Proof of Concept

Orchestrated
Virtualized Multi-Vendor
SD-WAN Services

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SD-WAN momentum and market demands
Software defined wide area networking (or SD-WAN) is one of the highest growth segments in our industry,
helping enterprises to transform their WAN connectivity in alignment with their digital transformation and cloud
initiatives. Applications are dispersed in multiple public and private cloud platforms, on premise and in data centers.
Enterprises expect on-demand, secure and easy access to their applications and network services delivered with
the highest performance assured.

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) have a tremendous opportunity to become strategic partners to their
enterprise customers with a competitive managed SD-WAN offering. While CSP managed SD-WAN deployments
are starting to gain traction, differentiation is critical in this highly competitive market, requiring CSPs to:

ººOffer a choice of SD-WAN and value-added ººEliminate the dependency between the SD-WAN
virtualized services from multiple vendors to application and the CPE device by allowing the
meet the specific needs of their enterprise customer to choose from a wide range of open,
customers. commercial-off-the-shelf hardware platforms.
ººEmpower enterprises to control their own ººBe able to react to new service requests,
services with full visibility and assurance, along changes and problem resolution in an agile
with the ability to easily purchase new services. fashion.

Challenges to delivering new virtualized services

Conventional router-centric WAN architectures are highly complex and time consuming to deploy and configure,
requiring manual intervention from specialized engineers using command line user interfaces. By adding more
vendors to a CSPs offering, including security and WAN acceleration applications, this complexity increases
exponentially resulting in the following challenges and requirements:

ºº Different sales and distribution channels for ººManual service provisioning and configuration
SD-WAN CPEs from different vendors need to makes it difficult and time consuming to add
be established. new sites and scale services.
ºº OSS/BSS systems need additional ººVirtualization introduces uncertainty, especially
development and customization for each new considering the wide variety of NFV Infrastructure
solution that is introduced. ranging from public clouds to uCPE.
ºº Specialized engineers need to be trained ººAdditionally, current solutions make it
separately for different solutions from multiple challenging for enterprises to change
vendors due to inconsistencies in SD-WAN SD-WAN vendors in the future without
service definitions. “fork-lifting” the previous solution.

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Proof of concept goals
In order to address these challenges, this proof of concept (PoC) has been established to demonstrate
the next innovation in SD-WAN with the following goals:

Reduce the complexity of offering multi-vendor SD-WAN and value-added services by:

ººUsing a common uCPE platform to host ººShowing how a digital user experience can
multivendor SD-WAN and value-added services. simplify how services are purchased and
managed, enabling CSPs to delegate control
ººAutomating service provisioning, lifecycle to their enterprise customers with full visibility
management, CPE provisioning and
of their services.
simplifying OSS/BSS integration using a
single orchestration platform, common uCPE
manager and end-to-end assurance across
multiple SD-WAN vendor solutions.

Advance MEF LSO APIs and service definitions to speed-up commercial adoption

ººThe PoC uses established MEF LSO APIs, ººThe PoC also demonstrates the recently
including Legato from the service orchestrator standardized MEF 70 service definition for
to the portals, as well as new APIs such as Presto SD-WAN. The aim is to validate conformance
between the service orchestrator and SD-WAN with MEF 90 and provide MEF with feedback
controllers. The aim is to provide MEF with to help with the next versions of MEF 70.
valuable feedback to advance and mature the
Presto API to enable commercial deployments.

Participants
Company Role Product Names

PoC lead including implementation,

integration and testing

Netcracker Service Orchestration,

Service orchestration, self-service portal
Netcracker Self-Service Portal,
and digital marketplace
Netcracker Digital Marketplace

Versa Director and Analytics,

SD-WAN solution
Versa FlexVNF

Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnectTM

SD-WAN solution Silver Peak Unity OrchestratorTM,
Silver Peak Unity Boost™

SD-WAN solution for legacy CPEs NEC Smart SD-WAN / Security

ADVA Ensemble Connector

uCPE platform and manager ADVA Ensemble Virtualization Director
ADVA Ensemble Orchestrator

Testing and validation of MEF 70 VisionWorks Controller

SD-WAN services and LSO APIs VisionWorks VTA

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PoC Overview
This PoC demonstrates the next innovation in SD-WAN, which accelerates adoption of orchestrated and assured multi-
vendor SD-WAN and value-added services through automated operations and a new digital user experience. Powered
by a unified marketplace, self-service portal and NFV-based uCPE platform, MEF 70 compliant SD-WAN services
from different vendors can be selected independently of the CPE hardware and seamlessly deployed with little-to-no
intervention from the service provide or end-user. Through this new “digital user experience”, SD-WAN services are
orchestrated, activated, assured and managed using zero touch provisioning (ZTP) and end-to-end service automation
in alignment with MEF’s LSO framework.

