NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud: Paving the way for reinventing telcos for the cloud

NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud: Paving the way for reinventing telcos for the cloud

Keynotes Liquid Core Management provides operational support for NSN Liquid Core Network, covering all mobile broadband services efficiently and automatically. This encompasses the management of the Virtual Network Functions (virtualized network elements) running on the telco cloud. It provides comprehensive management of the VNFs (fault, performance, configuration, etc) including automated elasticity management operations (scale in and scale out). At the same time, NSN Liquid Core Management is also capable of the management of traditional network elements. Telco Cloud Management is a part of Liquid Core Management that manages virtualized network functions and services on a cloud. Functionalities needed for managing virtualized network functions are Cloud Application Manager and NetAct and will be complemented by other functionalities as defined by ETSI NFV reference architecture, such as network and service orchestrator. NSN NetAct is the market s leading virtualized Operations Support System (OSS) and provides full end-to-end visibility of traditional networks and telco cloud-based networks. NSN Cloud Application Manager automatically governs the deployment and operations management tasks of cloud-based applications throughout their lifecycle. These include the allocation of resources, configuration, performance and fault management to help operators maximize the return on investment in network functions virtualization and cloudification. Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) Telco Cloud Management enables mobile broadband operators to transparently manage the complexities of the telco cloud. It handles the delivery of applications throughout their lifecycle, including the allocation of resources, configuration, performance and fault management. With NSN Telco Cloud Management, operators gain greater agility, efficiency and control, accelerating the time to market for innovation, efficiently scaling capacity to match actual demand and maximizing return on investment through operational efficiency. 2 NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud

The cloud is set to transform telcos Many industries already benefit from cloud computing, with substantially lower costs, greater flexibility and the ability to upgrade instantly to the latest IT capabilities. Yet the adoption of cloud computing in telecommunications has been a gradual process. However, virtualization and cloud computing technology, operations and service delivery models are now Unpredictable data growth Drastic reduction of TCO per GB needed TCO/GByte Data volume Drivers: Time Capacity 10000 3D & HD video Video integrated everywhere Connected objects Network experience Drivers: becomes a revenue 3D & HD video driver Video integrated everywhere Real time customer Connected objects experience insight & action Deliver best user experience beginning to be applied in more and more business and application areas within telecommunications. The telco cloud is helping operators address their most important challenges, such as unpredictable data growth and overall variability, reducing the costs of delivering each bit of data, creating competitive differentiation and achieving sustained top-line growth (see Figure 1). 1000 100 10 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 1 Time from code to production launch Telco approach Cloud approach Faster innovation cycles for topline growth (SW only) Figure 1 Operators need the telco cloud to cope with constant network change Benefits of the telco cloud The telco cloud promises many benefits that essentially fall within four categories: faster innovation, instant scalability, maximum efficiency and transformation to new business models. for operators when they initially consider adopting the cloud approach. However, it also creates business agility, which will become an important driver for success. Shifting telco resources to the cloud helps operators cope with unpredictable data growth and overall variability by creating large pools of resources that can be deployed as needed. Adopting a centralized and standardized infrastructure also makes it easier to automate network operations. What s more, developers can design applications and services to run on the resulting platform in a standardized way. Cloud computing and automation paves the way for agile service deployment, resulting in a reduction in the cost of possible failure and encouraging innovation. Automation and standardization will drastically reduce costs and will probably be the key driver The telco cloud also reduces capital costs through on-demand scalability. It enables operators to shift application capacity to match service demand, as well as sharing capacity across and within regions and time zones. The use of commodity hardware also reduces the required investment. NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud 3

A clear view of success Operational processes and support systems bring substantial benefits to help maximize the return on investment in network function virtualization and cloudification. To bring the success of virtualization and cloud computing to carrier-grade telecommunications systems, the new technology must satisfy telco-specific requirements, such as low latency, high availability and service level agreement (SLA) management for the best user experience. In addition, this major technology advance calls for further development of the control layer, including operational processes and tools that link distributed elements to bridge cloudified and traditional network functions. The first step of telecommunications network cloud transformation for many operators lies in the mobile core network and the associated operations and business support system and processes. There are substantial benefits on offer, along with challenges in both the new cloud and existing traditional mobile core network applications, in particular the quality of service standards of telco networks, which typically exceed the standards applied in other sectors. The key challenges include: Avoiding cloud platform vendor lock-in to drive down costs and promote flexible sourcing. Achieve differentiation in a market where operators unique selling points may depend directly on their ability and speed to deliver the latest must-have applications. Match capacity to demand in real time to prevent lost revenue and the threat of penalties arising from congestion. At the same time, operators can avoid over-investing in capacity. Meet telco standards, especially when SLAs are part of the tough regulatory environment for operators. Furthermore, a better guaranteed service quality than the competition can be a key differentiator. Get a grip on the cost of complexity. Maintain visibility and control of underlying layers of the deployment (infrastructure, including the hardware and the telco applications) which may be governed by another organization. Application and data security is an area often considered to be the number one risk in cloud deployments. Manage cloud transformation. Integration with existing assets and retaining end-to-end visibility and governance is vital. During roll-out, new cloud-based deployments and the existing traditional installed base must work together. 4 NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud

