virtualizing telco networks

Virtualizing Telco NetworksAchieve Genuine Innovation by Governing Your Data

http://www.netapp.com

02 INTRODUCTION

Build your virtualized telecommunications network with NetApp and you will gain a proven carrier-grade approach to data availability, performance, security, and management.

Removing the traditional network silosThe telecommunications industry has always depended on proprietary hardware appliances. This has resulted in silos in which carriers have been forced to unsustainably spend billions year after year. These silos have also prevented carriers from innovating in line with market demand, anchoring them to extremely long deployment cycles for new network services. All of this has contributed to unbearable corporate debts and to a lack of competitiveness towards over-the-top service companies.

Only now, communication service providers (CSPs) are tackling this issue by virtualizing their telecommunications networks and look into new software-defined and cloud-like frameworks with network function virtualization (NFV).

New Business ModelsMatters as Much as Economics

Embracing

Choice Broader software ecosystem

Economics Powerful for

organizations with large networks

Innovation No specialty hardware, more competition

Savings Eliminate costly hardware upgrades

Flexibility Do things faster by deploying new services as software-only

07 INTRODUCTION

Solved Operational Challenges Effective end-to-end management within Data Fabric enabled by NetApp®.

Gained Service Availability Unlimited data mobility across sites for business continuity and sustained service quality.

Accelerated Transformation Leverage cloud partner know-how and ready-to-apply solutions.

Reduced Risks Proven real-world deployments of infrastructures for NFV and SDN.

Key Benefitswith NetApp

08 CONTENT

Contact

Learn more about NetApp's Telco and NFV

business in EMEA

Page 49

Data Management

Data in NFV cloud-based environments

Page 16

Challenges

Deploying NFV: Needs and operational

challenges

Page 09

Network & Cloud

Network meets cloud: NetApp value to CSPs

Page 27

Success Stories

Virtualized EPC, STB, video streaming,

and CDN storage

Page 41

Products & Solutions

The carrier delivery options determine NetApp’s products

Page 37

Challenges

Deploying NFV: Needs and operational

challenges

Page 09

10 CHALLENGES

1. Unproven products or solutions The move to NFV and software-defined networks (SDN) confronts carriers with a world of new products and solutions, and with an increasing number of suppliers they can choose from. The solutions available today are generally not mature enough because still in a developing stage, and this lack of maturity is reported to be one of the main inhibitors for the adoption of NFV by the carriers. Other concerns address the complexity of end-to-end provisioning in both virtual and physical worlds and the need to reskill the telecommunications staff.

02

2. Unknown resource needs All CSPs have one thing in common: They are often completely in the dark when it comes to determining the amounts of computing, networking, and storage resources they will need to enable their network transformation. Testing and implementing technologies for NFV and SDN, and aligning everything to business models, takes its time and often exceeds the forecasted resources. What starts as a proof of concept is very likely to evolve unforeseeably and dynamically. Carriers are then forced to rearchitect their solutions on the fly and risk increased costs.

11 CHALLENGES

3. Massive transformationCarrier networks can consist of hundreds or even thousands of large central offices (COs) and points of presence (PoPs). Turning to a NFV infrastructure means to transform most of them into data centers of adequate sizes and decide for either a centralized or a distributed NFV use case deployment. Carriers will also need to make sure that their platform of choice can provide redundancy across all locations to ensure business continuity and to dynamically rearrange data allocation. This part of the journey poses not only a massive task from a planning perspective. It also means significant operational challenges before an effective end-to-end management becomes real.

12 CHALLENGES

4. Operational challenges 1/2

The new NFV framework is mostly about increased agility. However, carriers need to ensure also that the products or solutions they deploy can live up to carrier-grade levels. In a nutshell, deploying NFV is not simply a matter of ripping and replacing network hardware. It requires a holistic view for a process with many implications.

13 CHALLENGES

+ Brings operational challenges in terms of relationships and changes in physical and virtual worlds

+ Needs to reflect the hierarchies in a distributed multitier network

+ Requires a fully virtualized and integrated infrastructure stack to support carrier-grade reliability, similar to the availability, performance, and quality of service (QoS) of physical deployments

+ Needs a totally new set of skills of the carrier staff

14 CHALLENGES

4. Operational challenges 2/2

02

5. Towards a DevOps modelThe operational challenges outlined earlier demand that carriers adopt a DevOps-oriented organization. Only an ongoing and integrated process of continuous development and continuous deployment can deliver on the agility promises of NFV and SDN. Only when their developers and operators work hand in hand, CSPs can innovate and adapt to customer demands and market conditions much faster.

