RAD debuts vAccess
Israel-based company RAD rolled out a new addition to its vCPE toolbox, dubbed vAccess, which enables value-added NFV and SDN-based services to be launched over any access.
RAD describes itself as a market leader of NFV and SDN edge virtualization. vAccess is part of the company’s Service Assured Access solutions, which are made to enable service providers to launch vCPE services quickly.
vAccess can upgrade a white box operating system to carrier-grade level, whether it be an operating system provided by RAD or some other vendor. It is able to monitor the performance of VNFs in addition to providing interfaces, such as xDSL, PON and legacy TDM, for access networks.
White box switches are network switches that come with an installed operating system. They serve as open source tools that can manage the materials and information of various devices. RAD said that while white box switches may be general purpose, low-cost and easy to commoditize, they may lack connectivity options that cannot always be vitualized, but are still required by operators. What vAccess does is plug these gaps.
To achieve this, the company said vAccess supplements universal CPEs (uCPEs) with universal access, which improves performance monitoring and diagnostics, legacy TDM service support and 1588 timing synchronization. When paired with the RAD’s pluggable physical network functions (P-PNFs), vAccess adds missing network capacities and interfaces on a “plug-as needed basis.”
“vAccess allows operators to get on the SDN/NFV bandwagon today,” said Ilan Tevet, VP Marketing and Business Development at RAD, in a statement. “They can benefit from white boxes’ cost savings while providing any virtualized service, such as vSD-WAN, vRouter, and vEncryption over whatever access infrastructure they have installed,” says Ilan Tevet, VP of marketing and business development at RAD.”
The company added vAccess is currently in use by a tier-one operator in North America in an effort to extend the uCPE solution beyond fiber access and provide a consistent portfolio of services. Currently, traditional DFM circuits constitute 20 to 30% of deployments, particularly in rural areas, according to the company.
