Network equipment software Telecom operators take care of SDN

SDN has been plastered with all kinds of honors since it was presented: "Network Architecture Revolution", "subversion of existing network architecture", "future network development trend", "disruptive innovation" ... Which label doesn't let anyone see the thump? With the introduction of SDN-related standards and the introduction of Google's success story, the new technology that makes Cisco feel threatened has not only attracted the attention of traditional telecom equipment manufacturers and chip makers, but also left telecom operators to study. However, SDN is still at the beginning of a toddler, the operator's attitude is relatively cautious, how to find the SDN of the actual operation of the telecom operators concerned about the problem.

"Scissors" reverse Force network equipment software

Talking about the future development of the network, Huiling, vice dean of Beijing Research Institute of China Telecom, summed up three trends: the future of the network to IT development, telecommunications equipment more and more software, telecom equipment hardware gradually standardized. As is known to all, it is an era of exploding traffic. According to Ericsson's latest report, global smartphone traffic increased twice-fold in 2011, with mobile subscribers expected to reach more than 8 billion by 2016, and mobile data traffic 10 times times faster than 2010, while data traffic from mobile terminals such as smartphones will be flat with data from PCs and tablets.

The growth of such rapid data traffic is bound to pose a challenge to the network of telecom operators. Traditional data centers not only can't meet the increasing demand of data traffic, but also face the problems of virtualization, perception and scalability. And the telecommunications operators rely on the existence of network pipelines. How to achieve cost control while gaining revenue in UWB era? How to solve this scissors?

SDN A better solution to this problem. SDN is the concept of software definition network is the network equipment control level and forwarding level of separation, routers and other network hardware equipment only to retain the forwarding level, control level to the enterprise itself, so as to achieve "software and hardware Separation", this concept completely subvert the existing network architecture. "It is low-cost, high efficiency, business flexibility to provide three major needs to promote the development of soft network, soft network is the inevitable trend of the development of the network." The so-called soft network refers to software and hardware separation, control and forwarding separation, management and control centralization, virtualization and so on. "Chaixiaodong, director of the Network Institute of China Mobile Research Institute, said. This and China Telecom Huiling Dean's idea coincides.

As a new network architecture, "SDN" is the characteristic of programming, the application layer of the network structure is clearly defined, and the concept of network operating system is put forward. "The National 863 communications and networking Expert Group of experts, Professor Wu Chunming, Zhejiang University, said. SDN This peak technology has made the barriers between data centers no longer postponed, network communication more flexible, the internet has been transformed into an open platform. The SDN open model lowers the market access threshold, further reducing the telecom infrastructure and bringing new application service innovation.

Flock

In order to accelerate the development of SDN and related standards, ONF (Open Network Foundation) is applied, which is specifically responsible for the maintenance and development of openflow standards and norms. Since the release of the first version (v1.0) in early 2010, ONF has released several versions of the OpenFlow theme specification, currently 1.3. At the same time, according to ONF on behalf of Justin Joubine Dustzadeh revealed that in 2012 Onf also released a number of SDN standards and controller configuration. The third quarter of 2012 also introduced SDN related testing standards and your and interoperability standards.

ONF members have also been increased from 17 to 85 members, including traditional telecoms equipment manufacturers such as Cisco, Huawei, and cutting-edge companies such as extreme NX and internet companies, as well as telecoms operators. It is understood that China Mobile recently joined the ONF organization.

In addition, some enterprises have launched related SDN products. Huawei in the "Sdn&openflow World Congress", released the industry's first transmission network SDN (Software tabbed receptacle) controller technology prototype; Extreme X8 switch support OpenFlow start-up Enterprise Big Switchnetworks Company's SDN Applications for network virtualization and visibility; VMware spent $1.2 billion to buy Nicira and deploy the SDN market; Cisco also unveiled Cisco's Open network environment at this year's Cisco Live Conference (Open Networking Environnement, one) ...

Using OpenFlow technology, Google links 12 data centers across the globe through 10G networks, raising the link usage rate from an average of 30%-40% to nearly 100%. This application case is to push SDN to an unprecedented level of concern.

SDN is not perfect.

"In the study of the future network architecture, not only SDN, the United States, the FIA, fire and other programs are described, but none of the research project can be as SDN as the global industry and academia attention." In particular, the compatibility of existing networks is emphasized. Professor Wu Chunming so Sdn.

But SDN is not perfect. With Justin Joubine Dustzadeh said, SDN is still in the infancy stage, how to let Sdn really landed is the industry should explore the problem.

Lin Tao, director of the Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Industry and Telecommunications, said that SDN is still in the initial stage, the structure system is too simple, and the case has been used too simple to explain the problem. "Another problem is that SDN's biggest difficulty lies in S (Software). SDN also has a lot of open space. "Lin Tao said.

LV, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and telecommunications, also raised safety concerns. He believes that when all resources are virtualized, resource management, scheduling and data migration are all driven by software, this network model brings a new generation of network security problems, software security affects the entire service and application security.

Operators are cautious

Considering SDN's forward-looking and related issues, telecom operators are actively involved in the formulation of relevant standards, while waiting to see what SDN can bring to operators.

According to Chaixiaodong, director of the Network Institute of China Mobile Research Institute, the Chinese mobile has started to support the SDN equipment of large-scale testing and equipment, will be the next year to achieve the landing of products, and China Telecom has actively participated in the work of the International Organization for Standardization, China Unicom, Deputy chief engineer Tang Xiongyan said: " A project of China Unicom Research Institute: to construct a new generation of broadband IP mobile bearer network is to study the whole SDN technology and build the experimental environment. China Unicom is still in a relatively preliminary stage in the whole SDN, and the most consideration is the research in IDC. ”

But telecoms operators are also considering what value SDN can bring. Huiling raised a few questions: "In the end is the network cost is not reduced?" Because now many say this will reduce costs, we are willing to be able to further assess further. Is that the cost of hardware may be reduced, but is the software cost higher? are software capabilities enhanced and fast business configuration capabilities faster? In addition, she mentioned the risks of being piped. "The current successful deployment of SDN, the application of the case in Google for its data center interconnection, is actually a OTT traffic load, proved to be able to facilitate such operators network organization and scheduling, reduce its dependence on traditional operators." Is there a risk of being kidnapped by software vendors? ”

In this regard, Green Network CEO Ye Zhigang also believes that internet companies will be more urgent to SDN demand, and telecommunications operators in the core network, metropolitan Area Network May deploy SDN, but the entire network deployment may take a long time. According to him, Tencent, Baidu and other Internet companies have begun to do X86 SDN equipment. Extreme Asia-Pacific technology director Paul Hutchison in an interview with the Flight Imaging network, also mentioned that the telecom operators now SDN demand is not so strong, mainly because it is not clear exactly what to do with OpenFlow, Only the combination of application and OpenFlow makes SDN meaningful.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)