July 2015 | WHITE PAPER

How SDN and NFV can help prepare operators for 2020

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how sdn and nFV can help prepare operators For 2020

that it promises a reduction in total cost of

ownership (TCO), while making network

assets easier to control, and therefore making

the network sweat a bit more in order to

harness every last drop of efficiency. However,

there are substantially more benefits for SDN

than just about opex and capex reduction;

after all, SDN is as much a philosophy as it is

any one specific technology. For that reason,

its applicability and scenarios of use vary, and

delivery a plethora of potential benefits to

service providers.

Network functions virtualization,

meanwhile, came to the fore in late 2012

and was initially seen as the co-dependent

sibling of SDN. While the premise could be

considered similar, NFV relies on decoupling

network functions from the hardware on

which it is contained, and centralising said

functions onto commoditised servers into

the data centre for dynamic allocation

to various parts of the network as and

when required. Like SDN, NFV (along with

a robust and flexible orchestration layer)

promises reduced total cost of ownership,

faster service delivery and the ability to

create new services faster. All of which,

theoretically, should result in increased

profit margins for operators.

Earlier this year, Telecoms.com

Intelligence ran a dedicated section of

its Annual Industry Survey on SDN and

NFV; such was the interest in the two

technologies and the symbiotic relationship

they share. The primary purpose in the line

of questioning taken during the survey

pertained to the likely use-case scenario for

network virtualization technologies.

The respondents, of which there were

more than 2,000, largely sided with

common consensus when it comes to the

primary benefits of SDN and/or NFV. Survey

It’s commonly agreed upon in the wider

telecoms industry that operators are under

more pressure than ever to drain every drop

of potential revenue possible from their

assets. The telco network represents a huge

percentage of cost on an annual basis; so

as the mobile network, specifically, evolves

from 2G to LTE and looking ahead to 5G,

there’s a hefty amount of redundant kit

sitting in and about the infrastructure. As

a consequence, complexity in the network

increases and it becomes increasingly

difficult to manage.

Software defined networking has caused

a lot of noise in the infrastructural space in

the last five years, and many have touted it

to be the future of network management.

The classical definition of SDN is about

centralising the control of routing and

switching across the network – essentially

decoupling the control plane from the

data plane. Theoretically, this premise

results in the simplification of network

management practises, ultimately with the

aim of minimising cost and general resource

expense – be that either financial or in

terms of man-hours.

SDN appears to have arrived to the

telecoms industry at a point where it’s

calling out for a solution to help mitigate

the almost exponential growth in

demand of services and data. Telcos need

simplification in order to offer greater

service diversity to encourage a new

way of delivering, managing and billing

applications and network services. By

dividing control and forwarding from one

another, operators have an opportunity to

seize control of the network and re-harness

its capabilities.

One of the primary, and most commonly

referred to, clichés surrounding SDN is

Like SDN, NFV promises reduced total cost of owner-ship, faster service delivery and the ability to create new services faster

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how sdn and nFV can help prepare operators For 2020

respondents were asked to prioritise which

of the key functional benefits of network

virtualization would be considered to be

the most compelling. Respondents agreed

that scalability (68% ranked one or two

out of six), opex (67%), capex (65%) and

reducing time to market when deploying

new services (64%) were a high priority, as

represented in Figure 1.

For operators harnessing SDN and NFV,

there certainly appears to be opportunity

for solving challenges in the here and now;

the daily issues which soak up a lot of time

and resource. A forward-facing perspective

when discussing network virtualization

points towards how network traffic and the

management thereof will likely evolve in

the coming years. Inevitably, the Internet of

Things is a major consideration for telcos,

with machine-based network flows set to

rocket between now and 2020. While IoT

itself isn’t likely to be generating a huge

amount of traffic for the network to deal

with, the number of sessions being initiated

will dramatically increase, and the network

has to be able to flexibly react to varying

demands at varying times.

IoT has taken off in the industry in

the last couple of years, and the primary

reason for that comes down to cost. Ten

years ago a module enabling machine-

to-machine communications would have

cost $30-40; today that number has shrunk

to around $5, making the business case

3

For operators har-nessing SDN and NFV, there certainly appears to be op-portunity for solving challenges in the here and now

Source: Telecoms.com Intelligence Annual Industry Survey 2015

Figure 1

how sdn and nFV can help prepare operators For 2020

sectors currently eyeing up IoT decides to

go big, then telcos have to be responsive

enough and capable enough of managing

that demand.

The other big tech trend on the horizon is

5G, which will clearly have to accommodate

IoT, and SDN and NFV will certainly

become part of that suite of 5G-enabling

technologies. Various operators have

discussed their vision of 5G, and popular

consensus seems to suggest that 5G will

rely on a few key mantras, where the

network must be soft, green and efficient

– the basic principles behind software

defined networking and network functions

virtualization.

A combination of network virtualization

technologies, such as SDN and NFV, but

also cloud computing, has already begun

changing the business models of various

telcos around the world. The increased

service agility and flexibility afforded by a

more intelligent and capable network opens

up new opportunities for operators and

potentially lucrative service deployment

scenarios. Service chaining capabilities

delivered by an intelligent management

and orchestration NFV platform will open

up rapid and automated rollouts of services

based on user demands – and this illustrates

just one of the many ways in which an

NFV-based architecture will open up new

opportunities for telecoms.

Early trials, finished proof of concepts and

promising live rollouts suggest the telecoms

network infrastructure industry is starting

to make hay in the early morning sun; what

threatened to be just marketing hype-talk a

couple of years ago is starting to show signs

of real, tangible and quantified money-

making potential.

for IoT unavoidable for operators. SDN

meanwhile assists the profitability of IoT

further by bringing down the cost structure

of the network while more intelligently and

dynamically orchestrating and managing

what’s happening on the network much

more easily. As a result, the network will end

up bearing the brunt of the IoT revolution

as the monetisation opportunities for IoT

become more compelling.

The question remains as to how

operators will be positioned to enable

and hold together an internet of things.

By all accounts, NFV and SDN will

present operators with a new and more

sophisticated approach to network

management and orchestration. The

orchestration layer provides abstraction

between the physical infrastructure

and carrier network applications, which

essentially allows carriers to configure and

programme the network more simply,

without the need to manually insert code

across multiple devices. Such simplification

can be extended further by solutions

facilitating rapid service provisioning across

the network as and when customers require.

When considering the future of telecoms,

particularly IoT but also 5G, a lot can come

down to the preparation in anticipation of a

set of yet-to-be-defined technologies. Long

before the industry arrives at the mythical

landmark of 2020, telcos will have to have

the tools and the capabilities in place to

adapt to whatever 5G or IoT turn out to be;

and a balanced combination of SDN and

NFV are sure to be two substantial pieces of

the overall future network jigsaw. IoT is likely

to be driven just as much by enterprise

industries as it is the telecommunications

sector, and if any one of the various industry

Popular consensus seems to suggest that 5G will rely on a few key mantras, where the network must be soft, green and efficient

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How SDN and NFV can help prepare operators for 2020

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