As data pipes gain intelligence and flexibility, network owners have to provide monitoring to monetize investments
The flexibility associated with cloud computing and fully programmable, software-defined networks is fundamentally changing the telecommunications industry into a customer-facing business focused on end-user quality of experience.
SLA and circuit performance reporting platforms are being used by service providers to analyze data in order to remove geographic barriers associated with IT infrastructure and improve service delivery as demand for data-intensive applications shows no signs of slowing.
With SDN architecture, operators can decouple the control plane and data plane to realize new insight generated from cloud platforms and analytics engines while gaining dynamic network responsiveness not possible with a traditional, hierarchical network architecture.
SDN, cloud and many other emerging technologies share the requisite of dependable, performance-driven bandwidth.
“There are three key facets of successful service delivery,” Raymond Chiu, CTO of Local Backhaul Networks and chief architect of Ocular IP, told RCR Wireless News during a recent discussion. “Those are collecting and analyzing service metrics, visualizing performance and intelligent integration with other systems for action.”
Essentially, a service provider needs to drive customer satisfaction to remain competitive and profitable; doing that requires network visibility and service agility. That’s where Ocular IP comes in—the platform provides granular, real-time IP circuit performance measuring and reporting through a customizable portal.
The current carrier market dynamic involves complex service-level agreements for network capacity that have to be meticulously monitored for compliance. That means backhaul and transport providers are required to provide service assurance and monitoring capabilities in a customer-facing web portal.
Another driver of performance monitoring and service assurance solutions is the network-as-a-service movement, what the Metro Ethernet Forum calls The Third Network. The MEF describes The Third Network as an “on demand network connectivity service delivered between physical or virtual service endpoints…[that] gives service providers the agility to deliver assured services backed by SLAs.”
The ability to provision services between these virtual endpoints is part of what SDN and attendant network functions virtualization enables. And in order for network infrastructure providers to dynamically integrate and allocate resources for The Third Network, they have to be able to easily monitor relative performance of circuits as well as predictive trends to ensure the optimum circuit path and bandwidth is allocated.
In this tangled web of carrier-to-carrier interconnects, SLAs and other bandwidth provisioning machinations, Chiu said, “Carriers use multiple alternative providers but they don’t have any visibility into those networks. In many cases, multiple carriers’ segments make up a particular circuit. We work with carriers to collect performance metrics on multiple segments and make it available in both carrier’s performance portals. If they want the ability to share information today, not next year, we can do it.”
Click here to setup a demo of Ocular IP. For a deep-dive into the technology, take a look at this white paper.