PoC Demonstration
The PoC will show the journey of a business customer who wants to connect remote branch sites with an SD-WAN
overlay network and use value-added virtualized functions such as advanced security or WAN optimization. The
demonstration scenario starts with the procurement of vendor neutral uCPE devices and SD-WAN services and
security applications with different vendor options from the self-service portal. The services are then dynamically
loaded onto the uCPEs remotely using ZTP and validated through service activation testing. Given the SD-WAN
services are MEF 70 compliant, they are configured in a standardized and unified way for different vendors, such as
configuration of application-aware routing and internet breakout. The demonstration then shows how the service
can be seamlessly modified when the user decides to add a WAN optimization application from a different vendor
via the portal.

SD-WAN services are continuously monitored and visualized in real time, including branch locations, traffic volume and
bandwidth utilization per application. For enterprise sites that are not yet SD-WAN-enabled, the PoC demonstrates
a migration scenario that uses legacy CPEs with an open source SDN controller to create SD-WAN like networks as a
transition step to full a SD-WAN deployment.

The key technology innovations being demonstrated include:

ººSoftware (SD-WAN applications) and hardware ººThe adoption of standard system design
(CPEs) separation by utilizing common white box
servers and an open uCPE network operating ºº System architecture based on MEF standard
framework (LSO Reference Architecture and
system.
Framework).
ººZTP of the uCPE platform and lifecycle management ºº Standard service terminologies and menus
of SD-WAN applications enabled by the uCPE
aligned with industry-first SD-WAN service
manager.
specification (MEF 70).
ººAutomated SD-WAN service provisioning and ºº Unified management and orchestration of
service lifecycle management from leading SD-WAN
different SD-WAN controllers based on standard
and value-added service vendors using catalogue-
MEF Presto and MEF Legato APIs.
driven service orchestration.
ººEasy procurement of SD-WAN services and ºº Model-based orchestration using standard IETF
YANG models.
applications via an online marketplace.
ººUnified operations and maintenance of SD-WAN ººDemonstration of a clear migration step from legacy
CPE to full SD-WAN deployment using an Open
solutions from multiple vendors in an intuitive self-
Source SDN controller.
service portal.

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PoC Architecture

MEF 70 SD-WAN Service Compliant

Marketplace and

Self-Service Portal Digital Marketplace

Orchestration

LSO Legato LSO Legato

E2E Service Orchestration

LSO Presto LSO Presto LSO Presto

uCPE & SD-WAN
Controllers

Validation uCPE Mgt SD-WAN SD-WAN SD-WAN for Legacy

SD-WAN/ SD-WAN/ Lagacy

uCPE VAS uCPE uCPE VAS uCPE Routers/Switches

Enterprise A Enterprise B Enterprise C

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Benefits

For CSPs
ººAccelerates the adoption of managed SD-WAN services and applications with a broad ecosystem of partners.
ººLowers operations costs by:
ººSignificantly reducing integration complexity through automation.
ººSimplifying deployment via zero touch provisioning.
ººStreamlining deployment through systematic validation and testing.
ººEnables CSPs to better differentiate with highly competitive offers emphasizing customer choice.

For vendors
ººSimplifies management integration by conforming to common APIs and service definitions.
ººDemonstrates the end-to-end fulfillment process from customer order through fully automated ZTP deployment of
multi-vendor solutions.
ººVerifies operation of multi-vendor service chains comprising different SD-WAN and VAS application vendors.
ººEnhances vendor solution differentiation in the crowded SD-WAN market.

To enterprise customers
ººComplete visibility and control of services procured through a CSP as a managed service.
ººWider choice of features and applications that better match the business requirements.
ººAbility to set up branch networks in minutes and make services changes on the fly.
ººAbility to change service configuration at any time without the need to fork-lift existing solutions.
ººConfidence that services and changes are validated prior to becoming operationalized.

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MEF Standards Supported

MEF 3.0 LSO Architecture

As a whole, the system design and implementation conforms to the MEF 3.0 LSO Reference Architecture and
Framework as follows:

Business Application Layer: Netcracker’s marketplace and self-service portal enables agile,
on-demand and customer-initiated SD-WAN service orders.

