Network Evolution through SDN

Next generation of Network Evolution – Why Telcos

should take the plunge?

5G is a revolutionary next-generation mobile network that pushes the envelope of existing

transport systems. Using SDN as an overarching framework helps in meeting the stringent 5G
requirements. A network with an underlying SDN architecture can dynamically route traffic on a
flow-by-flow basis with improved speeds and latency. The ability to leverage the SDN framework
allows software control of network elements through a centralized SDN controller. SDN routing
decisions are more intelligent, compared with traditional dynamic routing protocols. A well-
tuned SDN network can overcome potential catastrophic outages by intelligently recalculating
data flow routes on the fly. SDN allows for tremendous scalability and dynamic provisioning. No
longer will carriers need to manually expand the network when moving into new regions, or add
capacity to existing areas. This paper presents how Telecom Service Providers can benefit from
Tejas Networks’ SDN solutions which seamlessly help in the integration of diverse network
elements.
White Paper

Introduction
Digital revolution has heralded the arrival of significant demands on the traditional network architecture hitherto
employed by majority of the telecom service providers. There is an explosive growth of mobile devices and cloud
computing services overloading these networks. Therefore, it is imperative to optimize the utilization of network
infrastructure to economically scale network capacity and reduce operational expenses by simplifying and
centralizing network operations.

The exponential growth of data transfer requirements increases the bandwidth requirements of the backbone
transport network. There is also a need to address shifts in service requirements that require flexible bandwidth
access capability. It is vital that the next generation transport networks must provide centralized smart controls to
cater to these services. Thus, telecom companies are looking to implement “Network as a Service” while continually
looking for ways to reduce CAPEX/OPEX in their networks.

In the recent past, compute and storage services have benefited from virtualization. However, the conventional
network architecture employed by telecom operators has been the bottleneck in realizing the full potential of
virtualization. Software Defined Networks (SDN) is a promising solution that can offer the operational simplicity,
performance, availability and security demanded by today’s networks.

Key drivers for a SDN architecture in the transport network

• Complex networks with multiple layers: It not uncommon to find transport networks with multiple layers
such as DWDM, OTN, SDH, Packet Transport. While each layer specializes in enabling specific capabilities,
a lot of functionality overlaps. It is imperative to combine functionality from different layers to deliver
services at the lowest capex and opex.
• Varying bandwidth needs: In the past, telecom networks were static. The backbone networks were used
for interconnecting PSTN exchanges, mobile sites or interconnecting Internet PoPs. The traffic being
carried was mostly voice and some amount of data. The patterns of voice calls was predictable and
similarly, the data connectivity was used only to browse the internet and check mails. Hence the network
and the traffic on the network was quite predictable. Next-gen networks are dynamic and have varying
bandwidth needs.
• Failure survivability: Networks particularly in developing countries are prone to multiple failures and fiber-
cuts. This is primarily triggered by construction activities (causing fiber cuts), erratic power (causing
network elements to go down) or failures due to environmental factors (heat, humidity, dust). Hence the
earlier paradigms of having one reserved protection path is no longer enough. Multiple failure survivability
is needed.
• Eliminate vendor lock-in: Proprietary vendor-specific algorithms (CISCO IOS, JUN OS) perform network
functions that limit flexibility and create vendor lock-in. Telecom operators now look for open standards
based and vendor neutral devices/applications.
• Ease of configuration: The configuration setups of conventional network elements are generally not
reconfigurable without a service disruption, limiting the network flexibility. With the advent of intelligent
networking devices that are software programmable and Network Management Systems that offer a GUI
based view of the entire network, the network configuration time has reduced from weeks to days. Real
time status of the network is available to the network operator who can troubleshoot a problem or incident
in a few minutes.

Network modernization through SDN

SDN is a physical separation of data and control functions enabling the network control to be centralized and
programmable. This enables the network devices such as switches and routers to be lightweight and support

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 Network Evolution through SDN

virtualization. The centralized control enables easy configuring, monitoring, and troubleshooting of the network.
The important requirements of SDN are:

• Centrally managed: Network intelligence is logically centralized

• Directly programmable: Network control is programmable because it is decoupled from forwarding
functions
• Agile: Administrator can dynamically adjust network-wide traffic flow by abstracting the control layer. This
not only provides speed and agility of rolling out new services but also reduces human errors, thus
delivering a more reliable and trouble free network
• Network analytics: Improvement in network uptime by analysis of alarms, events, logs and metrics to
derive intelligence and trends from the network to predict faults even before they happen

Emerging Use Cases

Implementing SDN For Optical Networks
Optical networks are more important than ever before given their high transmission capacities forming the basis
of carrier networks. Unlike conventional data networks, optical network has the characteristics of centralized
management along with separation of data and controls.

