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Bringing Open Broadband Technology to Brazil with Telefonica

Published Date
Author Rajesh Chundury

Broadband Service Providers are looking for practical approaches to scale their fiber access networks that allow them to remain flexible and agile without sacrificing quality or incurring greater costs. Radisys’ award-winning Connect Open Broadband portfolio has the complete software defined cloud-native solution service providers need to not only integrate open broadband solutions into their network to reduce costs but also provides them with an easy migration path to scale their networks, both for migration of the passive optical network (PON) network control and management functions to the cloud and introduction of next-gen PON technologies, as they grow.  

Radisys has been working with Telefonica on field trials of our Connect Open Broadband technology in Brazil to demonstrate the benefits of open software and white box hardware. This is the first implementation of open broadband architectures in Brazil, and we are very happy with the results to date. To outline the results of this trial, Telefonica and Radisys have collaborated on a white paper that outlines the deployment of Radisys’ Open Connect Broadband portfolio including the first field trial of a truly open whitebox optical line terminal (OLT) solution.

 

Architected for broad interoperability

Radisys provided an architecture that addressed Telefonica’s network needs and provided it with an upgrade path as it migrates to XGS-PON that offers faster speeds, more capacity, and being able to serve more customers, both business and residential. Connect Open Broadband allows service providers to implement a programmatic phase-in of new equipment versus a complete rip and replace as their network needs and technology change.

Radisys is committed to tightly integrated Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and Broadband Forum (BBF) community-defined open interfaces. For example, while many “whitebox OLT” solutions claim to be open, they are only open to a certain number of vendors’ PON control and management products. Radisys’ Connect Open Broadband OLTs are truly open whitebox OLTs and have been certified by the ONF to demonstrate interoperability with open source VOLTHA (Virtual OLT Hardware Abstraction). The trial has the Connect Broadband Access Controller (CBAC), a VOLTHA based PON control and management software, running on the Whitebox OLT to ease the introduction without affecting the existing network operations.

In the Brazilian trials, Telefonica has deployed its own gateway units at the customers’ premises. Because Radisys’ hardware is an open whitebox OLT, service providers can mix and match solutions in their networks without experiencing interoperability issues. Operators can change out hardware and install another vendor’s whitebox OLTs without having to worry about downtime. Additionally, provisioning and updates can be done via Radisys Management System (RMS), an element management system (EMS), being pushed out from a central location like a data center, eliminating the need to physically do the work in the field.

 

Moving to the cloud

One of the major benefits of open disaggregated broadband solutions is the ability to move both the PON network control and management to the cloud. Connect Open Broadband abstracts functions from proprietary black boxes to software running on open whitebox solutions and allows service providers to disaggregate their networks and reduce costs through software-defined network control. 

The RMS allows service providers to move their central office functions to the cloud. By introducing virtualization to these central office functions, RMS enables service providers to integrate their Operations Support Systems (OSS), Business Support Systems (BSS), and multi-vendor network components into a single web-based interface for simplified operations and optimal efficiency. Because it can be cloud-based, RMS easily scales to maintain high-performance levels even as the number of network events increases.

Radisys Connect Broadband Access Controller (CBAC) transforms traditional broadband access (OLT) into a virtualized form (vOLT), which allows operators to drastically reduce their central office capital and operating costs. Its microservices architecture and cloud-native design allow service providers to enable on-demand scaling and deployment agility and simplify network operations with end-to-end orchestration for a seamless customer experience.  

 

Adaptable hardware

One of the ways Radisys helps simplify network operation costs is by offering hardware that conforms to a number of open standards. Radisys offers an intelligent, scalable and secure software-defined PON distribution based on the Open Networking Foundation’s (ONF) SEBA reference platform and enhanced with Radisys innovation. This architecture also allows for a seamless introduction of the Broadband Forum’s OB-BAA architecture by conforming to the standard YANG models with the Northbound Interface (NBI).

As part of the trials, Telefonica installed Radisys’ RLT1600X OLT, an ONF Certified “Any-PON” solution that will allow it to support both G-PON and XGS-PON without the need to change out or upgrade the PON hardware and simplify network operations cost-effectively. The Any-PON solutions allow operators to switch from G-PON to XGS-PON on a port-by-port basis, ensuring they have the infrastructure in place.

Radisys’ Connect Open Broadband portfolio also features a whitebox Combo PON OLT that supports both G-PON and XGS-PON within the same PON port of the OLT. The whitebox OLTs are based on the ONF’s VOLTHA/SEBA reference architecture and are field hardened and scaled for commercial deployments today. This architecture provides a compact fixed-form factor solution with high port densities to deliver data center-driven cost efficiencies and simplify deployments.

 

Learn more about Connect Open Broadband Portfolio

Read the full Telefonica and Radisys white paper to learn how Radisys Connect Open Broadband portfolio is capable of supporting any combination of PON technology and helps service providers and municipalities make the transition from vendor-specific proprietary black box solutions to virtualized, fully programmable software working with white box hardware-based network elements.

Radisys Connect Open Broadband portfolio was recently selected as the winner in the Innovation in Network Technology category for the 10th Annual 2021 Pipeline Innovation Awards. Connect Open Broadband was selected as the winner by a panel of key stakeholders from top service provider, analyst, and financial institutions from Pipeline's Industry Advisory Board.

Radisys remains committed to providing service providers with the best open solutions that deliver flexible deployment options, open network designs, and microservices architectures. To learn more, visit https://www.radisys.com/connect/connectopenbroadband.

 

Rajesh Chundury, Vice President, Customer Solutions