bare metal switches

x86 Servers

Software

Open Network Linux

Ubuntu Linux

Kafka

Kubernetes , Docker + lxc container, KVM

Device abstraction via vOLT-HA and ONOS

Service Edge on Tofino (PPPoE, CP and UP)

POD Life Cycle Manager (LCM)

POD Control Plane (PPA, “Weiche”)

POD EMS, Grafana

green color code: open source / open spec

magenta color code: DT development, possibly to be open sourced

black color code: DT specific or vendor proprietary

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POD API Definition Hardware Specs

Service Edge API Device Drivers

Overall System Design

*logos are courtesy of the respective organizations

Looking forward to Extend Collaboration with the community

Summary

A4 turned two in summer.What has been achieved for ftth/b and What’s next?

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1 Real code running FTTH/B@A4

Multiple PPPoE sessions All based on bare metal + open source

(K8s, vOLTHA) Focus on automation (ONT bring-up,

ZTP / capacity- and change mgmt. etc.)

2 Feasibility Study finalized and Cost Model developed

Document shared with 30+ experts within DT

Assumptions and technology in Cost Model documented; Cost Case is green

3 Collaboration / Community

OCP spec for OLT submitted ONF-Community event June 2018 Code contribution for vOLTHA Alignment with other Operators

4 RfQ for Co-Dev Partnership FTTH/B@A4

RfQ issued in June, finalized end of October Objective: find a partner who shares

vision and wants to productize the A4 design

Thank you13