Alcatel-Lucent, this week introduced SDN-based Network Services Platform (NSP) that combines network-aware service automation and service-aware network optimization by leveraging a unified real-time network view across IP and optical networks. It enables real-time network-wide path computation and optimization across IP and optical layers and also the use of KPI/analytics-driven to optimize the network to meet the changing traffic needs.
The NSP is designed to bridge the gap between service design, provisioning and network engineering for the first time, to allow operators to cost-efficiently define new services and activate them in real-time. Using purpose built SDN-based software that blends Alcatel-Lucent’s expertise in service management as well as in the creation and management of large scale IP/MPLS routing and optical networks, it offers a unified approach to the automation and control of a broad range of services in carriers’ IP/optical infrastructures, said the company.
It also gives full visibility of the state of the network across all layers at all times, allowing automatic multi-layer service provisioning, to use the best available network resources as well as real-time network optimization. It also automates complex multi-vendor IP/optical provisioning so operators can turn up services in seconds instead of days or weeks, said Alcatel-Lucent.
Besides, the company claims that the platform reduces network complexity on IT so new network services can be defined more than 58% faster and for 56% lower cost.
Rob Shakir, BT End-to-End Network Architect
In order for SDN to mean we can really improve our customer experience and impact our network economics, we need approaches that consider the real-time state of the network and relate it to the requirements of the service we provide. Doing so allows us to assure performance, and optimise resource usage across all our network layers. Tightly coupling service requirements and performance with network control, as in ALU’s NSP, promises to deliver real-world benefits of centralised optimisation whilst exploiting the strength of our existing distributed network.
Basil Alwan, President, IP Routing & Transport Business, Alcatel-Lucent
I am proud of what the NSP team has created, working closely with our customers and leveraging our in-house expertise in IP/MPLS, optics and service-aware network management. We have created a simple interface that can deal with the complexity of network control across multiple technologies. We built it from the ground up to enable a true carrier SDN that allows our customers to thrive in today’s cloud-driven world.
