This document provides a summary of Colt's evolution from MPLS to cloud networking. It discusses Colt's transformation to deliver services via software-defined networking and network functions virtualization technologies. This allows services to be provisioned in minutes rather than days and offers dynamic, pay-as-you-use commercial models. Colt is developing platforms like Novitas for network orchestration and Stratus for network virtualization to enable its On Demand services and automation. Future initiatives involve using artificial intelligence for closed-loop automation and intelligent service management.

1. ONS 2018, Los Angeles
Javier Benitez
Colt’s Evolution
From MPLS to
Cloud Networking

2. but before we start …
2

3. 3
Metropolitan Area
Network
Colt connected city
Operational network
managed end-to-end
900+
Network to network
interfaces
187k+
LDN, metro fibre
and subsea and
terrestrial leased
capacity
25k+
Buildings directly
connected
200+
Cities connected
across 28 countries
800+
Key data centres,
clouds and carrier
hotels connected
Optical Ethernet IP Voice
@ ✆
Security

4. Milan
Paris
Dallas
Los Angeles
Chicago
New York
Seattle
To Hong Kong
Singapore
London
Hong Kong
Japan
new sub-sea/Global100G links and North America IQNet Extension
4

5. 5
From
Traditional networking
To
Cloud Networking
− Manually driven
− Delivery time in days (10-20 days typically)
− Static (1 to 3 year contracts)
− End to end products
− Vendor-controlled releases
− Software driven
− Delivery time in minutes (5-10 minutes)
− Dynamic (real-time changes &
commercial models)
− Component based products
− Open platform with rapid release cycles
Service
Assurance
Billing
Service
modification
Service
configuration
Service
activation
Service
delivery
OrderQuote
Service
Assurance
Billing
Service
activation
Select and
request
Service
delivery
Manual process
Only when physical work is required
MINUTES
From Traditional to Cloud Networking

6. The foundation for Cloud Networking
6
Colt On Demand
Value Added ServicesConnectionsPorts
Today
Networking Ethernet Point to Point
IP-VPN (existing or new)
Ethernet Hub and Spoke
Ethernet Port IP VPN Endpoint
SD WAN EndpointMS Azure Port
Internet Port
AWS Port
Ethernet P2P connection
Ethernet Hub & Spoke
Wavelength
Internet Access
Security services
….
• Transforming our
services from end to
end products to
components
• Enabling customers
to build their own
service and
increasing our
ability to innovate
• Fixed commitment
or flexible per hour
rental commercial
model
• Portal or API based
consumption

7. Sentio
Network intelligence
Colt On Demand strategic initiatives
7
Novitas
Network orchestration
Stratus
Network cloud
• Automated real time service
quoting, ordering and delivery
• Service capability development
• SDN federation
• Powered by SDN control and
orchestration
• Automated service management
• Service modification /
restoration based on closed
loop automation
• Intelligent data analysis and
correlation
• Powered by AI / Machine
Learning
• Virtualization of network
resources
• Service chaining
• Powered by NFV telco cloud,
Universal CPE and NFV
orchestration
On Demand Platform
2015 2017 2018

8. Colt On Demand benefits
Fast Delivery
Flexible Bandwidth
Near real-time (few minutes) service activation
Fully flexible service attributes (BW, Vlans, etc)
Coverage On-net, Public Clouds and future off-net (SDN Federation)
Full control Services are self-provisioned via customer portal or API
Disruptive
commercials
Pay-as-you-use billing per-hour no-commitment contracts

9. Colt on Demand consumption models
9
3. Modify in real time
the bandwidth of a
connection
1. Reserve / release
ports
2. Create / delete a
connection between
user-reserved ports
Standard HTTP based RESTful API
delivered with TLS over the internet
Create
Read
Update
Delete
Building Database 
Location    
Port    
Connection    
Request  
Product / Price 
Charges 

10. 10
The API is functionally equivalent to the portal. There isn’t
anything that can do through the portal that can’t be done
through the API.
The API will be of most interest to future focussed customers,
who are trying to build end-to-end automation for internal
efficiency and want to automate on-site infrastructure, cloud
and network.
MEF LSO framework is being used to standardise the inter-
carrier SDN Federation with the aim to extend Cloud
networking beyond a single operator’s network
SDN API Facts

