AT&T and Colt Technology partnered on a trial showing SDN control of service provisioning between U.S. and Europe across different networks
In a push towards greater interoperability of software-defined networking architectures, AT&T said it’s completed work with Colt Technology Services to create, test and trial a standard application programming interface infrastructure designed to support different network service providers.
The trial is said to have included two networks in the U.S. and Europe, which showed AT&T was able to provision network services between the east coast of the U.S. and various locations in Europe. The carrier noted the trial allowed SDN-to-SDN control using a “programmatic API-to-API interface between the separate SDN architectures proving that SDN-managed services can be set up and run across multiple networks in just minutes.”
The platform is said to support enterprise customers in allowing for on-demand, scalable network services to be implemented and controlled in near real time. Services supported as part of the trial included reserving ports, ordering a point-to-point Ethernet service, bandwidth control and the turn down of services.
The companies said they expect the trial to drive industry collaboration and standardization, with plans to share the network-to-network interface and open API code with standards bodies and industry forums.
“As use cases and APIs continue to evolve, we’ll be able to add attributes, services and enhancements that will drive further innovation,” said Colt CTO Rajiv Datta. “This will be critical as SDN becomes increasingly important in our business climate.”
AT&T has been one of the more aggressive telecom operators in terms of greater software control of network assets using SDN and network functions virtualization. The carrier is looking to gain software control of up to 75% of certain network assets by 2020, with a larger target on greater support for enterprise customers.
The carrier last month bolstered its Network on Demand platform with a new device option, enhanced feature functionality and broader reach under the now named FlexWare banner. AT&T said FlexWare is designed to allow business customers to set up multiple virtual network functions on a single device and deploy them in different countries, or manage their network functions using an online portal.
AT&T claims more than 1,700 businesses have signed up for its Network on Demand platform since it was launched. The Ethernet-based service taps virtualization technologies like SDN and NFV to allow enterprise customers to order more ports, add or change services, scale bandwidth and manage services via an online portal.
AT&T Business Solutions CEO Ralph de la Vega earlier this year noted the company’s NOD platform allowed it to roll out new services across the company in weeks, and companies taking advantage of the service were able to alter, for instance, their network speed in less than 90 seconds.
The carrier is also working with France’s Orange to test its enhanced control, orchestration, management and policy platform in a lab environment. Orange is the first telecom operator to join the ECOMP program, and said it plans to work with AT&T in developing broader support for the platform.
ECOMP is said to provide automation support for service delivery, service assurance, performance management, fault management and SDN tasks. The platform is also designed to work with OpenStack, though the carrier noted it was extensible to other cloud and compute environments.
“ECOMP is a stake in the ground,” declared Chris Rice, SVP for AT&T’s Domain 2.0 Architecture and Design. “It’s a declaration that networks of the future will be software-centric, that they’ll be faster, more responsive to customer needs and more efficient. Orange’s decision, as one of the leading international carriers in the world, is a great endorsement of that approach.”
AT&T in July moved on previous commitments in migrating ECOMP to the open-source community. The platform is open to developers interested in building upon the already established software code, with the carrier working with the Linux Foundation on the structure of the open-source release.
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