Sponsored By
AUSTIN, Texas -- Big Communications Event -- Pop quiz: What is the biggest obstacle that operators face in regards to implementing SDN and NFV in their networks? The answer, according to a Deutsche Telekom exec, is legacy OSS and BSS systems.
During his BCE keynote address, Axel Clauberg, Deutsche Telekom's vice president of aggregation, transport, IP and fixed access, spoke about his company's vision for becoming a software-defined operator.
"The legacy OSS systems, the legacy BSS systems, including on the commercial side, are the biggest problem areas for most of the operators," Clauberg said. "We can simplify the network, we can introduce NFV, but we still don't solve a single problem for our customers if we don't fix the OSS issue."
To solve the OSS/BSS conundrum, Clauberg said Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) was developing a new system called "real-time network service and management," which is a fully YANG-based system that was inspired by SDN concepts.
In addition to software flexibility, DT's real-time network and service management system was designed to include standardized open interfaces and to accelerate product rollouts.
The other two elements for being a software-defined operator include drastically simplifying the IP network, which Clauberg said includes "cleaning up" legacy systems and building the infrastructure cloud. He said there needs to be tight integration of data centers and the IP network in order to build out the infrastructure cloud. The infrastructure cloud has to be fully automated, Clauberg said, which includes the "cloudification of network functions."
Clauberg also spoke about the need for operators to escape from being locked in a "vendor prison" by taking part in the Facebook's Telecom Infra Project (TIP). (See DT: Telcos Must Escape Vendor Prison.)
— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation
