Sprint and C Spire echo thoughts of many CCA members in taking a wait-and-see approach towards NFV and SDN deployments
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The telecommunication market’s move towards virtualization platforms continues to gain steam amongst its largest players, though smaller carriers remain wary at this point on the benefits of technologies like software-defined networking and network functions virtualization.
During a “CTO” panel at this week’s Competitive Carriers Association Mobile Carriers Show, network executives from the likes of Sprint and C Spire explained the immaturity of SDN and NFV at this point is keeping them from moving more aggressively towards those software-based platforms.
Stephen Bye, CTO at C Spire, said just going with virtualization does not get the full benefits of the technologies. “Once you start requiring code base, then you get the real benefits,” or what he called the “lift and shift” of truly integrating SDN and NFV into network operations.
More importantly, Bye said the integration needs to include a carrier’s operating support system so network operations are on the same page in terms of how to react to any issues in a virtualized environment.
“Currently, if we have a problem with a switch we find the vendor and pound them,” Bye said. “We have everything in place to isolate issues today. … When you start getting into a virtualized environment, whose the throat to choke? Now the burden goes back to the carrier.”
Bye also questioned the current financial models, noting most carrier investment into their mobile networks were still centered on the radio access network. “Even if you virtualize a switch, it’s not a huge savings.”
ACG Research last year put out a report claiming carriers deploying SDN and NFV technologies would likely see the most savings from capital expense as opposed to operating expense.
“A major advantage of SDN/NFV is in its opex, which gives the operators the ability to rapidly provision new services,” explained Robert Haim, principal analyst at ACG Research. “Service roll-out is reduced by an order of magnitude of months to days. Moreover, with fast service roll out, a new service can be tested with a limited set of customers first, and then upon favorable feedback it can be introduced to the entire target market. This can save a lot of headache (and money) later if the service turns out to be not as well received as it was expected.”
Haim added that on the capex side, savings will be muted as most hardware already installed into networks are likely to stay operational for years to come, most often past the date they are fully depreciated.
“Therefore, while migration to function virtualization is moving forward, operators will face a period of a ‘double opex’ cost factor,” Haim said. “This is not lost on anyone, and it can become a factor in delaying the decision to virtualization.”
Sprint is also waiting on the continued maturity of virtualization platforms, with the carrier stating that while it’s looking at the technology, the ability to scale is key before it looks towards deployment.
“We are looking at it with NFV and SDN,” said Jay Bluhm, VP of network planning at Sprint. “The real issue is scaling the network to meet demand. Whether its NFV or SDN, our technology principles are to scale, which require different a lot of different implementation models.”
Sprint rivals AT&T and Verizon Communications have moved aggressively into the SDN and NFV space, with both operators having already launched commercial services targeting specific verticals with virtualized platforms. Fellow CCA member T-Mobile US is also taking a wait-and-see approach towards virtualization, which analysts have noted makes financial sense.
Vendors were understanding on the cautious nature of smaller tier-one and tier-two operators in terms of their moves towards virtualization, though said those operators must at least be open at this point to the discussions.
“We are still at the very early stages of this, and they are moving at a pace I would expect them to move at this time,” said Glenn Laxdal, CTO for Ericsson North America. “But, they need to at least be ready to begin discussing NFV and SDN and we are having those discussions with our carrier partners.”
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