11. Cloud Networking commercial models
11
A end port
Installation fee 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Connection
Installation fee + per hour rental
B end port
Installation fee
• Ports have an associated ‘capacity’
• One off charge for creation of the port
(1 port for each end)
• One off charge for creation of the connection
• Recurring charge based on the bandwidth
ordered
• Fixed term contracts over 12/24/36 months
• Possibility to flex the bandwidth up
Fixed
commitment
• No minimum contract term
• Connection bandwidth charged
on an hourly basis
• Possibility to flex the bandwidth
up or down
Flexible
model 100
200
300
1 432
BandwidthMbps
Days
Bandwidth billed

12. OSS
12
VoIP Optical Packet
x86
Merch
Silicon
Next Gen
OSS
Manual operations
towards closed loop
automation
Partially SDN enabled
towards multi-layer SDN
& NFV architecture
Proprietary technology
silos towards whitebox
and cloud
OLOs OLOs
Static technology E-NNIs
towars on-demand
capable SDN NNIs
Today Tomorrow
Colt Architecture Evolution

13. Colt on Demand platform
13
Colt
IQ Network
NovitasColt On Demand
Web Portal
Service Exposure API
Network
Control
OSS
VNF VNF
VNF VNF
VNF VNF
3rd party Networks
Business
Orchestration
Multi Domain Service Orchestrator
Packet Network
SDN Controller Optical Network
SDN Controller
SDWAN
Controller
Network
Virtualisation
Controller
NFV
MANO
…...

14. Sentio
Network intelligence
Colt On Demand strategic initiatives
14
Novitas
Network orchestration
Stratus
Network cloud
• Automated real time service
quoting, ordering and delivery
• Service capability development
• SDN federation
• Powered by SDN control and
orchestration
• Automated service management
• Service modification /
restoration based on closed
loop automation
• Intelligent data analysis and
correlation
• Powered by AI / Machine
Learning
• Virtualization of network
resources
• Service chaining
• Powered by NFV telco cloud,
Universal CPE and NFV
orchestration
On Demand Platform
2015 2017 2018

15. Colt On Demand and SD WAN propositions
15
Point to point
“On-net” (Fibre)
Colt On-Demand
Multi-site
“Off-net & on-net”
mix
SD WAN
Two different offerings
1
2
Future Evolution
IPA On Demand
Intercontinental Services
DCA On Demand
IBM & Google Clouds
Regional GWs
US/Asia
Advanced
FW, WAN Opt.
Universal CPE
(NFV)
Optical On Demand
SDN Federation

16. Public clouds
DCA On Demand
Ethernet On Demand
Enterprise buildingsEnterprise buildings
DCNet On
Demand
Data centres Data centres
Colt on demand offerings
570+ DCs
20,000 on-net
buildings

17. MPLS Link
Public Internet
Branch site Customer WAN
Use internet to
lower access cost
Agility at the edge
with NFV (uCPE)
Traffic & bandwidth
management
Central policy
control via portal
Critical vs
non-critical sites
SD WAN – Agile WAN Networking
SD WAN and MPLS VPN
complement each other
Customer Portal

18. Roadmap – Optical On Demand
18
Control Layer
Optical Infrastructure Layer
CMD
WSS
WSS
WSS
CMD
WSS
WSS
WSS
CMD
WSS
WSS
WSS
CMD
WSS
WSS
WSS
TP
TP
MP
MP
TP
TP
MP
MP
Topology
Path
Computation
Service
Abstraction
Resource
Manager
API
Open
ROADM
Control
Programmable ROADM,
flexible grid and GMPLS
Super-channel,
sliceable and
SD modulation
Alien wave, open line
system and open ROADM
Novitas
Colt On Demand
Web Portal
Service Exposure API
Network
Control
OSS
3rd party Networks
Business
Orchestration
Use Cases (Optical OD)
Carrier Customer
Automation Service Flexing
Multi-vendor Full Control
Multi-layer
optimisation
Flexible
Commercials

19. SDN federation
19
SDN API
Novitas Engine
3rd Party Network
BSS/OSS/
Orchestration
SDN-NNI
Portal
BSS/OSS Systems
3rd Party’s
Customer
API
On Demand
Colt
Customer
Public Demonstrations
 Jul 2016 : AT&T – Colt
 Nov 2017: MEF17 PoC
 Mar 2018: Verizon - Colt
Colt co-leads standardisation of SDN
APIs in MEF

20. 20
Enterprise
Service Catalogue /
Enterprise Orchestrator
“Cantata”
Endpoint
Novitas Engine
Direct Connect
API for SPs
AWS APIs
AWS Virtual Private Cloud
“Sonata”
Endpoint
Enterprise deviceEnterprise device
AT&T Network
MEF 2017 PoC Award (Service On Demand)

