Ensemble OSA - Overture Networks

TECHNOLOGY BRIEF
ENSEMBLE OSA
Bringing the Benefits of the Cloud to the Metro Edge
Business and individual consumers are enjoying the benefits of cloud
technology every day, sometimes without even knowing it. These benefits
include such diverse incarnations as:
• Smartphone Apps: The explosion of vendor and third-party smartphone apps
demonstrates the power of an open system to leverage the market and to
provide useful functions unforeseen by the device manufacturer. They also show
the importance of being able to buy, download and maintain apps based on
cloud applications running in a data center.
• Video on Demand: YouTube, Netflix and Amazon have shown the appeal of
free or reasonably-priced video enabled by efficient connect and store facilities.
Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) are a key cloud-based part of these
services.
• Managed Hosting: Setting up a website used to be a real production. Now, a
basic website can be created in minutes, employ virtual machines (VMs) and tap
powerful supporting software for applications such as e-commerce.
• Software as a Service: Offerings like Google Docs, Salesforce.com and hosted
SAP allow businesses to access software on a subscription basis, without the
complexities of required servers and storage, or the nuisance of upgrades and
administration. Scalable on-demand services driven by customer portals are a
key hallmark of cloud services.
What these applications have in common is their reliance on cloud-based
principles and technology:
• Scalable, on-demand pooled resources accessed remotely
• Built using modern software tools running on low cost hardware
• Managed using VMs
These applications are part of an explosion resulting from a simple
development model and the low deployment costs intrinsic to cloud
applications. Right now, however, they are limited to the data center.
What has been missing is the migration of these principles to the part of the
network that serves as the on-ramp to the cloud: the metro edge. Ensemble
Open Service Architecture (Ensemble OSA) bridges that gap, allowing service
providers to apply cloud technologies and principles to build and deliver
services across the metro edge by uniting connect, compute and store.
“Service providers will want to
evaluate Ensemble OSA, since it
demonstrates Overture is listening
to the challenges that their Carrier
Ethernet customers face.”
- Michael Howard
Infonetics Research

WHAT IS ENSEMBLE OSA?
Overture’s Ensemble OSA is the industry’s first open architecture for softwaredefined
services at the metro edge. Ensemble OSA optimizes service creation,
activation, and assurance by bringing the benefits of the cloud to the metro edge.
With this new open architecture that incorporates principles of software defined
networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), service providers are
able to maximize operational efficiencies and introduce new revenue-generating
services faster and easier than ever before.
Before we dig into the details of Ensemble OSA, let’s take a look at how it
originated.
“Overture is advancing
network virtualization with the
introduction of Ensemble OSA
- in effect, pushing the cloud
closer to the network edge and
creating new opportunities for
service providers to meet growing
demand from their customers.”
- Rosemary Cochran
Vertical Systems Group
ENSEMBLE OSA - BORN FROM REAL WORLD NEEDS
At Overture, we are fortunate to be a trusted partner for many of the world’s
top service providers and network operators. These service providers, through
numerous opportunities, have asked Overture to help solve some of their
challenges in optimizing service creation, activation and assurance. Examples
of these requests include:
• Providing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to
Overture’s Carrier Ethernet equipment that facilitates the
automation of provisioning and management
• Implementing Zero Touch Commissioning across the
Overture product line using standard tools and protocols
• Facilitating flow through provisioning in a heterogeneous
environment
• Enabling dynamic bandwidth and simplifying service
assurance in a multi-vendor network
• Building virtual applications such as managed virtual
routing and security
• Bringing the automation features of the public cloud to
private cloud services
As we evaluated each of these customer requests, it
became clear that the most effective way for Overture to
deliver on these was to incorporate the concepts of openness, virtualization
and orchestration from the cloud data center into an architecture positioned at
the metro edge. The result: Ensemble OSA.
OPTIMIZING SERVICE CREATION, ACTIVATION, AND ASSURANCE
Facing intense competition for connect, compute and store services, service providers are
under increasing pressure to rapidly define and turn up services in response to changing
market demands. They are slowed by today’s complicated service creation model – one
where developing a new offering can take 18 months and tens of millions of dollars.
Ensemble OSA addresses this problem by applying cloud technologies to speed up service
creation, resulting in increased flexibility, virtualization, programmability and intelligence
at the metro edge. Ensemble OSA accelerates the innovation cycle and reduces the time
and cost of activating customers.
Assuring the performance in today’s multi-vendor environment is also costly,
complex, and usually requires significant manual intervention. Ensemble OSA
radically decreases the cost and complexity of performance assurance by
leveraging intuitive, intelligent, and automated tools.
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ENSEMBLE OSA - BUILT ON REAL WORLD SOLUTIONS
A fundamental principle of Ensemble OSA is that it incorporates the latest in
open cloud-based technologies.
• Open Standards – One reason for the explosion of cloud-based applications
and services is the large ecosystem of tools and open standards. You don’t
have to start from scratch when building a new service. Instead, you can
leverage a large base of proven software and services. This drastically
simplifies and accelerates the job.
