Towards “soft” networks?
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 by Roberto SaraccoWe have seen the increasing power of software in terms of virtualizing hardware. Of course the hardware does not disappear, software needs chips to run on, but it may become irrelevant where these chips might be. And moreover, the chips being used may be some that have not been developed to run that specific software.
Now a company, Nicira, is taking a step forward and aims at virtualizing the network, and not a small one: its goal is to virtualize all telecommunications network(s)! Take a look at their vision of a software based network.
Its founder was at Cisco for several years and now is on a war path to make Cisco switches a thing of the past. Not sure if that is going to happen, I asked a colleague of mine to comment on this, but clearly the software and the flexibility that it brings changes the way we look at objects. Their characteristics, be it a digital camera or a tablet, are no longer perceived in terms of usage as dependent on the object hardware, rather on the software that we can run on it.
Clearly, if, and it is a big if, this approach can extend to networks there will be several casualties along the way. Operators have to really ponder the implications. No way to get rid of wires and antennas but all the value that is today inextricably connected to the management of those hardware pieces may shift to software and to those that are able to provide the most effective one!
Tags: virtualization.
April 24th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Roberto, thanks for this post. Right last week I had a meeting in Colchester (at ONDM2012) with some Industrial and Academic Partners who are running RT&D activities on “soft net”. I’ve got the impression that several progresses have been made in the last few years (at least since when Standford launched OpenFlow – http://www.openflow.org/): today there are more prototypes, many pieces of open source software, concrete plans for experiments in EU funded initiatives (e.g. MAINS -http://www.ist-mains.eu/ – lead by Telefonica or SPARC – http://www.fp7-sparc.eu/ – lead by Deutsche Telekom), and ideas of biz exploitations.
It seems there is a momentum, now: I see, for example, besides several EU and US funded initiatives, more Industries and Operators joining the Open Networking Foundation (https://www.opennetworking.org/ – founded in 2011 by Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, and Yahoo!), which is a forum with the goal of accelerating the development and axploitation of Software-Defined Networking.
It looks like a shift of paradigm, a way of looking at the network with a fresher perspective. Let’s see some examples. Virtualization in “soft net” allows network isolation and decoupling: i.e. on the same physical infrastructure it will be possible to design and deploy coexisting but isolated network architectures best fitting, dynamically, service demands (just like having different OS – Window, Linux – on the same laptop). This will reduce costs and increase flexibility. Also it will enhance (low levels) network programmability (Network API), a strong enabler for providing new network services to ecosystems flourishing above the network.
Interestingly, RT&D on “Soft net” are intercepting also other relevant activities on future networks such as: scalable control planes for seamless (G)MPLS, high throughput flow processing, cost-effective packet forwarding, network resource control and conflict resolutions, and interoperability with the Cloud. Imagine crossing this also with autonomics.
Clearly it will be fundamental exploring visions and ideas of the business exploitations. Operators are starting thinking about it (this afternoon I had an interesting chat on this with a colleague of FT-Orange: they have activities in S.Francisco on this). Imagine an Operator wishing to enter a new market where it has no infrastructure: “soft net”, in principle, should allow to deploy, rapidly and with low costs, a network (or multiple nets) through agreements with the physical infrastructure Provider. (by the way, this is what I like calling “network uploading” , see this post http://www.blog.telecomfuturecentre.it/2010/09/17/network-uploading/).
Indeed Operators have to ponder this and eventually be ready in case such a shift will really take place.
April 24th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Yes, it really looks something worth looking at. May be a soft net applied to an Operator Network would requires many years to become real but I can see something happening at the edges of the network sooner. And that can become viral…
June 7th, 2012 at 6:03 am
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