Telecom operators are on the way to find new source of revenue as monolithic, vendor oriented and non-agile operational networks are narrowing the profit margins. The cloud technology is a perfect solution for these issues. This technology offers quick scalability and innovation to the telecom operators. The service providers can also take benefits from it in the form of new services and innovative revenue model for their end-users and customers.
Telco Cloud Architecture can be embraced by utilizing the Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software Defined Network (SDN), distributed computing, and APIs. The telecom operators have the advantages of both quick cloud adaptability and faster cloud ready.
Virtualized Networking functions (VNFs) such as Router, IMS, EPC, NAT, DNS, DHCP, DPI, FW etc., decouple the networking software from underlying vendor lock-in hardware. The telecom operators adopt VNFs and have started delivering network services to their end customers through the cloud delivery model. But they are also facing numerous challenges in terms of deploying VNFs into their network and these challenges may be: -
The telecom operators adopt VNFs and have started delivering network services to their end customers through the cloud delivery model.
- Multitude of the VNF vendors which deliver the VNFs with needed requirements and expected performance of the network along with diverse packaging formats and deployment instructions lying in different VNFDs
- Diverse cloud-native VNFs and cloud-enabled VNFs
- Complex workflow with multiple stakeholders and resources spread across different location
- Lack of clear guidance on operational dependency and performance benchmarks in the deployment, especially, for cloud-enabled VNFs
- Lack of concrete automation framework in the various onboarding and managing VNFs
HCL has designed a value-added VNF onboarding solution for seamless and standardized VNF onboarding. Service providers can offload time consuming operational logistics, onboarding complexity in validating different components, and integration activities to HCL. HCL has achieved an automated framework which has zero touch VNF onboarding for cloud native VNF, non-standardized VNF package, cloud enabled VNF, and VNF’s with multiple additional files. The key points of this solution are as below:-
- HCL reduces the cycle time of service provider to validate the integrity of VNF package, parse the VNFD, test the VNF, publish VNF to the production catalog, and push the image towards production
- This solution leverages the agility and scalability of cloud for achieving better performance and scale Matured HCL DevOps tools accelerate the feature velocity, allow consistent deployment, and provide continuous integration with automated testing
- The service providers take the advantage of this solution to integrate VNF with VNF manager and orchestrator
- The robust onboarding solution looks beyond the VNF configuration of files. It allows the users to achieve efficient chaining of VNF service along with effective VNF program management. With Virtual Infrastructure Manager (VIM) customization, the solution supports the VNFaaS model to address different tiers of innovative revenue model
- The solution follows the onboarding practice with checklist-ing product catalog, VNF inventory management, automated order management, service assurance, and self-care. It also, seamlessly integrates VNFs with O/BSS for order delivery
- HCL Telco Cloud solution instantiates the services based on service blueprint. The configuration of this solution is monitored by either the Element Management System (EMS) or VNF Manager
- HCL solution service chains the new VNF without impacting the existing services. It also maintains high availability and service resilience
- The solution follows the defined affinity rules in spreading group of virtual machines on a single host or across multiple hosts
- Some providers face a key challenge when their customers request to onboard VNF from their channels. HCL normalizes the process for both networking and IT functions in this situation. The onboarding automation framework of cloud-enabled VNFs is still a challenging task. HCL provides an integrated onboarding solution in this regard by transforming these VNFs into cloud-native VNFs.
HCL VNF Onboarding Solution
HCL Telco Cloud Solution Differentiations
- Working with 35 VNF vendors and more than 100 independent VNFs
- Support for both Cloud-Native and Cloud-Ready VNFs
- One touch automation
- Multi-vendor VNFs onboarding experience including vEPC, SD-WAN, vRouter, vIMS, vSBC, vFW, vDNS, and Load Balancer
