Nobody doubts SDN is the future, will change the world and is a generally great thing, but does it actually work? Nokia insists it does, honest.

Scott Bicheno

October 11, 2016

2 Min Read
Nokia tries to reassure on SDN

Nobody doubts SDN is the future, will change the world and is a generally great thing, but does it actually work? Nokia insists it does, honest.

The key, you see, is getting Nokia involved – specifically its Network Services Platform (NSP), which is specifically designed to make SDN as lovely an experience as possible. The big news today is that Nokia has added assurance capabilities to the platform, which presumably consist of an algorithm that says things like ‘everything’s going to be fine’ and ‘don’t worry, I’ve got this’ in a soothing female voice any time something appears to go wrong.

Joking aside, in this context assurance is the software cleverness that keeps an eye on everything else in the platform to make sure it’s working properly. This is especially important right now as a lot of operators are dipping their toes in the SDN water and need a lot of reassurance that their networks aren’t going to go barking mad as soon as they flick the switch.

According to Nokia the integrated KPIs and analytics capabilities of the NSP will:

  • Allow service providers to quickly gain visibility into potential problems within their multi-vendor carrier SDN networks and assess overall impact

  • Trigger and guide automated corrective measures, so that networks and services remain healthy

  • Drive SDN control policies that can redirect paths, traffic and bandwidth at any layer – flow, IP, Ethernet or optical – and across both physical and virtual domains

Seems to tick all the boxes – we’re certainly reassured here at Telecoms.com.

“Nokia brings a wealth of experience assuring IP and optical network services at the world’s largest service providers,” reassured Sasa Nijemcevic, GM of the Network & Service Management business at Nokia. “The company is extending this expertise to multivendor services and elements managed by our carrier SDN offering.

“We are not only addressing the need for assurance, but also providing additional value by leveraging our investment in policy-based SDN control to automate assurance processes. As a result, operators will maintain the highest levels of customer satisfaction while optimizing their network assets to move confidently into the next era of carrier SDN.”

So keen is Nokia to reassure everyone that SDN is going to be all good that it got Heavy Reading to look into the matter and even produced a video on the matter. So can everyone calm down please, SDN is doing just fine thank you very much.

About the Author(s)

Scott Bicheno

As the Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, Scott oversees all editorial activity on the site and also manages the Telecoms.com Intelligence arm, which focuses on analysis and bespoke content.
Scott has been covering the mobile phone and broader technology industries for over ten years. Prior to Telecoms.com Scott was the primary smartphone specialist at industry analyst Strategy Analytics’. Before that Scott was a technology journalist, covering the PC and telecoms sectors from a business perspective.
Follow him @scottbicheno

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