The SDN and NFV Business Case
The telecom industry is at the edge of a major paradigm shift and moving closer to IT industry practices and scale economies. This is driven by digitization of all things and follows quickly on the heels of 4G network deployments and the recognition that mobile broadband networks are essentially distributed supercomputers. SDN will sweep through the IT industry and set the stage for SDN/NFV to transform the telecom mobile broadband industry. ABI Research’s view is a virtualized telecom market of $5 billion to $6 billion by 2018.
This report investigates the issues that operators and equipment vendors face, market timing and forecast for the mobile telecom industry. Different parts of the network with virtualize sooner than others and the various considerations are accounted. SDN and NFV for telecom is analyzed within the framework of disruptive or sustaining innovation, with findings discussed and presented. Strategies for the telecom operator, the incumbent infrastructure vendor, and the disruptive innovator are considered.
Table of Contents
- 1. SDN/NFV IS COMING FASTER AND TO WHERE YOU DON'T EXPECT
- 2. NETWORK FUNCTIONS VIRTUALIZATION AND CLOUD
- 2.1. Background on Network Functions Virtualization
- 2.2. Benefits of NFV
- 2.3. Challenges to NFV
- 3. SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING
- 3.1. History
- 3.2. Benefits of SDN
- 3.3. Challenges to SDN
- 4. WHY SDN/NFV?
- 4.1. Simplify Network and Hardware Complexity
- 5. STANDARDS
- 6. DISRUPTIVE OR SUSTAINING INNOVATION
- 6.1. High-rate Data-plane Functions
- 6.2. OTS May Be Good Enough for Some Distributed Scenarios
- 6.3. Service Chaining
- 6.4. SDN/NFV Sustaining or Disruptive Innovation
- 7. WHAT CAN BE VIRTUALIZED
- 7.1. Data-center and Server-based Applications
- 7.2. IMS and VoLTE
- 7.3. Video and Web Optimization
- 7.4. Evolved Packet Core
- 7.5. Policy and Charging Control and Enforcement
- 8. USE CASES
- 8.1. Follow the Sun
- 8.2. WebScale
- 8.3. Service Innovation and Chaining
- 9. DEPLOYMENT AND EVOLUTION CONSIDERATIONS
- 10. MARKET SIZING
- 10.1. Service Chaining
- 10.2. IMS, VoLTE, RCS
- 10.3. Evolved Packet Core
- 11. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- 11.1. Recommendations for Operators
- 11.2. Recommendations for Incumbent Vendors
- 11.3. Recommendations for New Entrants
- 12. SELECTED TELECOM VENDOR POSITIONS
- 12.1. Alcatel-Lucent
- 12.2. Amdocs
- 12.3. Cisco
- 12.4. Connectem
- 12.5. ConteXtream
- 12.6. Ericsson
- 12.7. F5
- 12.8. Huawei
- 12.9. Intel
- 12.10. Juniper
- 12.11. NEC
- 12.12. Nokia Siemens Networks
- 12.13. Openwave Mobility
- 12.14. Skyfire/Opera
- 12.15. Tekelec / Oracle
- 12.16. ZTE
- 13. REFERENCE
- 13.1. Acronyms
- 13.2. NFV
Tables
- Time of Day Traffic, Solid Line Indicates Traffic Profile and Time Zone Alignment
- Time Zone Efficiency, Not Shared versus Shared
- Service Chaining Spend
- IMS Mobile Core Revenues
- Gateways Equipment Spend
- Acronym Definitions
- ETSI NFV WG Members and Participants
Charts
- Mobile Telecom Virtualized Market
- Time of Day Traffic
- Amdahl's Law
- Virtualized Service Chaining Spend
- IMS Mobile Core Revenues
- Gateways Equipment Spend
Figures
- Disruptive Innovation Trajectory
- Nuage Networks SDN Platform
- NFV Virtualization Potential
- Cisco SDN Framework
- ConteXtream Service Chaining
- Ericsson SDN Vision
- F5 Big IP Policy Enforcement Manager
- Huawei SDN Vision for Operators
- Intel NFV Standard Reference for Servers and Switch
- Juniper's View of Service Chaining
- NEC SDN Architecture
- NSN Liquid Net Virtualization
- Openwave Mobility Integra Virtualization Platform
- Skyfire/Opera Virtualized Cloud Video Optimization
- ZTE SDN/NFV Architecture
