Ericsson demonstrates Service Provider SDN vision at Mobile World Congress

Ericsson demonstrates its Service Provider Software Defined Network (SDN) vision at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, continuing its mission to give service providers greater control of their infrastructure and assets.

As a company that embraces open solutions, Ericsson shows how its approach builds on the industry standard definition of SDN to better serve the needs of global service providers. The Service Provider SDN vision, developed in cooperation with telecommunication providers, expands the industry definition in three important ways to open new revenue opportunities and costs saving for network operators:

Integrated network control, extending SDN control from the data center into the wide area network, all the way to the radio access network
Orchestrated network and cloud management bringing both legacy network management and new management system together in a unified control plane
Service exposure opening network interfaces to applications developers
Ericsson has played a leading role in the development of the initial SDN concept, and with its Service Provider SDN vision expands on that foundation to incorporate the whole telecom domain. At Mobile World Congress, Ericsson will highlight architectural advances, proof-of-concept developed with network operators, and new control interfaces. Specific to the Service Provider SDN vision, demonstrations and points of discussion will include:

Inclusion of OpenFlow and OpenStack in the Service Provider SDN architecture
Service Chaining for high value subscriber aware services and as a proof-of-concept conducted with Telstra
Virtual Network System as a high value use case for metro & backhaul networks
Expansion of the control interfaces to include the Business Support Systems (BSS) layer with interfaces to billing and charging systems
At Mobile World Congress, Ericsson also announced its commitment to deliver the first commercial Service Provider SDN application in the fourth quarter of 2013. That initial application will be Service Chaining running in the SSR 8000 family of Smart Service Routers.

Ericsson is available at MWC Hall 2, Fira La Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain and demonstrates and discusses these advances in its Service Provider SDN vision.