• Network Function Virtualization (NFV) – NFV expands the principles of
virtualization beyond the data center and into the metro edge. Using NFV,
applications such as routing, firewalls and virtual private networks (VPN) can
be moved from custom hardware to software applications running in VM on
commercial servers.
• Software Defined Networking (SDN) – SDN allows for the separation of
control and data simplifying how networks are built. This dramatically
reduces cost by moving functions from high-cost custom hardware to
centralized servers. SDN also provides for APIs and programmability,
supporting the development of new applications without the need to
change underlying hardware.
• Metro Edge – This is the on-ramp of the network. For today’s networks,
it’s where much of the cost, complexity and congestion is concentrated. At
Overture, we are leveraging our experience in the metro edge and applying
Ensemble OSA to address these key issues.
ENSEMBLE OSA TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
Ensemble OSA’s structure is comprised of three levels: Resources,
Orchestration and Control and Network Applications. Each of these
communicates through a set of standards-based and open APIs.
Open
Standards
Software
Defined
Networking
Metro
Edge
Network
Function
Virtualization
“Ensemble OSA is a bold step
forward in advancing these
concepts at the metro edge and
it should really help service
providers reduce expenses
while opening the door to a new
opportunities.”
- Nav Chander
IDC
RESOURCES
Resources provide connect, compute and storage functionality. They may
consist of physical devices such as switches, servers and storage arrays, and/or
software functions running in a VM. Examples include:
• Overture devices for high performance networking – When performance
is important, there is no substitute for purpose-built hardware. Overture’s
solutions include open APIs for virtualizing management, configuration and
data plane control functions.
• High-performance commercial appliances – This includes the compute
servers and storage appliances found in modern data centers.
• Third party network element integration – The Ensemble OSA framework will
be extended to include network devices from other vendors.
Resources communicate northbound with the Orchestration and Control layer
using modern standard APIs such as OpenFlow, SOAP/SML and Netconf, but
also through traditional interfaces and protocols such as SNMP and SSH/CLI.
ORCHESTRATION AND CONTROL
Ensemble OSA’s orchestration and control layer consists of building block
functions that provide the glue connecting the applications to the resources:
• Data Plane Control – Ensemble OSA leverages existing solutions such as
OpenFlow controllers to manage the data plane.
• Resource Abstractions – Overture’s open architecture provides a simplified
model for configuring and monitoring multi-vendor network, computing and
storage resources. This includes building blocks for CoS/QoS, device inventory
and network topology as well as tools for managing virtual resources through
cloud management suits, such as OpenStack or CloudStack.
3

• Management – Ensemble OSA includes functions such as:
• Fault and performance management to assure SLA performance
• Commissioning to support new installations
• Alarming to handle faults
• Test head functions to facilitate diagnosis and repair activities
NETWORK APPLICATIONS
The simplified development and integration of network applications is
where the open and scalable nature of Ensemble OSA really pays off.
Network Applications are software packages that leverage one or more of the
Orchestration and Control building blocks and tie into back
office systems of the service provider and their business
partners to create a service or network function. These
applications fall into two main categories:
• New Revenue Generating – These network applications
provide the service provider with a new path to net revenue,
either through expanding the market for an existing service
or by facilitating the development of a new service.
• Operational Efficiency – For modern service providers,
operational expenses outweigh capital expenses by a ratio
of five to one – or higher. Applications that reduce these
operational expenses provide an immediate benefit to the
bottom line.
Ensemble OSA’s open nature means that these network applications can be
supplied by Overture, the service provider or a third party.
ENSEMBLE OSA USE CASES – HIGHLIGHTING THE BENEFITS
The nearby figure provides a summary of use cases that support service
creation, activation and assurance. Two of these cases are detailed in the
following sections.
USE CASE – ZERO TOUCH COMMISSIONING
Service providers are actively seeking ways to accelerate
service activation while lowering their operational costs.
One effective way to do so is to simplify installation and
configuration of their customer located network interface
device (NID). In the personal computer world, the model
is “plug and play,” where the user doesn’t have to do any
additional configuration to use a peripheral. In Ensemble
OSA, this notion is called Zero Touch Commissioning (ZTC).
The process of ZTC includes a number of phases:
• Installation – Depending on the service type and access link,
NID installation can be done by either a service provider’s
technician or by the customer.
• Discovery – Once the NID is connected and powered up, it
announces itself to the network over its uplink. The NID is
recognized based on an identifier such as its serial number,
Media Access Control (MAC) address or aggregator port. A
ZTC app records the fact that the NID is now installed.
• Reachability – An upstream server sends the NID its
reachability information, such as IP address, default gateway,
subnet mask and/or management VLAN. At this point, the
NID is reachable by standard IP protocols.
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• Software updates – The next step is to ensure that the NID has the correct
software version installed. The ZTC app determines the appropriate software
based on the device and application.