15 CHALLENGES

Data Management

Data in NFV cloud-based environments

Importance of data management in addressing these challenges

17 DATA MANAGEMENT

Virtualization in general and NFV in particular brings consolidation and choice especially in the hardware arena. Coupled with commoditized hardware, virtualization promises to reduce costs quickly, but does not provide any added value by itself. What does that mean for carriers? Whatever functions CSPs want to virtualize they will need different resources in different qualities and amounts to work properly and meet QoS requirements. Depending on the use cases, it is the data management that impacts the speed, scalability, and availability of a service.

speed

scalability

availability

18 DATA MANAGEMENT

Let’s have a look at a real-world scenario, a virtualized content delivery network (CDN) to illustrate the value add of data management.

Basically, the virtualization of CDN functions, including analytics, policy management, and on-net/off-net streaming, is applicable to a NFV and SDN deployment across the data centers within a carrier network. However, the biggest challenge is to dynamically allocate resources closer to the network edge to optimize cost savings

and subscriber QoS. For this, service providers will need a management solution that allows on-demand, scale-out and scale-in resource caching at peak hours. Only then it is possible to achieve a superior customer experience as well as traffic optimization on controller- and cache-node level.


19 DATA MANAGEMENT

Storage can become a bottleneck for several virtualized network functions (VNFs) due to capacity and performance reasons.

CDN or deep packet inspection requires a dynamic distribution across

a CSP’s network of COs and PoPs. It is critical that every PoP can support

a storage-intensive VNF any time.

vCPE, vSTB, and moreneed 10s of 1,000s instantiated virtual

machines (VMs) or containers. This applies certainly to a mobile user environment and will

in general turn a small storage requirement into a big one, where storage access

performance can become a major issue.

Storage-intensive VNFs Performance-intensive VNFs


Video streaming is an example of a storage-intensive VNF

ConsiderationsA virtualized CDN can take advantage of an NFV and SDN cloud-based deployment across the carrier network data centers.

Carriers need to dynamically allocate resources closer to the network edge, to optimize cost savings and QoS.

For this, service providers need a storage management solution that allows on-demand, scale-out and scale-in caching resources at peak hours.

2015 2016 2017 2018

x 6

x 24

x 13

Capacity and Performance Requirements

20 DATA MANAGEMENT

Next-Generation Data Center

Content Delivery Networks and Video Streaming

Real-Time Deep Packet Inspection

VNF as a Service

Virtual Customer Edge and Aggregation

Network Access Control

21 DATA MANAGEMENT

NetApp helps multiple CSPs and enterprises globally in addressing their NFV & SDN deployments and use cases

The next-generation data center (NGDC) applied to NFV deployments has to assure the exponentially increasing number of applications, VMs, and containers.

A telco‘s NGDC must be able to address functionalities, including guaranteed QoS, scalability, automation, and self-healing.

NetApp is a worldwide leader in NGDC through its SolidFire and StorageGRID portfolio of products.


VNF as a Service





22 DATA MANAGEMENT

The virtualization of the CDN and video streaming network functions demand the proper management of hundreds or thousands of new storage-intensive VMs.

NetApp provides the market's most comprehensive storage management solution that allows on-demand, scale-out and scale-in caching resources at peak hours with guaranteed QoS.


VNF as a Service






23 DATA MANAGEMENT

Understanding and managing network traffic have become an important issue for network operators to meet service-level agreements with their customers. This requires fast analysis of a large volume of network traffic. Traffic analysis in real time is difficult because a large dataset requires high processing intensity.





VNF as a Service



24 DATA MANAGEMENT

NFV opens the ecosystem of providers, certainly for business-oriented VNFs that are enabling an increased role of hyperscale and other cloud providers in the network.

NetApp makes VNF as a service a reality as a world leader in accelerating business applications through its Data Fabric hybrid cloud framework.







