At the Open Networking Summit in Santa Clara, California, Huawei introduced an SDN-based mobile backhaul solution based on its CX600 series aggregation router, ATN910 series cell site router (CSR), and U2000 Network Management System (NMS).
The solution is the outcome of a joint innovation project between Huawei and the China Telecom Guangzhou Institute. The newly added SDN features include the capability to support a massive number of cell site routers (ATN910 series) managed as a virtual cluster by centralized SDN controllers embedded in the aggregation routers (CX600 series). The SDN controller provides a centralized control plane for the cell site routers, performing centralized path calculation, service provisioning, and traffic control. The addition of the U2000 system provides a graphical user interfaced (GUI) based unified NMS for the cell site and aggregation routers. Based on these products, the SDN-based Mobile Backhaul solution effectively provides plug-and-play, auto service provisioning, smart traffic steering, and auto trouble shooting capabilities for a large number of cell site routers. Early tests have shown promising results with service provisioning efficiency improvements of 85% and over 50% reduction in network alarms.
“Huawei is committed to helping our customers achieve business success through innovative technology solutions. Our progress with SDN technology demonstrates Huawei’s practical and effective leadership within the Carrier SDN industry.” said Mr. Gai Gang, President of Huawei Carrier IP product line.
In a presentation at the ONS conference, Justin Dustzadeh, CTO & VP Technology Strategy for Huawei, said that SDN is about accelerating the pace of innovation. Some other highlights:
- Huawei has developed a Virtual Residential Gateway in an OLT. This SDN use-case was developed in partnership with Telefonica, which is currently testing in Spain.
- Another SDN use case involves Cloud Data Center Interconnection. Huawei is developing this capability with China Unicom, which operates nearly 200 data centers.
- Huawei’s newly announced Protocol-Oblivious Forwarding aims to achieve data path programmability with generic network instructions and open interfaces.
