ADVA Optical Networking has launched its FSP Network Hypervisor, which the company describes as a key component in the drive to virtualise optical networks. The software has been developed to help service providers automate service discovery and service activation, when paired with the ADVA FSP 3000 platform.
The Hypervisor creates an abstracted view of the underlying physical infrastructure, and presents it to a software defined networking (SDN) controller, helping to decouple the complexities of managing photonic transmission systems from the hardware layer. Already showcased in multiple public demos and various proof-of-concept installations, the ADVA FSP Network Hypervisor has been engineered to work with all open source and commercial SDN controllers.
Christoph Glingener, CTO, COO, ADVA Optical Networking, commented: “Our FSP Network Hypervisor is the next logical step in making our connectivity solutions truly open – in the data plane as well as in the control plane. At its core, it’s all about reducing complexity and helping carrier service providers and internet content providers to be far more responsive to their networks’ needs. It enables real-time response to load changes, automatically reacts to network failures and ensures the most effective path computation. These are things that today’s static networks simply can’t do. You can now achieve in minutes what formerly took hours or even days.”
With hypervisor software, service providers can move away from static networks to far more automated and responsive cloud architectures. The ADVA FSP Network Hypervisor essentially assists service providers with topology discovery and abstraction, connectivity management, path computation and notifications. This in turn leads to self-provisioned services, automated resiliency and optimised resource utilisation. These are critical features for any carrier or internet content provider seeking real-time cloud connectivity and multi-layer network optimisation, especially for software-centric network architectures, such as the Central Office Re-Architected as a Data Center (CORD) concept.
“What stands our FSP Network Hypervisor out from the crowd is its robust performance and widespread use,” commented Stephan Rettenberger, SVP, marketing and investor relations, ADVA Optical Networking. “Since 2014, it’s been widely demoed and used in numerous proofs of concept. As such, it’s already been thoroughly tested with all major SDN controllers, including those from Juniper Networks, NEC/Netcracker, ONOS and OpenDaylight. This is something no other vendor can claim.”
He added: “When you pair our FSP Network Hypervisor with our FSP 3000 DCI and network infrastructure solution, you have a highly scalable, open platform that is unparalleled in the industry. It provides real-time cloud connectivity with multi-layer network optimisation. What’s more, it’s all open and standardised. This is something that few others can claim.”
The software will be showcased at this year’s OFC 2017 exhibition in Los Angeles, from 22 to 25 March, and will be included in the Optical Internetworking Forum’s SDN transport API interoperability testing.