FEATURE: SDN
technologies involved, the real challenge
is elsewhere.
"It is also related to challenges in understanding
the relationships between the various virtualised
resources that comprise a virtualised service such
as virtual network functions, virtual machines,
and the virtual pathways that link everything
together," he elaborates.
The current situation underscores the need for
service orchestration to help organisations break
down potential silos and efficiently tie hardware,
software, applications and networks neatly together.
"The end goal is for us to enable customers to have
self-managing capabilities of the network where
needed, while facilitating the evolution toward
further operational simplification and increased
network autonomy," explains Mali.
Distributed cloud approach
In the cloud and virtualisation domain Ericsson
is acting in multiple roles. To create solutions,
Ericsson can deliver its own hardware like the BSP,
HD 8000, and 3P family of products. Ericsson›s
hardware components include generic Intel X86
servers; carrier grade BSP 8100 that could be used
for native or virtualised network applications;
and hyperscale, rackscale HDS8000 family of
machines, which are more generic. For different
layers of virtualisation, Ericsson also has its own
virtualisation software layer and virtualised
network applications.
"Due to different implementation requests coming
from the customers, infrastructure and application
integration is another role that Ericsson is playing
in the virtualisation domain,” says Indranil Das,
Head of Digital Services at Ericsson Middle East
and Africa.
Ericsson also works in legacy network virtualisation
transformation. As of today, well-known
network functions and applications already
have a virtualised version or have a near future
virtualisation roadmap. Different network
applications like EPC, IMD, UDC, MSS, IP STP, DSC,
MSP, are some example of those applications.
"By undertaking this transformation, Ericsson is
not only virtualising the applications but also
delivering the other hardware and software
components to enable a globally agreed ETSI NFV
virtualisation framework," elaborates Das.
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As a strategy, Ericsson is supporting open
environments and software. For that reason,
Ericsson›s cloud execution product is OpenStack
based, with a specifically ruggedised virtualisation
layer for telecom service provider requirements,
supporting multi-vendor applications. Ericsson
Cloud Manager is a generic cloud orchestrator
that could work in multi-cloud, multi-vendor
environments. Ericsson is capable of creating and
delivering cloud layers and services, like PaaS,
SaaS, and IaaS.
For Ericsson, the main focus area is network and
IT cloud transformation for service providers. The
first vertical is the virtual transformation of an
operator›s legacy network applications. During
2016 and 2017, Ericsson has been involved
mainly in packet core virtualisation followed by
IMS, MSP and signaling nodes virtualisation. The
trend is moving forward towards other core nodes
like UDC, MSS and other OSS, BSS applications.
"Middle East operators are not acting differently
from the global tier-one operators. We are glad to
see such transformation happening in the region
even in unexpected countries," says Das.
In the medium to long-term, network operators
will end up with totally cloudified networks, also
called distributed clouds. This will create the
possibility of network slicing. This means having
multiple virtual networks, created for different
requirements and for different services, on one
cloudified network. This creates different use cases,
market applications, and business cases with new
business methodologies and new revenue sources
for operators.
On the other hand, there are different reasons for
the late adoption of virtualisation technology. Till
2016, maturity of technology and interoperability
was a concern and also the competence level of
telecom service providers.
"In 2016 and 2017, we started noticing a positive
move towards virtualisation with commercial
implementations. We are believing that as an
industry, we have passed over this level," feels Das.
In comparison to well defined and specified
standards for legacy telecommunications
imposed by international bodies like ETSI or
3GPP, cloud or virtualisation mechanisms are
different. Their approach requires a good
definition of frameworks, interoperability, and
open platforms. For this reason, the global
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