NFV platform to accelerate cost-effective virtual CPE deployments

CPE applications have emerged as an early use case delivering significant savings in operational costs. The virtualisation of CPE functions, traditionally implemented as discrete physical appliances, reduces operating expenses (OPEX) through more efficient utilisation of compute resources, increased service deployment agility and the elimination of 'truck rolls' required to update and maintain equipment at remote locations.

These OPEX savings may be achieved whether the virtualised CPE functions are hosted in a server at the customer premises, in a service provider point-of-presence (PoP), or in a central data centre. Given the undeniable benefits of a more virtualised and intelligent network, service providers will continue to push toward network transformation with the growth of NFV use cases like vCPE and other software-defined and cloud technologies.

By leveraging the Titanium Server CPE platform, service providers can deploy cost-sensitive NFV applications such as a virtual business CPE (vBCPE) on only two servers. Each server runs the full set of carrier grade compute, control and storage functions, while working to deliver best-in-class virtual network function (VNF) performance to maximise the number of users supported per server and thereby also maximise OPEX savings. At the same time, Titanium Server CPE helps service providers to maintain full carrier grade uptime for their vBCPE services, which enables them to minimise any revenue impact resulting from Service Level Agreement (SLA) penalties triggered by service downtime.

“Use cases such as virtual CPE are emerging as early applications of NFV that can deliver significant operational cost savings as well as improved deployment agility,” said Paul Senyshyn, vice president of commercial operations for networking solutions, Wind River. “As service providers evaluate the NFV benefits and opportunities possible today, Wind River is delivering solutions that can help the industry introduce new services, minimise costs and maintain carrier grade reliability for business-critical services.”

The latest release of the Titanium Server portfolio provides additional new features including:

• Dynamic CPU scaling
• Increased system scalability
• Support for latest high-performance network interface cards (NICs)
• Virtual switch packet trace tool
• Support for “QinQ” tunneling
• IPv6 support for all interfaces
• Bulk provisioning and automated deployment capabilities
• Support for VNF access to hardware acceleration devices, including the Intel Communications Chipset 8925 to 8955 Series

The Titanium Server CPE launch follows additional vBCPE work from Wind River, such as the recently announced multifunction vBCPE reference design developed in collaboration with NFV software partners Brocade, Check Point, InfoVista and Riverbed. These partners are members of the Wind River Titanium Cloud ecosystem, which provides a wide range of optimised, interoperable standard solutions based on the Titanium Server portfolio to help accelerate time-to-market for service providers and telecom equipment manufacturers (TEMs) deploying NFV infrastructure.

“Brocade is pleased to collaborate with Wind River in the delivery of the virtual business customer premises equipment (vBCPE) reference design,” said Michael Bushong, Vice President of product management, software networking, Brocade. “By leveraging the accelerated virtual switch in the Titanium Server CPE platform, the Brocade 5600 vRouter aims to deliver best-in-class virtual routing performance—the key to maximising the overall subscriber capacity of the vBCPE and advancing in the New IP.”

By using the Titanium Server portfolio as their NFV infrastructure platform, the telecom industry can enjoy the best of both worlds: the rapid service deployment typically found in enterprise networks as well as the carrier grade uptime and reliability mandated by telecom networks. Based on open standards including carrier grade Wind River Linux, real-time Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), OpenStack, and Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), while incorporating optimisations for Intel architecture, the Titanium Server portfolio delivers high performance and carrier grade reliability.

Titanium Server and Titanium Server CPE will be showcased at the Intel booth Hall 3 Stand 3D30, as well as in multiple locations with partners, at Mobile World Congress 2016.