25 DATA MANAGEMENT

Thousands of new virtual machines need to be managed as independent workloads when virtualizing home environments, including the cloudification of appliances such as remote gateways or set-top boxes. This puts all the stress on the Telco network edge and core.

NetApp guarantees the QoS of these workloads in the edge, core, or data center of the telco.

VNF as a Service






26 DATA MANAGEMENT

WAN optimization controllers, for example, use different techniques to deliver end-to-end reliability and predictable application performance for real-time application traffic: caching, compression, data and latency reduction, QoS, tagging, and packet coalescing.

NetApp facilitates these techniques through data compression, data caching, and guaranteed QoS.

VNF as a Service



Network & Cloud

Network meets cloud: NetApp value to CSPs

26 CLOUD & NETWORK

The NetApp value for CSPs: Network meets the cloud

As outlined earlier, data mobility is a critical factor. Basically CSPs need data mobility for two reasons. First, CSPs need to ensure data replication between sites, including business continuity for their infrastructure. Secondly, CSPs need to ensure that they can dynamically move network functions and services from one CO or PoP to another. Altogether data mobility across COs and PoPs becomes the enabler for service availability and quality. The failure to ensure data availability and mobility will only prevent silos to be completely removed from the carriers networks. NetApp delivers on the promise of data mobility with its Data Fabric strategy which allows data to be accessed where it is needed most. Data Fabric delivers exactly on the needs of CSPs and enables them to innovate and generate new revenue streams driven by new business models.

28 NETWORK & CLOUD

Network Services Across Multiple Service Providers

Data Fabric is NetApp’s

vision and strategy.

Hybrid Physical and Virtual Infrastructures

Capacity planning,

trouble-shooting, reporting,

for own and third parties

with OnCommand® Insight.

Cloud and Network Operations Collaboration

The same workflows

can be used by both teams

with one single tool.

Dynamic Changes to Physical and Virtual Device Configurations

NetApp provides a very

large set of API calls, which

transform the storage

in a set and forget platform.

Many-to-Many Services and Infrastructure Relationships

NetApp secure

multitenancy has been

audited and certified

by specialized companies.

Dynamic Software and Hardware Relationships

NetApp primes efficiency,

which implies speed

of execution, for example,

when cloning objects.

To maintain availability, adjust capacity, or load balance physical resources, software running on VMs or containers can be moved between physical servers or replicated to run on newly created VMs or containers.

Dynamic relationships between software and hardware components

CSPs can dynamically allocate resources or quickly move data between

storage nodes without impacting services or collocated VNFs.

All NetApp features are linked to efficiency. This includes fast execution,

for example, when cloning objects.

With NetApp Unique Value Proposition

26 CLOUD & NETWORK30 NETWORK & CLOUD

To accommodate the dynamic nature of virtualized networks, end-to-end management systems must be able to adjust device configuration.

Dynamic changesto physicaland virtual device configurations

With NetApp

Unique Value Proposition

There is no need for manual storage intervention. Every single possible task can

be done through APIs which integrate NetApp systems with NFV architectures.

NetApp provides a very large set of API calls which transform the storage in a

“set and forget” platform.


A virtualized network service can rely on several VNFs which may be running on one or more VMs. A single VNF may also support several network services. And the group of VNFs supporting a single network service might be running on several physical servers.

Many-to-many relationshipsbetween network services and underlying infrastructure

Using secure multitenancy, CSPs can run several instances on the same storage

platform, while keeping VMs isolated on both storage and network.

NetApp secure multitenancy has been audited and certified for its security by specialized companies.



With NetApp


CSPs can choose from several infrastructure monitoring tools such

as OnCommand Insight as well as integration through open APIs.

OnCommand Insight is a monitoring tool, but serves as well for capacity planning, trouble-

shooting, and reporting in an end-to-end heterogeneous infrastructure, including storage,

SAN, Ethernet, hypervisors, and VMs.


As virtualization is adopted gradually, carriers must be able to integrate virtual environments into their existing infrastructures for end-to-end traditional or legacy monitoring.

Hybrid physical and virtual infrastructures


Some of the VNFs comprising a virtualized network service may be hosted in the clouds of multiple collaborating providers.

Network services across multiple service providers

Customers have a common set of secure data services to manage, access, and protect

data where it is needed most.

Data Fabric is NetApp’s vision and strategy for data management.


