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- Mobility is generating a significant volume of traffic and data, voice and video content;
- Data centers are on an increasingly gigantic scale;
- The need to deliver on demand network services;
- The exponential increase in cost versus a reduction in revenue growth rates.
There is no magic formula, or in other words, no single technological solution that solves or meets the challenges presented above. The solutions are multiple, integrated, complex and involve the redesign of the business model and the network architecture.
To address the needs connected to agility in the offering of services and the full control of innovation in data networks, the ICT market, including manufacturers, operators, universities and standardization institutions (IETF, IEEE, ITU-T and 3GPP), have worked towards the development of open network standards, i.e., interfaces and protocols that would allow companies to have autonomy over the scheduling of their data infrastructure. As a result of these efforts, it has strengthened the concept of network-based software, or SDNs (software defined networks), even though this is not a new concept of architecture.
According to Opennetwork.org, in SDN architecture, the control plans (network intelligence, such as routing processes) and data (forwarding of data packets) are separated. Intelligence and network status control are logically centralized, while the infrastructure layer of the network is abstracted from applications.
But what are the real benefits and innovations that SDN architecture can bring to my business?
The VP and CTO of DT (Deutsche Telekom), Axel Clauberg, once remarked that the reason they are implementing SDN is that they could program services quickly without having to redesign the network and OSS systems for each new service launched.
But each type of company has a distinct need and it could be met with SDN architecture. Universities, for example, want to be able to partition their networks, which would require a controller based on software and OpenFlow agents. Large data centers are more interested in having network data flow management; requiring, therefore, access networks which are more programmable via APIs.
Yet operators want to have a programmable access network, better dynamic management of the network, the ability to offer on demand network resources (such as bandwidth allocation), policy control, and Network as a Service (NaaS), optimized traffic engineering, among other services. It is important to note that there will still be a need for hardware with a high capacity in packet processing and forwarding.
The IDC estimates that the global SDN market will move around US$ 3.7 billion in 2016, 58% of this being investments related to infrastructure and control of the data network. It is, therefore, a trend that should bring significant benefits to companies, highlighting greater agility in launching new services and greater flexibility in network engineering amid the constant changes in traffic patterns generated by the Zettabyte era.
Lucas Pinz is network manager at PromonLogicalis.
