Telco Systems formally launched its Open Edge Alliance (OEA) for creating an ecosystem of best-in-breed software-defined networking (SDN) and distributed network functions virtualization (D-NFV) solutions for the network edge.
The OEA is building an online store of applications certified to run seamlessly on Telco Systems' carrier-grade, D-NFV-hosting CloudMetro platform, which is already deployed in numerous service provider networks.
According to Telco Systems, CloudMetro enables service providers to transform their networks from mere transport to fully IT-enabled networks: highly orchestrated, agile and virtualized. It combines a switch and an integrated x86 CPU from Intel as a hosting processor to meet performance demands for processor-intensive SDN and NFV applications.
The OEA membership already includes Intel, CheckPoint, AudioCodes and Netrounds, and Telco Systems is inviting others to join.
The OEA's move toward running SDN and NFV-based application distribution architectures near the network and mobile edge could be seen either as aligning or competing with the Mobile Edge Computing group being run at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), reports Telecoms.com.
The ETSI group is a combined effort from some infrastructure vendors and telcos, including Intel, Nokia Networks, Vodafone and Huawei, to store content closer to the network edge, thereby increasing efficiencies in content and application delivery time and reducing bottlenecks linking backhaul to the core network.
Last year, ETSI and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) entered into a strategic partnership agreement to pool their respective expertise in open SDN as a guide to enabling forward-plane support for NFV use cases, including how to build dynamic, programmable virtualized network function (VNF) forwarding graphs.
As part of the collaboration, ONF released the OpenFlow-enabled SDN and NFV solution brief to show how operators can combine NFV and SDN to meet common goals and overcome network challenges. At the time, ONF Executive Director Dan Pitt said the goal of the ONF relationship with the ETSI NFV group was to further the adoption of NFV by network operators and serve as a critical source of requirements and solutions for the open networking community.
For more:
- see this Telecoms.com article
- see the press release
- see this LightReading article
Related articles
Why AT&T, Verizon, Ericsson and the rest of the industry is embracing SDN and NFV
Marian Croak on why and how AT&T is moving to SDN, NFV and an all-IP future with Domain 2.0
ETSI, ONF partner on Network Functions Virtualization development