With NetApp


Automatization using APIs or predefined workflows help manage

end-to-end infrastructures.

Cloud and network operations staff can define and use the same workflows

through a single tool.


Organizations will need to cooperate effectively to establish new operational processes that meet the demands of end-to-end management of hybrid infrastructures.

Cloud and network operations collaboration

Human-IoT interaction, mobile media everywhere

Smart home, automation & caring


NetApp framework to solve these challenges

NFV is a hybrid cloud-like environment ... ... that will have to include the edge

Smart vehicles, transport & infrastructure

Remote industrial surveillance & services

Public CloudsCommoditized network

functions & services

Telco Carrier Network Cloudmeets the IT cloud

Private Clouds NFV reaches the enterprise domain

Products & Solutions



26 CLOUD & NETWORK38 PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS

MPLS

To be deployed when the services need to be implemented fast, and if the access bandwidth is high.

To be deployed in areas with unreliable access or with high latency.

To be deployed with high bandwidth access links.

To be deployed when the carrier needs to combine its network services with other (IT) services only available in public clouds.

To be deployed when there is no need to link with public clouds.

Subscriber domain Carrier and CSP domain

Public Cloud

Enterprise Carrier-Managed Virtualized CPE

Carrier Virtualized Network

Termination Unit

Distributed Carrier NFV Service Node

Carrier Cloud Gateway

Carrier Data Centers

STORAGE ARRAY STORAGE ARRAY DIRECT-ATTACHED STORAGE (DAS)

+ Scalability, orchestration, guaranteed performance+ Simplicity, automation+ Multiple types of workloads

+ Very application- and workload-specific+ Direct-attached solution

+ Scalability, integration, orchestration, optimized performance+ Data services

Type of deployment

Target customers

Qualifying characteristics

NetApp has multiple products fit forvarious deployment types

Content delivery deployments

As-a-service deployments

CSPs who prioritize the stability of their solution

Enterprises and branches embracing NFV services provided by their CSPs

CSPs embracing a disruptive approach to NFV, with a focus on new revenue generation

Element OS on SolidFireONTAP on FAS/AFFEF or E-Series



Tiscali refocused its strategy to become a cloud service provider to open up new market

opportunities.

Hybrid Cloud Storage Solutions:

+ Data Fabric+ Clustered Data ONTAP

Opportunity Product & SolutionResults

50%

Reduction in IT Budget

Businesses are looking to migrate to the cloud, and they need to do that while cutting costs and maximizing efficiency.

Salvatore Pulvirenti | CIO, Tiscali Watch the video

http://www.netapp.com/us/solutions/data-fabric/index.aspx

http://www.netapp.com/us/products/platform-os/ontap/index.aspx

http://www.netapp.com/us/company/customer-stories/tiscali.aspx

Success Stories

Virtualized EPC, STB, video streaming,

and CDN storage

Key technologiesEricsson (NFVi stack).

Juniper Contrail (SDN). F5 Firewall. OpenStack orchestration (Mirantis)

ProductsSolidFire SF9605 on iSCSI.

Between 5 and 20 nodes per site

Carrier-grade NFV & SDN next-generation networkand co-hosted IT cloud computing services infrastructure platform

Why NetApp ƣ OpenStack integration:

APIs, capacity to deliver

ƣ Partnership with Mirantis

ƣ Form factor ( 1 node = 1U)

ƣ Scaling (start small)

ƣ QoS guarantee

ƣ Performance

ƣ Ease-of-use and automation

One of the top 3 telecommunications service providers in the U.S.In deployment across all PoPs

Challenge ƣ Deploy a cloud infrastructure for

next-generation network services:

Firewall, DNS, router, VoIP,

mobility services

ƣ Allow a progressive growth as the

network resources utilization needs

increase, in a future-proof platform,

with possibility to co-host traditional

IT services

26 CLOUD & NETWORK42 SUCCESS STORIES

Key technologiesAutomation and orchestration with

OpenStack / Puppet / Chef hypervisor (KVM, Glance) and containers (Docker). Block, file,

and object storage (Cinder & Manila)

ProductsFlexPod with UCS servers,

Nexus 9000, and Cisco ACI NetApp FAS8040A, E5660,

StorageGRID

Virtualized evolved packet core (vEPC) carrier-grade platformwith real-time network deep packet inspection & analytics

Why NetApp ƣ Seamless and dynamic scaling,

speed, efficiency, cost. An efficient

utilization versus white-box

translated to a 10x capex reduction

ƣ Carrier-grade: QoS, performance

ƣ Integration and partnerships:

Cisco UCS, Nexus, ACI, Red Hat

OpenStack, Puppet, Chef

One of the top 3 telecommunications service providers in the U.S.In PoC status

Challenge ƣ The customer needed to implement

a vEPC with real-time network deep

packet inspection, analytics, and

tracing to increase its market

positioning through controlled

growth of the selected solution.


