Thumbs up for Telefonica tests on T-SDN

Telefonica and Huawei have completed lab tests on a T-SDN (Transport Software-Defined Network) solution, which will help the telco plan, manage, monitor and diagnose its photonic mesh.

The successful trial is the green light for the commercial deployment of T-SDN, which is a controller to improve network operations in the photonic mesh. Telefonica initially started deploying its photonic mesh in 2009, which now covers 200 locations in Spain. While there were benefits in terms of reliability and flexibility, it did make O&M a bit of a challenge.

In theory, a centralized controller can be used as the network’s brain to obtain real-time information and to use online incident simulations to compile reliable information on the service. The idea is to take O&M up the value chain, allowing for national operations, to more efficiently identify the risks to the service and to prevent potential network incidents.

“We were interested in seeing how T-SDN technology can help Telefónica in many different areas,” said María Antonia Crespo, Director of IP Connectivity and Transport at Telefónica España.

“Firstly, we’d like to improve the performance of the WDM control plane, helping to reduce restoration times. We also hope that it will enable Telefónica to manage its resources more efficiently and improve its network diagnoses. Finally, it will be very useful for us if we can move towards the automation of the network, as this is one of the key goals in Telefónica’s strategy for the coming years.”

The pair also claim the solution is able to optimize spectrum assets, while also improving the reliability and performance of the new WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) networks. As part of the project, Huawei will also create a new platform known as NCE (Network Cloud Engine) to integrate the online WDM planning tool, the control plane and the network management system.

“Huawei continues to lead the global deployment and use cases of T-SDN,” said Richard Jin, President of Transmission at Huawei.

“This solution has been implemented in more than ten networks for customers in different countries and has supported diverse business scenarios, including finance, governments, leased company lines, the media industry and data centre interconnect (DCI). This solution has been highly praised by customers. Huawei will continue its close cooperation with Telefónica to reinforce its transport network and to provide the best service experience in Spain.”