Hewlett Packard Enterprise has announced updates to its network functions virtualisation (NFV) portfolio.
These updates provide communications service providers (CSPs) access to new tools to speed NFV deployments, as well as virtualised solutions to build innovative, personalised customer services.
The updates include:
- HPE NFV System 1.4 – an update to HPE’s pre-integrated NFV solutions bundle, adding support for and allowing choice between Red Hat OpenStack Platform and HPE Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade 4.0 and integrating the OpenDaylight-based HPE OpenSDN controller
- HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service – a new program to enable CSPs to speed-up the virtual network functions (VNF) onboarding process
- HPE Virtual Headend Manager – a new virtualised solution for managing Internet Protocol television (IPTV) content deployments for improved customer experiences and opening up potential new revenue opportunities
- Subscriber Data Management on HPE Virtualised NonStop – a new virtualised subscriber data management (SDM) solution optimised for high fault-tolerance, availability and scalability to create new, personalised services faster and more cost-effectively.
David Sliter, vice president and general manager, Communications Solutions Business, HPE said: “As carriers transform into digital service providers, one of their biggest priorities is to establish a solid network foundation and flexible service platforms,” said “With HPE NFV solutions, carriers can implement a programmable infrastructure, providing the agility of the telco cloud and ability to scale their service deliveries to be more responsive to customer demand.”
HPE NFV System is a pre-integrated NFV platform combining HPE hardware and software in a pre-integrated solution bundle optimised for NFV workloads that now offers support for Red Hat OpenStack Platform in addition to HPE Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade. The addition of the Red Hat OpenStack offers CSPs and network equipment providers (NEPs) their choice of pre-packed, pretested and supported carrier grade virtual infrastructure management (VIM) tools.
HPE NFV System 1.4 includes as an option HPE Helion OpenStack 4.0, providing CSPs with an OpenStack® Mitaka-based VIM that meets demanding performance and reliability requirements, while providing the latest OpenStack advancements. It also includes HPE OpenSDN, an OpenDaylight-based software-defined networking (SDN) controller. HPE OpenSDN enables carrier SDN capabilities across various cloud platforms, including proprietary, OpenStack and containers.
HPE Helion Carrier Grade OpenStack 4.0 and HPE OpenSDN are available now as standalone solutions or integrated with HPE NFV System 1.4, targeted for availability in April 2017. For more information visit the website.
HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service accelerates the VNF onboarding process
As virtualisation and cloud technologies move into CSP networks and LTE/5G deployments increase, successful deployments depend on the ability to quickly onboard new VNFs and link them into network services.
HPE is launching the HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service, a program that reduces the risk, complexity and time it takes to onboard and deploy new services faster.
The service utilises open-standards based tools to accelerate the steps to examine the VNF, build the information model/templates and the descriptors used for integration into MANO and NFV infrastructure layers, support onboarding on multi-VIM environments and allows the creation of appropriate service models for vendors that support NFV open orchestration standards.
The HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service also utilises the NFV-VITAL (Virtualisation Impact on Throughput and Load) framework to determine the performance of different VNF types to meet the performance needs of CSPs and to avoid “do-it-yourself” inefficiencies.
The HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service leverages more than two years’ of experience gained from the HPE OpenNFV Partner Program, where the same process and toolset has been used to validate numerous HPE and partner VNFs on the HPE OpenNFV reference architecture. The HPE VNF Onboarding Factory service is offered for various levels of VNF complexity and delivered by a global network of trained consultants.
The HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service is targeted for availability in March 2017.
HPE Virtual Headend Manager virtualises media functions to speed time-to-market and open new revenue streams
CSPs utilise dedicated headend equipment to distribute content to subscribers’ devices. As content demands increase and customers’ consumption habits evolve, additional headend appliances must quickly be deployed, resulting in increased costs and complexity.
HPE Virtual Headend Manager (vHM) takes a software-defined approach, providing a non-proprietary, scalable, programmable network infrastructure. This method enables CSPs to quickly deploy new channels in minutes, adapt to new technologies as they become available and reduce the complexity of integration.
Based on open standards for virtual media functions and using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, HPE vHM considerably reduces CAPEX and simplifies operations management, for improved OPEX. Additionally, HPE vHM enables CSPs to create new sources of revenues with innovative channels-as-a-service type of solutions.
Mukul Krishna, senior global director, Frost & Sullivan, said: “In their media transformation efforts, providers want to avoid the integration nightmares and be able to deliver the best quality of experience to reduce churn. The HPE Virtual Headend solution responds in a very exciting way to the modularity and non-proprietary transcoder needs of the market.”
Strengthen virtualisation of core SDM functions with HPE Virtualised NonStop for mission critical environments
Subscriber data management (SDM) technologies let CSPs consolidate and manage subscriber and device data across heterogeneous networks via a single, unified repository, allowing operators to simplify their networks and avoid data duplication and inconsistencies so they can create new personalised services faster and more cost-effectively.
HPE SDM solutions can be deployed as either physical or virtual network functions using a variety of COTS hardware and software. The addition of an HPE Virtualised NonStop as a SDM deployment option adds fault-tolerance, high availability and scalability required by mission critical CSP environments to already proven virtualised SDM functions, including: Home Subscriber Service (HSS); Home Location Register (HLR); authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA); Intelligent Network Server (INS) and Universal Identity Repository (UIR).
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