Key technologiesRemote analytics:

Guavus, Couchbase (NoSQL)

ProductsNetApp FAS2552 with

DS2246 shelves, both Vector Data- and NEBS-certified, carrier grade,

DC powered

Virtualized set-top box (STB) service delivery platform for customer usage measurement and mobile user billing

Why NetApp ƣ Seamless and dynamic scaling,

speed, efficiency, cost. An efficient

utilization versus white-box

translated to a 10x capex reduction

ƣ Carrier-grade: QoS, performance

ƣ Integration and partnerships:

Cisco UCS, Nexus, ACI, Red Hat

OpenStack, Puppet, Chef

One of the top 3 telecommunications service providers in the U.S.Deployed across 51 sites

Challenge ƣ Enable a customer usage and

billing solution for a virtualized STB

service for mobile users

ƣ Future-proof platform for added

services, for example, sponsored or

push content delivery

ƣ Enable a progressive growth as

the network resources utilization

increases


Key technologiesOpenStack – VMware

ProductsFlexPod-based,

12 FAS8200 hybrid nodes. Three PoPs

Virtualized video streaming CDN storage platform

Why NetApp ƣ IOPS and capacity requirements

grew rapidly, mainly because of a

video streaming product:

x 13 within 2 years and

x 24 within 3 years

ƣ With a traditional DAS solution,

scaling would not be easy, in terms of

both capacity and performance

One of the top 3 telecommunications service providers in FranceDeployed across three PoPs

Challenge ƣ Storage requirements started

very low at the beginning, because

many VMs didn’t even require

storage

ƣ But over time, the NFVi stack

needed to host new VNFs, adding

extra complexity in the overall

management, especially in storage

performance AND capacity demand


Key technologiesOpenStack – VMware

Products8 SolidFire SF2405 systems.

Two clusters

NFV infrastructure (NFVi) stack Next-generation storage management platform

Why NetApp ƣ The acceleration of telco and

IT convergence and the need to

support a diverse range of

demanding applications requires

an innovative solution that takes

all the benefits from the IT and

open source domains to create a

scalable and distributed

cloud-based architecture.

One of the top 3 global network equipment providers in EuropePoC

Challenge ƣ A global network equipment

provider currently looking at

an innovative next-generation

storage management solution

for its NFVi stack platform.

Objective: Gain a competitive

advantage over the

competition.


SummaryNo doubt, deploying NFV commercially is a challenge. The good news is that proven players from within the cloud industry such as NetApp provide the experience that CSPs require. The deeper your partner is involved in cloud data center infrastructures the better. The greater your partner’s ability to add value with technology, functions, and concepts accompanied by professional services and real-world experiences the faster and safer CSPs can move forward.

48 ABOUT NETAPP

Leading organizations worldwide count on NetApp for software, systems and services to manage and store their data. Customers value our teamwork, expertise and passion for helping them succeed now and into the future.

02

Carlos Ruiz GómezDigital Telco Business Development Lead EMEAEmerging Solutions & Innovation+ 34 672 025 [email protected]

Yves WeisserNFV ArchitectSystems Engineering EMEA+ 33 6 70 25 81 [email protected]

26 CLOUD & NETWORK49 CONTACT

Get in touch with us and learn more aboutNetApp's Telco and NFV business in EMEA

mailto:Carlos.Ruiz%40NetApp.com?subject=Virtualized%20Network%20%28NFV%29

mailto:Yves.Weisser%40NetApp.com?subject=Virtualized%20Network%20%28NFV%29

https://ct.linkedin.com/in/carlosruiz

https://fr.linkedin.com/in/yvesweisser

50

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virtualizing telco networks

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