”Supercharging” CSP data center fabric to seamlessly scale to the edge
Nokia this week announced Adaptive Cloud Networking. The company described the new solution as “supercharging a service provider’s data center fabric and seamlessly extending its operations to the edge clouds.” Adaptive Cloud Network comprises data center fabric elements, edge cloud network automation tools, and seamless interconnect technology.
The mass adoption of 5G and the transition to cloud-native operations present big operational challenges for Communication Service Providers (CSPs), said Pat McCabe, senior marketing manager of Nokia’s IP networks portfolio. As CSPs wrangle with 5G monetization strategies, their networks must stay agile and dynamic to meet the needs of a new generation of 5G-dependent services.
“How do they provide, manage, and orchestrate network connectivity to support the mass adoption of these new 5G-enabled services” in an increasingly complicated networking environment?
McCabe told RCR Wireless that Nokia’s Adaptive Cloud Networking, announced this week at MWC Barcelona, is the answer. Adaptive Cloud Networking’s advantage, McCabe explained, is that it provides seamless connectivity while scaling across the entire network, from the smallest edge site, even on-premise, to the largest regional data center.
Adaptive Cloud Networking is build on three core elements: Nokia’s Fabric Services System, its new Edge Network Controller, and Nokia’s Network Services platform to glue everything together. The idea is to provide CSPs with NetOps-drive automation capabilities to enable new 5G services across the network seamlessly and with predictable and repeatable performance.
The Fabric Services System is Nokia’s data center fabric management and automation platform. The Fabric Services System integrates into data center fabric automation, providing a “Digital Sandbox” that McCabe explained can be use to test and validate network changes before they’re made. Nokia’s recently revamped its Fabric Services System to meet the needs of both hyperscalers and CSPs, McCabe said.
The Edge Network Controller is a new release from Nokia. It’s a lightweight Kubernetes app custom-designed for edge cloud locations. It works with both SR Linux – Nokia’s custom Network Operating System (NOS) Linux build for service routers – and the Nokia Service Router Operating System. (SR OS). The low-overhead app supports a plug-in architecture to enable SR OS and other network operating systems and tools.
Interconnect between data center and edge is managed by NSP, Nokia’s intent-based network automation platform.
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