Packet Transport Networks (PTN)

To cater to the needs of greater bandwidth and better quality of service, carriers have transitioned from legacy
SONET/SDH to PTN. Packet transport is available with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approved
Transport Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS-TP) standards. MPLS-TP is a packet transport technology that
incorporates congruent paths, fault management, and network visibility. An MPLS-TP based packet transport
network has a layered architecture that separates the data plane from the control plane. China Mobile deployed
large scale Packet Transport Networks (PTN) in both metro networks and backbone networks, which are used to
carry high quality services such as mobile backhauling and enterprise customer services. The market demand for
guaranteed bandwidth, dynamic and programmable networks have posed challenges to the existing infrastructure
and have presented a use case1 for SDN/NFV architecture.

Optical Transport Networks (OTN)

The OTN is intended to provide robust management features that support payload rates from 1.25Gbps to upwards
of 100Gbps. The OTN delivers management functionality to DWDM networks. The major advantage of the OTN is
its full backward compatibility, which makes it possible to build on the existing management functionalities
available on SONET/SDH. As shown in Figure 1, OTN uses OTN Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) /

OTN Clients OTN Clients

GMPLS Network

SONET/SDH ODU Layer - Multiservice Transport Domain SONET/SDH

Circuit
Switched
10 Gb OCh Layer - Wavelength Switching Domain Circuit
Ethernet 10 Gb Switched
Fibre Ethernet
Channel
Fibre
IP/L3VPN Channel
Packet VPLS/ IP/L3VPN
Switched L2VPN Optical VPLS/ Packet
Wavelength L2VPN Switched
ROADM Regenerator Switch Regenerator ROADM

WDM WDM

Figure 1: Illustration of G.709 OTN2

1
Source: https://www.opennetworking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/TR-538_Use_Cases_for_Carrier_Grade_SDN.pdf
2
Source: https://www.metaswitch.com/knowledge-center/reference/what-is-optical-transport-network-otn

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 Network Evolution through SDN

Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) protocol as the optical transport control plane. The optical
control plane is between the management plane and the transport data planes. The optical control plane consists
of a set of applications located on each transport Network Element (NE) that enable functions such as path
computation, discovery of network topologies, resources, and capabilities. Each transport NE has access to the
complete network topology and resource availability to support the end service. GMPLS is predominately
implemented as an overlay model.

By upgrading the optical control plane from GMPLS or MPLS-TP to SDN, service providers obtain interoperability
between multiple vendors in heterogeneous transport networks and across multiple networking layers to reap the
benefits of multi-layer co-ordination and optimization. This is achieved by abstracting the transport layer and
presenting to a centralized controller which is a crucial element to the SDN architecture. Due to the latency involved
in having a single SDN controller for the entire system, the proven performance of distributed control while
borrowing the hierarchical nature of the SDN architecture with its open north-bound, south-bound interfaces and
an orchestration layer to enable end-to-end path provisioning across multiple vendor domains and across multiple
network layers is used.

SDN for Network Slicing

A key enabler of the power of 5G is network slicing which allows telecom operators to allocate portions of their
networks for various applications such as smart home, the Internet of Things (IoT), factory automation or a smart
energy grid. Network slicing allows the creation of multiple virtual networks atop a shared physical infrastructure.

Implementing SDN for CORD

Telecom Central Office (CO) consists of diverse legacy devices which are based on varying standards. Large
companies operate many of these over residential, mobile and enterprise customers. The Central Office contributes
to significant investment in CAPEX and OPEX for the Telecoms. Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter
(CORD) re-architects the Central Office as a data center bringing in the already established data center economics
and cloud agility. Major Service providers like AT&T, SK Telecom, Verizon, China Unicom and NTT Communications
have implemented CORD.

CORD integrates software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV) and elastic cloud
services. With CORD the operator manages their Central Offices using declarative modeling languages. CORD
architecture is built from commodity hardware and open source software components. Changing Central Office
into CORD consists of two parts:

1. Virtualize hardware devices, thereby producing their software counterpart on commodity hardware.
2. Provide a framework that the software counterparts can plug into in order to forge a unified end-to-end
system.

Tejas Management and Control Architecture

Tejas offers multiple options for evolving to an intelligent, software defined network. It is important to evolve the
existing networks to SDN rather than discarding existing investments and building a green-field networks which
many other network paradigms propose. Tejas provides an evolution path for adding intelligence and automation
to existing networks through its hybrid domain controller. Further, it supports open source SDN controllers like
ONOS to provide centralized management and control.

SDN Support on Tejas Network Elements

Tejas devices support a REST API through which all key aspects of its functionality can be configured through an
industry standard HTTPS interface. The detailed specification of the REST interface is available from Tejas.

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 Network Evolution through SDN

Orchestration Orchestration
Apps Apps

Tejas 3rd party

Tejas 3rd Party OSS Apps
3rd Party OSS Apps
Apps Orchestrator

TMF 814 REST API

ONOS SDN Multi-Layer Path

Tejas Controller Compute 3rd Party SDN
EMS/NMS Controller
Policy Topology
Databases Manager

Netconf/YANG Netconf, YANG

HTTPS &
SNMP

Tejas NEs 3rd party NEs

Figure 2: Network architecture and evolution

In addition, future SDN controllers require sophisticated capabilities like support for transactions and rollbacks,
fail-safe startups and ability to define and execute complex operations and remote procedure calls. These are
enabled by the Netconf protocol standardized by RFC 6241. Yang models which provide the semantics to the data
exchanged through Netconf enable the devices to interact with the controller at higher levels of abstraction, thus
reducing the complexity at the controller level. Tejas devices support Netconf/Yang through a software upgrade
for TJ1400/TJ1600 devices. Through these, Tejas network elements can be integrated with any 3rd party controller
supporting Netconf/Yang on its southbound.