• Configuration – Once the NID is reachable and is loaded with the correct
software, it can receive its initial or commissioning configuration file. Typically,
this includes invariant items such as device name, location, uplink parameters,
etc.
Now, the NID is ready for services to be activated – all without an operator
having participated in any steps beyond connecting and powering the NID.
By automating the steps above and tying the actions into standard servers, the
whole process of connecting a customer is accelerated and optimized. This
process goes from being driven by calendars and checklists to being driven by
events and interaction with standard servers.
“By compressing the innovation
cycle to better address the
evolving needs of enterprise
business, wholesale, mobile, and
residential end users, Overture’s
Ensemble OSA will enable
carriers to be more agile and
give them greater flexibility in
responding to rapidly changing
market dynamics.”
- Ray Mota
ACG Research
Based on analysis done with a major North American service provider, Zero
Touch Commissioning can result in a 75% reduction in installation cost and
up to a 60% reduction in installation time.
USE CASE – VIRTUAL ROUTING/VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN)
Today, service providers use routers deployed at the customer site to provide
managed router and VPN services. In particular, Layer 3 VPNs are built using
this approach. A router at the customer premises (CPE) adds
cost and complexity to the deployment and operation of
these managed services.
Ensemble OSA provides the means to simplify this service by
moving the routing function from the CPE into the network
using the principles of NFV.
With Ensemble OSA and NFV, the service provider can deploy
a simple low cost CPE for all applications. Value added
services, such as managed routers and Layer 3 VPNs, can be
added on demand without changing the CPE. Other benefits
of this approach include reducing CPE obsolescence and
minimizing the of impact of service changes.
This last point is particularly important. Today, the cost of
doing software upgrades to CPE routers is tremendous.
• First, a service window has to be negotiated with the
customer. Often, there are contractual limitations on how
often this can occur, as well as on much notice must be given.
• Next, the software must be downloaded. The size of the
software image and the low speed of some access links
forces the download to be scheduled for off-peak periods
and/or downloaded at a shaped rate.
• Finally, activating the new software includes a reboot of the CPE. The operation
of the service then must be verified after the new software is up and running.
The steps above can be reduced or eliminated when the routing function is
virtualized and moved to software running in a VM. The service provider can
realize a 50% reduction in capital expense costs and a 50% savings in
operational expenses.
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USING THE CLOUD TO CREATE, ACTIVATE AND ASSURE
Ensemble OSA brings the power of the cloud to the metro edge enabling the
rapid innovation of new services along with radical cost reductions.
PRESENT MODE
Static, rigid, decoupled
services
18 months, $21M to
create a new service
(tier-1 service provider)
Barrier to innovation and
change
Manual adds/moves/
changes
Complex back-office
integration expense
consumes 65%-85% of
budget
Dumb pipes, best effort
services
Manual complex fault
management
Reactionary, decoupled
from service
WITH ENSEMBLE OSA
Dynamic, flexible, appaware
New services in weeks
Reduced cost to innovatequickly
respond to market
opportunities
Reduce or eliminate truck
rolls
Changes in minutes, not
days
Open architecture and
automation reduce time
and operational expenses
Intelligent, per-flow
fault and performance
management
Automated and intuitive
Continuous, real-time,
integrated
ACRONYMS
API Application Programming Interface
CDN Content Distribution Networks
MORE INFORMATION
Overture Networks is proudly introducing Ensemble OSA to the market. To
learn more about industry’s first open architecture for software-defined
services at the metro edge and how it can help you, please contact us at
info@overturenetworks.com.
ABOUT OVERTURE
Overture is the preferred provider of Carrier Ethernet solutions for the metro
edge. Known for innovative solutions that enable high-capacity Ethernet
services over any media including fiber, copper and TDM, Overture has
extended its commitment to innovation with Ensemble OSA. Ensemble OSA
is the industry’s first open architecture that brings the benefits of the cloud,
Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
and open innovation to the metro edge. By leveraging Overture’s Carrier
Ethernet expertise and this new open architecture for software-defined
services, network operators and service providers worldwide can maximize
operational efficiencies and introduce new revenue-generating services on a
scale never before possible.
Overture is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, NC, with sales offices
around the globe. For more information, visit www.overturenetworks.com.
CLI
CoS
CPE
IP
MAC
NFV
NID
OSA
QoS
RFC
SDN
SML
SNMP
SOAP
VM
VPN
ZTC
Command Line Interface
Class of Service
Customer Premises Equipment
Internet Protocol
Media Access Control
Network Function Virtualization
Network Interface Device
Open Services Architecture
Quality of Service
Request for Comment
Software Defined Networks
Service Management Language
Simple Network Management Protocol
Simple Object Access Protocol
Virtual Machine
Virtual Private Network
Zero Touch Commissioning
OVERTURE
Overture Networks, Inc.
Research Triangle Park, NC
tel: +1.919.387.4100
www.overturenetworks.com
© 2013 Overture Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. WP-ENS-030813