Huawei, China Telecom Fujian serve up optical transport SDN

Huawei, China Telecom Fujian (Fujian Telecom) and China Telecom Beijing Research Institute have teamed up to deliver a transport software-defineable network (T-SDN), which is focused on delivering private line bandwidth on demand (BoD) over a transport network.

China Telecom said in a release that T-SDN will be part of its "Internet-based Transformation" road map for its transport networks going forward.

For this initiative, the China Telecom Beijing Research Institute introduced the concept of intelligent private line based on Internet and SDN concepts and developed a private line BoD app, while Huawei provided the network side T-SDN controller.

"The deployment proves that SDN-based open architecture and the standard northbound interface can realize various innovative applications and interwork with network platforms," said Zhang Chengliang, vice president of China Telecom Beijing Research Institute, in a release. "It is a key milestone for the development of transport SDN."

By using the app, customers could apply for private line services online which are then provisioned immediately and on demand.

Customers will also be able to adjust the amount of bandwidth on their private line connections based on particular attributes such as traffic volume, for example. Service providers can then also check the service performance of each customer, while conducting analysis of customer behaviors and developing flexible private line services that meet diverse customer requirements, with the aim to generate increased revenue.

China Telecom is hardly alone in its desire to use SDN to enable BoD. A number of U.S.-based telcos including AT&T (NYSE: T) are implementing SDN into their networks as part of a broader initiative to enable more control over their service experience.

In September, AT&T introduced its SDN-enabled bandwidth on demand service capability as part of its User Defined Network Cloud (UDNC) strategy it launched in February. Initially available only for its Ethernet service suite in Austin, Texas, the service provider will broaden its BoD capability to allow business customers to provision other services such as Internet VPN and VoIP at a later date.

For more:
- see the release

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