Telefónica and Cisco have launched a testing platform to find out the key benefits of converging IP and optical networks.
The Spain-based operator said that by converging both networks by using IETF standards, the efficiency and cost savings of planning, management and engineering can be improved.
Telefónica will use the vendor’s Open Network Architecture, which includes its Evolved Services Platform and Evolved Programmable Network, which it said would enable it to deliver network functions virtualisation, software defined networking and advanced orchestration.
During the course of the two year project, both companies will test different network scenarios, including multilayer restoration, as well as creating a multilayer route and multilevel bypass. The companies will work with hardware and software from different vendors to test compatibility.
Telefónica said it wants to test models that could lead to reducing its investment costs, by stripping out underused resources. and building a network architecture that is “more efficient, less complex and easier to upscale, downscale and operate, enabling it to obtain significant savings in operating and capital costs”.
Enrique Blanco, Global Chief Technology Officer of Grupo Telefónica, said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with a world leader in networks like Cisco to optimize our core network architecture and respond to the exponential growth of traffic in both capacity and complexity, as well as reducing our costs and contributing to the standardization of the IP Class Optical Convergence technology.”
Bill Gartner, Vice President of Optical Networking Group at Cisco, said: “Architectural approaches based on network layers that are constructed and run independently generate inefficiencies of scale, provision and operation that must be resolved as soon as possible.
“What we need is an innovative focus capable of creating an optimally convergent transport infrastructure, and that’s what we, along with Telefónica, are trying to provide leveraging SDN technology benefits.”
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