SDN Support on Hybrid SDN Controller

Tejas supports programmability and automation capabilities through the TJ5500 hybrid domain controller. This
combines the programmability with integrated FCAPS for a multi-layer network, multi-technology network. This
supports full FCAPS from the UI itself for provisioning end-to-end DWDM services, end-to-end OTN, MPLS-TP, SDH

Figure 3: multi-layer and multi-technology network

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 Network Evolution through SDN

and GPON. It supports a standard NBI interface for programmability of DWDM, OTN, SDN and GPON services.
Many use cases consisting of multi-layer service provisioning scenarios can be automated. Tejas hybrid controller
is already integrated with many leading OSSes/Orchestrators in the industry. Tejas also supports VLAN based MEF
services and MPLS-TP services through the NBI on the Tejas domain controller.

SDN integration with Open Source Controllers

Tejas is working on integrating it’s devices into ONOS (Open Network Operating System) controller through the
Netconf/Yang interface. ONOS is a popular open source controller which is architected from ground up for service
providers. It addresses key service provider requirements like scalability, high availability and high performance.
Besides it is a vendor neutral controller and provides open interfaces both on north bound and south bound. It
follows a modular architecture build around microservices, which enables customizations to the functionality by
plugging in 3rd party modules/plug-ins into the ONOS platform. There is a large open source community working
on the ONOS project.

Apps
NB Core API

Distributed Core
(state management, notifications, high-availability & scale-out)

SB Core API

Providers Providers Providers Providers

Protocols Protocols Protocols Protocols

Figure 4: Open Network Operating System

Enabling Automation at the Orchestrator Level

Tejas exposes the APIs and network data to 3rd party orchestrators to support the automation of various workflows
through a standards based open interface. Through these interfaces, the orchestrators can get all the relevant data
from the network related to network inventory, topology for each individual layer (DWDM, OTN, SDH, GPON,
Ethernet), service discovery, outstanding alarms and poll for performance data. The orchestrators can also register
with the Tejas controller to listen to notifications for various network events, which enables it to be in real time sync
with the network.

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Highlights
• SDN-ready network management software
• Open-source domain controllers with standards-based northbound and southbound interfaces
• Virtualized CPEs for OLT/ONT, firewall, IP and common functions
• White-box routers with MEF LSO compliant SD-WAN controllers
• Disaggregated architecture for unlimited scaling
• Support for higher bandwidth 200G/400G interfaces
• Terabit-scale, multilayer switching in small footprint

Advantages for Telecom operators

• Reduced CAPEX spend by pooling of storage and compute functions to low commodity servers and
reduced OPEX due to virtualization which automates most manual network configuration tasks
• Ease of management and improved performance by optimizing network device utilization. Use of
orchestration helps manage thousands of devices
• Accelerated time to market/revenue with the deployment time reduced to few minutes by setting up a new
virtualized service rather than deploy a fixed hardware with the same functionality
• Enhanced security due to implementation of global security policies on the centralized SDN controller
• Telecom operators are spoilt for choice to choose between multi-vendor solutions and modular plugins
due to the open frame work.
• Improved resilience and reliability thereby improving the network utilization.

Long Term New Organic

M2M/IoT
Growth
Time to Benefit

IT-Centric NFV
Automated Services/ New
Enabled Business
Upselling Security Wholesale Services

Customer Virtualized
Experience/ On-
demandification CPE
Churn
Immediate Reduction
Low SDN Impact High

Figure 5: Measuring SDN/NFV Impact

Source: Gartner (September 2017)

Conclusion
SDN is a disruptive technology that will revolutionize the manner in which current networks are built, operated and
managed. SDN is a network architecture approach that allows the network to be centrally controlled through
software applications. The transport networks are poised to move from a CAPEX intensive and license based
model to a multi-vendor, software based, open source support based model. Telecoms need to keep pace with the
challenging market demands at lower Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). The requirement for newer services such
as usage-based charging models, granular service capabilities and enhanced security is possible.

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Tejas actively supports the SDN initiatives of the service providers by offering open, standard interfaces for
supporting use cases around programmability, automation and network analytics. Tejas hybrid controllers support
full management of a multi- layer network comprising of DWDM, OTN, SDH, GPON and Ethernet technologies. This
is complimented by control and automation capabilities of the system. Tejas encourages an evolutionary approach
to SDN where brownfield networks are enabled for SDN through software upgrades. These solutions support
integrated FCAPS along with SDN control, thus providing the best of both worlds. Tejas is an active participant in
India’s telecom standards bodies and technical working groups on Optical technologies. We have proven
technologies and have supported various custom installations across the world

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