It’s a really exciting time at AT&T not only because of the upcoming 5G launch later this month but also because of the many other areas of innovation underway in the network, said Andre Fuetsch, CTO of AT&T and President of AT&T Labs, in a keynote address at the ONF Connect conference in Santa Clara, California.
Some highlights:
- AT&T is actively developing the ONF Software-defined Broadband Access (SEBA) reference design. It has two field trials underway using 10 GPON technology. This marks the first field deployment of SEBA, which is expected to be an enabler of edge cloud capabilities.
- AT&T is handling 242 petabytes of traffic per day, 53% of which is video.
- The move to NFV/SDN began in earnest in 2014 and so far the company has virtualized 65% of its network. The stated goal is to virtualize 75% by 2020.
- The decision to adopt whitebox switches in the network is a key differentiator for AT&T, especially as capabilities move toward the edge.
- In 2017, AT&T announced its first field trials of whiteboxes.
- AT&T is now ready to move forward with the deployment of 60,000 whitebox routers in cell site towers across its network.
- These cell site whitebox gateway routers will use a software stack from AT&T’s Vyatta division.
- AT&T has published its specifications the white box cell site gateway router. This has become the basis for the Disaggregated Network Operating System (DANOS) project, which is now being hosted by the Linux Foundation.
- The cell site routers integrate into its Open Network Automation Project (ONAP) implementation. This is powering the 5G network.
- AT&T is also deploying whiteboxes as top-of-rack switches in its data centers. It is also deploying whiteboxes in its global POPs, including recent installations in Singapore, Toronto, and Amsterdam.
- AT&T is supporting the O-RAN Alliance for virtualizing the radio access network.
https://www.opennetworking.org/onf-connect/