Which Virtualization Platforms Are Actually Carrier-Ready?

A new report from Strategy Analytics suggests that communication services providers are implementing virtualized customer premises equipment and data center resources first because they consider it too risky to implement NFV and SDN on their public networks without true carrier-class virtualization. And it lays out 16 requirements for virtualizing networking platforms as a first step to reach telco cloud nirvana, and even offers up a handful of vendor solutions it says are suited for the job.

Demands on CPE and data centers simply aren’t as expansive as those on public networks, says analyst Sue Rudd. So before jumping into NFV and SDN on the rest of their networks, she suggests, carriers should first install proven virtualized networking platforms.

The company goes on to provide a list of five vendor platforms that it says have what it takes to get the job done. That list includes Hitachi CTA’s vMME/SGSN VNF, which enables distributed mobility management and mobile access including resource management, and subscriber control and data path processing. NetNumber’s TITAN also makes the list. That is a centralized signaling and routing control solution that delivers scalable, distributed or logically centralized signaling for TCAP/SCCP, ISUP, Diameter, DNS, ENUM, and SIP.

Openwave Mobility’s Integra NFV Platform also made the list. It allows for data monetization, subscriber management, value-added services, and video delivery optimization. And Radisys made the list twice, for its FlowEngine and MediaEngine platforms. The first one offers data plane flow and service chain traffic forwarding and optimization. The other one provides real-time media processing for access neutral/cloud delivery environments.

"As operators strive to adopt new processes for their digital transformation to all-IP networking, it is important that they minimize the risk of service disruption by leveraging proven technology,” says Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, director of wireless operator strategies at Strategy Analytics. “Changing operations processes while simultaneously installing unproven 'bare metal' solutions could dramatically increase the risks of NFV deployment. That could actually delay the rollout of SDN/NFV next generation networks."