While telcos such as AT&T and Telefónica have been shining beacons for the use of SDN, NFV and network virtualization, cable operators haven't been as progressive to date -- but that could soon change.
During the "Virtualizing the Cable Architecture" panel at last week's Next Gen Technologies & Strategies conference, operators discussed how the cable industry could implement the second-phase of SDN, as well as virtualize customer premise equipment (CPE) and certain elements of networks. (See SDN's Second Act: What It Means for Cable.)
One of the emerging trends for SDN, according to the panelists, is customer-facing use cases, which would include CPE for both residential and business services.
But just because something can be virtualized doesn't necessarily mean it should be, according to some of the panelists.
"We've been looking at different use cases," said Nagesh Nandiraju, director, network architecture, Comcast. "Pretty much every network function can be virtualized. Whether it makes business sense, or makes technological sense, is where we're evaluating these different functions."
Nandiraju said Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) was looking at both Layer 2 and Layer 3 VPN services using overlay networks, which is a strategy that has been successfully deployed in the enterprise sector by other service providers. Comcast is also kicking the tires on IPv4-as-a-service in order to make the core network leaner for IPv6.
"One of the things that we're very well invested in is using NETCONF/YANG models," Nandiraju said. "The concept of delivering services in a programmatic way -- that's one of the things that is already happening.”
— Mike Robuck, editor, Telco Transformation