Anritsu and Ixia have announced the successful completion of a network functions virtualization (NFV) monitoring Proof of Concept (PoC) organised by O2 Czech Republic around NFV network monitoring and troubleshooting.
The ability to monitor network service level agreements (SLAs) and customer experience are critical requirements in telecoms networks. As communication service providers (CSPs) move to NFV, they need to effectively deploy service assurance solutions that can help uncover the blind spots introduced by the dynamics of virtualised environments. The virtualised, integrated solution demonstrated by Anritsu and Ixia enables O2 Czech to rapidly adopt NFV and conform to SLAs with an operations first focus.
The PoC was built using Anritsu’s MasterClaw vProbe solution for traffic capture and real-time processing, together with Ixia’s Phantom Virtualization Tap (vTap) for breakthrough visibility and control of traffic flowing between virtual machines. The setup was done in both lab and production environments and was successfully validated against a physical MasterClaw Probe proving that CSPs can now ensure the same exceptional customer experience, obtain the same network insights and maintain the same troubleshooting capabilities regardless of the underlying platform – physical or virtual.
“Anritsu and O2 Czech Republic have a long lasting partnership and recently signed a 5 year agreement focusing on Anritsu’s Multi-Dimensional Assurance Solution,” said Neil Tomlinson, the COO at Anritsu Service Assurance. “This PoC proves that Anritsu is committed to being the right partner for O2, always in sync with our customer’s plans, supporting and leading the way for operationalising their NFV deployments.”
Scott Westlake, the vice president of business development at Ixia, added: “Ixia’s collaboration with Anritsu and O2 clearly demonstrates that the ability to capture, correlate and analyse subscriber experience in mobile carrier networks is possible in NFV environments today. The use of Ixia’s virtual network taps in concert with Anristu’s MasterClaw platform solves an immediate challenge for carriers seeking to migrate key network functions to NFV.”
Jakob Votava, the director of networks at O2 Czech Republic, said: “The success of the PoC gave us confidence in the capabilities and forward-looking strategy of Anritsu and their partners, re-confirming our sound decision to engage them as a long term partner. NFV is a strategic initiative for O2 and having the right tools to monitor the NFV network is a must for us.”