Service Orchestration Function: Netcracker’s SD-WAN service orchestrator decomposes the service
request and orchestrates uCPE configuration and activation and SD-WAN connectivity provisioning.

Infrastructure Control & Management (ICM): This PoC involves multiple ICMs from different
vendors including ADVA’s Ensemble NFVI platform and uCPE manager as well as SD-WAN controllers
from 3 companies: Silver Peak, Versa Networks and NEC.

MEF 3.0 Services

To guarantee the agile, unified and automated service provisioning of multiple vendor SD-WAN offerings and
accelerate the adoption and certification of MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services, this PoC will leverage and demonstrate
practical implementation of MEF’s industry-first SD-WAN service specification, MEF 70. As a PoC member,
Spirent will be the test vendor to certify the specification alignment.

MEF 3.0 LSO APIs

Legato APIs: Continuing our commitment to further adoption of MEF standards, this PoC will utilize as well
as facilitate the pre-standard work of the MEF Services Common Model (MSCM) and Legato Service API
(MLSAPI) projects currently underway in the MEF LSO committee.

Presto APIs: Furthermore, we will incubate (future) Presto API for SD-WAN between the orchestrator and the
multi-vendor SD-WAN controllers. In addition, we plan to conduct other incubations including Presto API for
uCPE, service specification and Presto API for Security as a Service (SECaaS).

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Overview of PoC Components

Netcracker Service Orchestration

End-to-end service orchestration that provides automated service provisioning and lifecycle management using
catalogue driven orchestration, standards-based models and a cloud-native architecture. Provides a smooth
integration of the virtual environment and existing infrastructure, tying together all the pieces—SD-WAN controllers,
MANO and existing BSS/OSS. Provides cross-domain service lifecycle management across all hybrid network
domains, including legacy IP/MPLS networks, SDN networks, cloud and NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) environments.

Netcracker Self-Service Portal and Digital Marketplace

Netcracker Self-Service Portal unifies all the vendor offerings into a single, intuitive portal providing self-service
capabilities for the CSP and enterprise including service ordering, service administration and service monitoring.
The Netcracker Digital Marketplace provides a portal-driven e-commerce shopping experience, based on a
centralized product catalog, enabling enterprise customers to purchase service bundles and benefit from the
latest offers using a well-governed partner ecosystem of digital products.

Versa Networks Solution

Versa has developed a cloud-native multi-tenant software platform that delivers software-defined Layer 3 [routing]
to Layer 7 [security] services with full programmability and automation. With our Secure CloudIP software platform,
we address SD-WAN, SD-Security and SD-Branch use cases for the WAN edge today. Versa Networks delivers a
full-featured Secure SD WAN with an integrated and native security architecture that addresses WAN edge services
for any market and any size enterprise, whether DIY or managed by a SP.

Versa Director

Versa Director simplifies and automates the creation, delivery, management and operations of network and security services
of the Versa Cloud IP software platform. It provides integrated lifecycle management, orchestration and monitoring in a
single application that is tightly integrated into leading OSS/BSS, service orchestrators and NFV orchestrators.

Versa Analytics

Versa Analytics provides holistic visibility, base-lining, correlation and predictive analysis for network, application
usage and security events. Analytics provides real-time and historical contextual insights with policy-driven
usage analysis from Layer 3 [routing] to Layer 7 [security]. It seamlessly integrates with third-party systems for easy
deployment in IT environments.

Versa FlexVNF

Versa FlexVNF is a multi-service, multi-tenant software platform built from the ground up on cloud principles to
deliver scale, segmentation, programmability and automation. It provides both networking and security functions
in a single software along with service chaining capabilities and support for third-party VNFs. It can be deployed as
bare metal on any number of commercial off-the-shelf servers and white box appliances. It can also be deployed as
the uCPE platform and has a growing ecosystem of certified third-party VNFs. All Versa software components can
be deployed as VMs for any virtualization environment, private cloud or public cloud.

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Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect™ SD-WAN edge platform

The Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect™ SD-WAN edge platform liberates enterprises from the limitations of
conventional network approaches by shifting to a business-first networking model. EdgeConnect brings routers,
unifying SD-WAN, firewall, segmentation, routing, WAN optimization and application visibility and control onto a
single platform. EdgeConnect continuously learns and adapts to meet the requirements of the business, delivering
the highest quality of experience to enterprise users and IT organizations. EdgeConnect enables service providers
to bring new, differentiated, managed SD-WAN services to market quickly and cost effectively to drive new revenue
streams, expand market reach and deliver SLAs in and out of region.

