The ultimate goal of network function virtualisation (NFV) is to support a communications world that operates with a more cost-effective and agile infrastructure. To help communications service providers (CSPs) realise this goal, Oracle Communications released the newly updated Oracle Communications Application Orchestrator, making it easy to deploy and manage network functions in a hybrid environment that is as open as possible.
This release of Oracle Communications Application Orchestrator offers new capabilities for CSPs that enable them to:
- Deploy and manage both physical network functions (PNFs) and virtual network functions (VNFs), combining the benefits of agile VNFs with the density and cost-effectiveness of purpose-built PNFs
- Easily deploy and manage closely related network functions, also called composite network functions (CNFs)
- Rapidly integrate with third-party VNFs with the new plug-in development kit, which includes an intuitive interface to help onboard and deploy both VNFs and lifecycle management services
Since first releasing Oracle Communications Application Orchestrator in June 2014, Oracle has released several new products to help CSPs accelerate their journey to NFV, including: Oracle Communications Network Service Orchestration and Oracle Communications Evolved Communications Application Server. Additionally, Oracle has continued to evolve its product portfolio, releasing new versions designed for use in NFV deployments including Oracle Communications Session Border Controller, Oracle Communications Converged Application Server, Oracle Communications Core Session Manager, Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper, and Oracle Communications Policy Management.
Caroline Chappell, principal analyst, NFV & Cloud, Heavy Reading said: “As CSPs adopt SDN and NFV-based networks, their management systems will have to change, too. CSPs want a common network function manager to ease this transition by managing the lifecycle of any network function, regardless of vendor, or whether the function is physically or virtually implemented. Such a capability can help CSPs automate network function configuration and management, reducing the manual and error-prone processes that are currently typical.”
“Cost-cutting alone isn’t enough to realise the potential of NFV; CSPs must gain agility in how they operate. And we believe that the path to doing so is paved with interoperability, creating a truly open network infrastructure. The new release of Oracle Communications Application Orchestrator aims to advance this kind of openness by enabling CSPs to rapidly and cost-effectively define new functions, physical or virtual, via third parties,” said Doug Suriano, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications.
