NEC/Netcracker and Rostelecom have announced the first PoC interoperability test for transport SDN in Russia was successfully completed.

In the PoC, optical networking equipment from NEC, as well as their corresponding domain SDN controllers, were managed by an umbrella transport SDN controller provided by NEC/Netcracker. This new hierarchical approach to transport SDN provided complete end-to-end control and visibility, automating operations across three separate optical multivendor domains.

In the PoC, optical networking equipment from Huawei, NEC and Nokia, as well as their corresponding domain SDN controllers, were managed by an umbrella transport SDN controller provided by NEC/Netcracker. This new hierarchical approach to transport SDN provided complete end-to-end control and visibility, automating operations across three separate optical multivendor domains.

Cloud applications and IoT services are driving rapid bandwidth growth, resulting in the need for networks to scale more dynamically. It is also driving the need to accelerate service creation, deployment and restoration times. Rostelecom recognized the opportunity to meet this need through transport SDN. It also used this opportunity to put to test the true multivendor promise of virtualization.

The PoC was designed to test the scenarios mentioned above. The multivendor aspect was addressed by selecting Huawei, NEC/Netcracker and Nokia. The umbrella transport SDN controller provided by NEC/Netcracker provided a unified multidomain view, thereby increasing network agility, end-to-end visibility as well as rapid provisioning and restoration capabilities.

With these elements in place, Rostelecom network users can self-select new, on-demand transport services that are provisioned automatically and optimized dynamically according to bandwidth and network performance requirements.

The PoC also demonstrated significantly reduced service ordering, configuration and activation process times, cutting what used to take months to just hours. This reduces opex and results in simpler configuration processes. Based on the demonstration, service restoration after a fault can drop to an average of just several minutes.