Telefonica, Cyan, Red Hat to optimise NFV architecture

Software defined networking (SDN) specialist Cyan has announced a collaboration with European carrier Telefónica and Linux developer Red Hat to develop a network functions virtualization (NFV) architecture optimised for communications service providers.

Using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack platform, Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN toolkit will be designed to orchestrate the deterministic placement of virtual network functions in the server infrastructure to maximize performance.

“Telefónica believes NFV is an important and transformative technology,” said Enrique Algaba, Network Innovation and Virtualisation Director at Telefónica I+D-Global CTO Unit. “We believe that the deterministic allocation of CPU, memory, I/O, and storage relative to a particular type of VNF is critical to delivering the predictable performance needed for telco-grade network functions. This new deterministic architecture transforms a generic cloud computing data center into a Telco Data Center capable of supporting NFV.”

Indeed, Telefónica is one of the most vigorous operators within the NFV proponents and the firm marked the opening of MWC 2014 by setting out aggressive plans for the virtualization of its network functions, including detailed timelines relating to different network elements. The project has been dubbed ‘Unica’ and has as its headline aim the virtualization of 30 per cent of all new infrastructure by 2016.

Enrique Blanco, Global Cto, Telefónica

Ahead of the announcement, at the firm’s sprawling headquarters complex in Madrid, Telefónica’s global CTO Enrique Blanco briefed a small number of industry press about the firm’s plans.

Telefónica is “reaching the limits” of the performance it can drive from proprietary vendor platforms, Blanco says and the “lever” with which the operator can exert the greatest force for change is virtualization.

The 10^th annual LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 23rd-26^th June 2014, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

The Broadband World Forum is taking place on the 21st – 23rd October 2014 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, Amsterdam. Click here to download a brochure for the event.