The document summarizes a panel discussion on service provider architecture and NFV held by Cisco Systems in April 2015. It includes presentations from NTT Communications, KDDI, and SoftBank Mobile on their NFV strategies and experiences. Some key points discussed are:
- NFV promises benefits like reduced CAPEX/OPEX but challenges remain around performance, maintenance costs, and immature standards.
- Telecom operators are working to automate testing and operations through techniques like DevOps, model-driven management, and abstracting existing networks.
- While NFV offers opportunities, realities of the technology include issues meeting throughput demands on commercial off-the-shelf hardware, increased maintenance complexity, and a lack of inter