21. Sentio
Network intelligence
Colt On Demand strategic initiatives
21
Novitas
Network orchestration
Stratus
Network cloud
• Automated real time service
quoting, ordering and delivery
• Service capability development
• SDN federation
• Powered by SDN control and
orchestration
• Automated service management
• Service modification /
restoration based on closed
loop automation
• Intelligent data analysis and
correlation
• Powered by AI / Machine
Learning
• Virtualization of network
resources
• Service chaining
• Powered by NFV telco cloud,
Universal CPE and NFV
orchestration
On Demand Platform
2015 2017 2018

22. Colt unified NFV architecture
22
Fragmented NFV architecture Unified NFV architecture
Compute
Virtualisation
Network
Virtualisation
RR
Generic VNF-Manager
SDWAN
NFV -Orchestration
VIM
OSS / BSS
Systems
Novitas
Engine
NG NMS
Virt.
Route
Reflectors
Virt.
SDWAN
Virt.
SPB
Virt.
Firewall
OSS / BSS
Systems
Novitas
Engine
NG NMS
COMPLEXITY SCALES EXPONENTIALLY
AS EACH NEW VIRTUALISED FUNCTION
IS INTRODUCED
COMPLEXITY SCALES LINEARLY
AS EACH NEW VIRTUALISED
FUNCTION IS INTRODUCED
Fragmented NFV architecture
• Inefficient use of compute and
networking infra
• Operational complexity due to
multiple HW stacks
• Long and complex
introduction of new VNFs
• Parallel and fragmented
service mgmt and orch
Unified NFV architecture
• Automation and shared
infrastructure management
• Cost efficiency
• Rapid VNF on-boarding
• E2e service lifecycle
management
• Service Catalogue offering
• Reduction of operational
overheads and dev cycles
OSS / BSS Systems
NFV
MANO
Shared Compute (x86)
& Storage
Infrastructure
Switching
Fabric
NFV Infrastructure (NFVI)
NFV -
Orchestration
VNF
Manager
Virtual
Infrastructure
Manager
(VIM)
Compute
Virtualisation
Network
Virtualisation
VNF 1 VNF 2 VNF 3
VNFs
ETSI NFV Reference Architecture

23. 23
L2 CPEx86 HW
Colt
Packet Core
L2 PE L3 PE L3 PE L2 PE
NFVI
PR
INTERNETENNI OLO
L2
CPE
Colt Stratus RFP
1
2
3
uCPE
NFV-I
NFV-O
Building Blocks
• OpenStack Controller
• SDN Controller
• Platform FCAPS + OSS
• Compute & Storage Nodes
• Switching Fabric & NW
Gateways
Building Blocks
• OpenStack Controller
• SDN Controller
• Platform FCAPS + OSS
• Compute & Storage Nodes
• Switching Fabric & NW
Gateways
NFVI
uCPE
x86 HW
VNFs
uCPE
VNFs
VNFs VNFs
uCPE Manager
NFV-O
uCPE Manager
On-net
Customer
Hybrid
CustomerColt Tier 1 Node Colt Tier 2 Node

24. Sentio
Network intelligence
Colt On Demand strategic initiatives
24
Novitas
Network orchestration
Stratus
Network cloud
• Automated real time service
quoting, ordering and delivery
• Service capability development
• SDN federation
• Powered by SDN control and
orchestration
• Automated service management
• Service modification /
restoration based on closed
loop automation
• Intelligent data analysis and
correlation
• Powered by AI / Machine
Learning
• Virtualization of network
resources
• Service chaining
• Powered by NFV telco cloud,
Universal CPE and NFV
orchestration
On Demand Platform
2015 2017 2018

25. Future – AI driven networking (project Sentio)
25
• Fully automated service management
• Service modification / restoration (e.g. by
automatic scaling in and out of VNF resources)
Realtime
Closed-Loop
Automation
Infrastructure
Logs, telemetry etc.
Controllers Analytics Engine
• Intelligent data analysis
and correlation
• Based on new machine
learning and artificial
intelligence technics
Traffic flow classification
WAN path optimisation
Fault prediction
QoE modelling
Network security
Service restoration
Network scaling
Intelligent BW on demand

26. 26
Learnings so far
• Networking as an application
• Product cloudification
• Focus on the customer experience
• Engage customers on product requirements
• Embrace agile development
• Open networks – work with partners and
competition
• Manage software complexity
• Redesign organisation and processes

27. Thank you
Colt on Demand demo
goo.gl/ZEdwYK