Cisco, Amartus co-develop MEF OpenCS packet WAN usage case

Cisco and Amartus are jointly developing the new OpenCS (Open Connectivity Services) Packet WAN Use Case that is part of the Metro Ethernet Foundation's Open Initiative to accelerate the industry transition to orchestrated "Third Network" services.

During the recent Euro16 LSO Hackathon, Cisco, Amartus, and other members of the OpenCS Packet WAN project team showed how Carrier Ethernet 2.0 services can be orchestrated using an Open Daylight (ODL) SDN controller in combination with CE networking devices provided by Cisco. The team provided input for continued development of Presto NRP APIs as well as code contributions and recommendations for the ODL community.

The open projects are focused on developing what the MEF calls Third Network services based on LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration), SDN, and NFV encapsulated in OpenCS use cases and OpenLSO scenarios.

Within the MEF various groups are developing multiple OpenCS use case instances that represent the services under the control of a specific network operator but which are orchestrated as part of a federated system initiated by a Third Network service provider.

"The most important thing is to orchestrate services so they come alive instantly, but the biggest issue is that when you try to turn up the circuits is that in the internet there's no concept of this and no guarantees," said Pascal Menezes, CTO of the MEF, in an interview with FierceTelecom. "In the business network they want guarantees, and if the Internet was good enough we would not need MPLS and Ethernet."   

This specification gives businesses the agility of the internet with security and assurance for their services.

Service providers and vendor members are developing and testing reference designs of MEF-defined L1-L7 services using combinations of open and closed source software, open specification and commercial hardware (e.g. CE 2.0 certified devices), SDN, and NFV via MEF's LSO Presto Network Resources Provisioning (NRP) APIs.

MEF said the OpenCS Packet WAN project will deliver a multi-vendor enabled reference design that includes the Presto NRP API using an OpenDaylight (ODL) SDN controller as a platform. Additionally, the project involves OpenDaylight plug-ins defined in the ODL UNI Manager project.

The OpenCS Packet WAN project team will provide frequent feedback about the use cases, information models, and operations required for MEF network resource models to the MEF NRP project team and coordinate MEF contributions to the ODL community.

"Whether the telecom gear used is either proprietary or using Open Source like OpenDaylight, it would work as well to make sure it complies with the APIs we developed," Menezes said. "It then talks to a packet controller to provision services into the MPLS or carrier Ethernet network."

Packet WAN is just one of several initiatives that the MEF is developing to help guide service providers' migration to NFV and SDN. MEF is also developing specifications related to optical, SD-WAN, NFV and data center applications.

For more:
- see the release

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