Available as physical or virtual appliances, the EdgeConnect platform supports industry standard hypervisors and
can be deployed as a single VNF on a range of uCPE appliances. EdgeConnect can be deployed across enterprise
branch offices, regional hubs, data centers and public cloud instances, including the industry’s four leading cloud
marketplaces, Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud.

Unity OrchestratorSP

The EdgeConnect SD-WAN edge platform is centrally managed using the Unity OrchestratorSP, a secure,
cloud-hosted, multi-tenant management Software-as-a-Service. OrchestratorSP enables service providers to
centrally manage and monitor their managed SD-WAN services deployments on a global basis for thousands of
unique customers. Orchestrator enables service providers to centrally configure, manage and secure managed
SD-WAN services deployments, each customized to the unique requirements of each individual enterprise
customer.

Unity Boost™

Unity Boost is an optional WAN optimization software performance pack that unifies Silver Peak WAN
optimization techniques with the EdgeConnect platform to create a single, unified SD-WAN edge platform.
Boost enables enterprises to accelerate performance of latency-sensitive applications and minimize
transmission of repetitive data across the WAN. Service providers can offer Boost as a value-add or higher-tier
service and within a single multi-function VNF that unifies SD-WAN, routing, security and WAN optimization
in a single VNF.

ADVA uCPE Platform (Ensemble Connector)

Ensemble Connector is a highly scalable, high-performance virtualization platform for hosting multi-vendor VNFs.
It delivers pure-play virtualization, which enables the ability for open software to operate on open, commercial
off-the-shelf servers. This eliminates vendor lock-in so that service providers are free to mix and match
best-of-breed software and hardware. Ensemble Connector provides all of the tools necessary to simplify the
deployment of uCPE applications with industry proven ZTP and “day-N” management capabilities.

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ADVA uCPE Management
(Ensemble Orchestrator and Ensemble Virtualization Director)

Ensemble Orchestrator is an ETSI MANO-compliant NFV orchestration platform that is responsible for supporting
end-to-end network service and VNF lifecycle management including VNF onboarding, service design and service
deployment. It provides a framework for day-0 and day-N configuration for VNFs and integration with third-party
VNF managers (where appropriate). Ensemble orchestrator dynamically tracks cloud resources, offers advanced
VNF placement algorithms and supports cross-cloud VNF service chaining, multi-tenancy and per-tenant quota
management.

Ensemble Virtualization Director is a centralized uCPE management solution that enables end-to-end configuration,
management and surveillance of virtualized network infrastructure and services. Ensemble Virtualization Director
provides a single pane of glass for managing NFV operations. It supports end-to-end ZTP, uCPE inventory and
topology, fault and performance management and tools for NFV troubleshooting. Ensemble Virtualization Director
also provides software management (upgrade and reversion) of Ensemble Connector instances.

Spirent Testing and Validation

Spirent is a leader in Automated Assurance of MEF 3.0 Services, supporting the development of the MEF LSO
specifications and providing solutions that leverage its open APIs. Spirent Automated Assurance solutions consist
of Analytics, Controller and Test Agent components for automating network functions and operational workflows.
Our microservices-based controller interfaces with orchestration functions to automate testing and assurance
of layers 2-7 using both virtual and physical test agents. Our Automated Assurance solutions measure both the
underlay and overlay components of various network environments to ensure high-quality SD-WAN services can
be automatically activated and monitored within a single provider or across providers. Proactive testing ensures
SD-WAN service issues can be rapidly identified and resolved to minimize the impact on customers and maintain
compliance with SLAs.

NEC Smart SD-WAN/Security

NEC provides a vendor agnostic SD-WAN controller that works with existing legacy routers, switches, firewalls and
endpoint detection and response solutions to provide SD-WAN like functionality as an evolutionary step before
adopting full SD-WAN. NEC’s SD-WAN Controller manages and controls a variety of existing legacy equipment
to provide basic SD-WAN and SD-Security services. However, the degree of service capability depends on the
legacy equipment, which may be limited in terms of latency and virtualization.

This SD-WAN solution is proposed as an entry point to stimulate the SD-WAN market and help the acceleration
towards a full SD-WAN transformation. The solution also provides a seamless and gradual migration from legacy
towards full SD-WAN, with the help of Netcracker’s Service Orchestration.

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