Vodafone has upgraded its international transport community utilizing software-defined networking (SDN) to attach the multi-supplier components of the community. This community orchestrates all of the telco’s cell and glued knowledge and voice visitors and serves lots of of hundreds of thousands of customers and third-party web and content material suppliers in 28 international locations throughout 4 continents.
Vodafone’s international transport community is the engine of the corporate’s community operations. It contains optical-fibre cables able to carrying and directing as much as 250 terabytes of information visitors at anyone time. It offers the important hyperlinks connecting customers, companies and strategic companions by way of tens of hundreds of cell base stations throughout Europe and Africa and greater than 270 third-party and Vodafone-owned datacentres.
The implementation and roll-out concerned Vodafone community engineers activating an SDN stack on each the web protocol (IP) and optical international web community by deploying the IP and optical space controllers and a hierarchical controller. Based on Vodafone, this allows end-to-end multilayer automation and programmability, eradicating the complexity for third-party providers interacting with the community.
The community has been constructed utilizing a multi-supplier and multi-layer hierarchical structure, primarily based on Juniper Networks’ Paragon Pathfinder IP and MPLS SDN Controller, Ciena’s Handle, Management and Plan (MCP) Optical SDN Controller and Cisco’s Crosswork Hierarchical Controller (previously Sedona Netfusion). The totally different elements of the structure talk with one another utilizing open and normal trade protocols and software programming interfaces (APIs), making a single, end-to-end SDN administration layer.
The digital SDN functions have been deployed inside Vodafone’s non-public cloud and are accessible by way of its geographically dispersed datacentre infrastructure.
Vodafone stated the software program improve is the inspiration on which its wholesale and enterprise clients can progressively add capability quicker and meet future demand extra cost-effectively. It stated it has additionally launched new providers and boosted safety at scale.
Based on Vodafone, the brand new know-how will result in a community that’s totally automated and programmable and behaves extra like a super-computer. It claimed that modifications to greater than 620 multi-supplier community platforms will be achieved utilizing software-driven instructions, saved nearly in Vodafone’s safe non-public cloud.
Johan Wibergh, chief know-how officer at Vodafone, stated: “This software program improve offers us a single view on the part of the transport community connecting folks and machines globally. It should permit us to supply even quicker and safer connectivity throughout Europe and to different areas. We will frequently and robotically adapt to dynamic peaks in visitors worldwide, whether or not they’re resulting from folks returning to the workplace or live-streaming main sports activities occasions.”
Vodafone stated it hopes the improve will allow it to assist rising calls for for knowledge on its community, which has seen development of 15% a 12 months. Utilizing what it describes as “superior machine studying and synthetic intelligence”, the agency stated that sooner or later, it will likely be capable of anticipate exactly the place community bandwidth is required.
A standard transport community API can also be being made obtainable to Vodafone’s international clients and strategic companions, to allow them to enhance the standard and the efficiency of their very own streaming, web and knowledge providers for end-users.