The Rise of Software in Service Provider Networks

The Google Android "palooza" at the recent CTIA show was more validation of the rapid growth of new mobile IP devices and the slew of applications that will run on them. No longer exclusive to T-Mobile, most of the major carriers are now set to introduce Android handsets – including the pending Droid from Verizon Wireless – and developers have already created more than 10,000 Android applications. Social media is fueling the IP traffic fire, with Facebook busy developing Android apps and companies such as StarHub offering new services like free SMS tweeting anytime, anywhere, on any phone.

This surge of mobile IP traffic, combined with the rise of online video content and gaming and virtualized enterprise IT environments, is spurring network operators’ transition from legacy SONET/SDH networks to Ethernet and OTN, while also forcing network capacity to scale from 10G through 40G, and eventually up to 100G. As a result, it’s fast becoming clear that we’ve come to a networking crossroads – one that turns the traditional, static networks of the past on their head.

Whether it is a viral video from Saturday Night Live or adding MMS to the iPhone, seemingly overnight the traffic on a network can change dramatically. And the dynamic, complex and bandwidth-hungry nature of today’s networks is turning flexibility and agility into key elements of a network operator’s overall success and rendering the typical approach of investing large amounts of capex to overbuild network equipment and capacity more and more unrealistic. The ability to easily and efficiently roll out and support any service, rapidly dial customer services up or down and adjust capacity on demand is becoming a business imperative.

In short, network operators need to change the way they compete in this new service-driven era by adapting their traditional network buildout and service delivery models to a new model of proliferating devices, applications, speeds and overall consumption. A software-centric approach that brings service flexibility, automation and intelligence to networks is emerging as a way to efficiently and cost-effectively address this new networking reality.

Unlike a hardware-centric network, a software-driven architecture will enable the necessary network automation and convergence needed to thrive in this new environment. It will result in faster time-to-revenue through the ability to create and deliver new services to customers more quickly. The need for less human intervention and the control-plane-based intelligence for self inventory and automated-connection management will drive lower operational costs and the potential for increased profitability. Additionally, there will be fewer manual errors, and software-based capabilities like intelligent control plane-based self healing, fault restoration and automated topology discovery can lead to higher network resiliency and availability.

The shift toward network intelligence and automation is also being validated by standards bodies like the TM Forum and its Service Deployment Framework, which is working to help providers be profitable in this new, complex environment through a more efficient service delivery lifecycle.

To survive in this quickly emerging services-driven era, operators must begin to re-think their approach to network buildouts – shifting from a static model based on adding more boxes, cards and wavelengths to one that requires less manual intervention and more automation and intelligence, better positioning them for services speed and agility.

Dave Parks is director of product marketing at Ciena Corp. (CIEN), which provides flexible platforms, intelligent software and professional services to help service providers and enterprises worldwide use their networks to change the way they compete. He is also the marketing committee chairman for the IP/MPLS Forum. Before joining Ciena, Parks was a senior analyst with the Yankee Group covering enterprise Ethernet and IP VPN network services and market trends. Prior to that, he supported product management and marketing for Lucent Technologies and Ascend/Cascade Communications.