Orange one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, and EXFO the communications industry’s test, monitoring and analytics experts, today announced that Orange has integrated EXFO’s passive virtual probes (vProbes) into the Beijing Release of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP). This industry-first integration of a passive probing virtual network function (VNF) into the ONAP release delivers service assurance for SDN/NFV commercial deployments. It also provides monitoring and troubleshooting of the service quality experienced by end customers.
Overview:
- The Linux Foundation’s ONAP project was established in March 2017 to address a rising need for a common platform for telecommunication, cable, and cloud operators—and their solution providers—to deliver differentiated network services on-demand, profitably and competitively, while leveraging existing investments (ONAP Beijing documentation)
- The Beijing Release aims to improve platform maturity and support use cases, making it easier for network operators to deploy ONAP.
- EXFO and Orange’s collaboration will enable the ecosystem to roll out open infrastructures based on SDN/NFV with the capability to monitor and troubleshoot complex end-to-end issues. It will also define a reference design for virtualized service assurance over 4G/LTE networks.
- The unique on-demand monitoring function dynamically instantiates end-to-end troubleshooting resources based on multiple criteria like service degradation and customer complaints, or in association with the provisioning of a new service. It also opens the way to the elasticity of virtual network function’s monitoring in order to cope with sporadic traffic increases or relocation of a network function. ONAP is seen as the global framework to orchestrate and automate the deployment and the lifecycle of the vProbes.
Quotes:
“As we transform our network, we are partnering with innovative and disruptive vendors to support our move to Open Source technologies like ONAP to guarantee our software independence and openness,” said Eric Debeau, Head of Orange’s Network Automation Platform Team. “Orange and EXFO have successfully removed a major barrier to ONAP deployment: the lack of monitoring solutions for dynamic, orchestrated virtual networks. EXFO’s unique on-demand provisioning of virtual passive probes significantly reduces the resources required to check service availability and troubleshoot issues. The solution enables service assurance for network virtualization through adaptive, permanent or on-demand monitoring solutions.”
“Expectations are high for commercial networks based on SDN/NFV to deliver better quality of service and availability. We are proud of our collaboration with Orange to make sure virtualization delivers on its promise of quality for the end customer while also accelerating operators’ digital network transformations,” said Abdelkrim Benamar, EXFO’s Vice President, Service Assurance, Systems and Services. “We are also proud to have integrated our virtual passive probes in the ONAP in just two weeks, which demonstrates the maturity of our virtual network functions and the ONAP Beijing Release.”