NSN Telco Cloud Management solves the challenges NSN Telco Cloud Management answers these challenges. An integral part of Liquid Core management, Telco Cloud Management comprises NSN NetAct and NSN Cloud Application Manager. These components combine cloud application lifecycle management automation with multicloud support covering both telco and IT applications. As the market leading virtualized OSS, NSN NetAct supports core network elements to make network operations more efficient and flexible. NSN Cloud Application Manager automates cloud application lifecycle operations to help operators maximize the return on investment in network functions virtualization and cloudification. Network Functions Virtualization (as defined by the ETSI NFV standardization group, see Figure 2) is one of the most comprehensive attempts to harvest the benefits of cloud computing and virtualization in the telecommunications industry. In particular, NFV addresses the evolution of the mobile network architecture and how it is changed by cloud computing. NFV addresses telco applications, but most importantly the operational management of virtualized network functions. NSN Telco Cloud Management addresses both the infrastructure and application layer interfaces of NFV: NSN Cloud Application Manager, the VNF Manager in NFV architecture, supports the infrastructure layer by providing management and orchestration of virtualized network functions. NSN NetAct supports virtualized core network elements. NetAct is part of NSN Telco Cloud Management, offering full end-to-end visibility, both for traditional networks and telco cloud-based networks. With NetAct, NSN provides sustainable and pragmatic support for implementing hybrid networks. This leads to very low entry costs and step-by-step transition to virtualized network functions. OSS/BSS NFV Orchestrator NSN offering Element Management Systems VNF Manager VNFM NSN Cloud Application Manager EMS Vendor 1 EMS Vendor 2 Virtualized Core Network Functions EMS Vendor 3 VNF Manager Vendor 1 VNF Manager Vendor 2 EMS NSN NetAct NSN IMS NSN S/P-GW VNF Manager Vendor 3 VNF NSN TAS NSN MME NSN Registers Vendor 1 Core NEs Vendor 2 Core NEs Vendor 3 Core NEs Virtual computing Virtual storage Virtual network Virtual Infrastructure Manager Virtualization infrastructure Hardware resources Figure 2 ETSI NFV architecture implemented by NSN Telco cloud offering NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud 5

NSN Telco Cloud Management delivers agility, efficiency and control Agility NSN Cloud Application Management s intelligent application management features go beyond the conventional perception of cloud management tasks. It focuses on cloud application management on top of infrastructure management and provides a high degree of automation of cloud application lifecycle phases from deployment, through elasticity to maintenance. Automation in deployment, for example, drastically shortens from weeks to minutes the time to install and commission an application. Faster deployment enables operators to serve customer needs rapidly. New services may be ramped up fast, or quickly ramped down again at no additional cost. NSN Cloud Application Manager with its intelligent application elasticity functionality provides both manual and automated solutions for application scalability operations. The automated orchestration of application scale-in or scale-out operations is governed by application specific logic that enables the scaling of cloud applications. It also ensures that the right cloud resources are allocated to an application at any given time, making it scalable to match end-user demand. Efficiency NSN Cloud Application Management boosts operational efficiency on many levels, while its support for multiple cloud stacks minimizes an operator s cloud platform supplier costs. A high-degree of automation and a real-time holistic view of cloud deployments help to create highly efficient and safe performance and management of cloud application operations and maintenance tasks. In short, NSN Cloud Application Management drives productivity up and keeps down the cost of complexity. NSN Cloud Application Manager integrates its operational functions with existing processes and NFV service orchestrator via its state-of-the-art web-based interface. It also provides multi-cloud support including OpenStack and VMware vcloud, as well as being prepared for future cloud platforms as they become relevant to the telco industry. Multi-cloud support is the key to avoiding cloud vendor lock-in. Control and compliance NSN Cloud Application Manager meets operators demanding needs for security of application data and services. The security architecture for the supported application is created in line with NSN s comprehensive security practices. NSN Cloud Application Manager also controls access to the application and data through a sophisticated Role Based Access Control system and logs all user actions for future reference. The user base may be the same as for NetAct or for an active directory (LDAP) available in the IT environment. The credentials for directly accessing the underlying cloud are hidden from NSN Cloud Application Manager users and are managed securely. Automation combined with advanced monitoring facilities provides a firm foundation for SLA assurance, avoiding SLA penalties and allowing operators to comply with emerging regulatory requirements. 6 NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud

Enabling telco cloud benefits To sum up, NSN Telco Cloud Management uses stateof-the-art cloud management technologies to enable operators to transparently manage the complexities of the telco cloud. NSN Telco Cloud Management helps to: accelerate time to market for innovation and reduce the cost of failure transform legacy application portfolio to new cloud business models scale capacity to match actual demand maximize return on investment through operational efficiency deliver on SLA requirements provide application and data security manage the network transformation from traditional to virtualized NSN has already shown how the complete lifecycle of virtualized network elements can be managed remotely via its OSS including deployment of virtualized VoLTE, Packet Core and Home Subscriber Server applications, monitoring of virtual network element resources, and their elasticity management. In September 2013 at the IFA fair in Berlin, NSN proved that its Liquid Core solution based on telco cloud is on the brink of live deployment with the live implementation of virtualized VoLTE with a leading global operator using NSN Telco Cloud Management as described above. It is expected that the first NSN virtualized core products will be commercially available from 2014 onwards along with NSN Telco Cloud Management. NSN Liquid Core Management for Telco Cloud 7

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