This document discusses industry progress towards next-generation open-source operations support systems (OSS) for virtualized networks. It touches on many topics including virtualization, SDN, NFV, APIs, ONAP, and challenges faced by both communication service providers and OSS vendors in transitioning to new architectures. Key challenges highlighted include integrating new systems with legacy OSS, managing hybrid physical and virtual networks, change management across domains, and developing the necessary policies and analytics to ensure control loops function properly.

1. INDUSTRY PROGRESS TOWARDS A NEXT-GEN
OSS FOR A VIRTUALIZED NETWORK
James Crawshaw, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading

2. Nobody knew OSS could be so complicated
“There is so much change happening on so
many levels within OSS that every one of us is
a freshly-minted incompetent, no matter how
much prior competence we may’ve built up.”
Ryan Jeffery, passionateaboutoss.com
This is not Ryan Jeffery

3. I wouldn’t start from here

4. A Transformational Journey – Marmota Monax
Packet switching
Virtualization Intelligent network
Digitalization

5. Telco NFV Hyperbole Wave
Source: Zenoss

6. Cloud is disruptive
Source: Economist

7. SDN + NFV + 5G + IoT + OTT = Hagwalah
Source: YouTube

8. Resistance (to change) is futile
“I’ve been involved in
telecom operations for
decades, and I’ve learned
that there is nothing in
networking as inertial as
OSS/BSS.”
Tom Nolle, President of CIMI Corp.
Source: spiritandpeople.com

9. Silo mentality
How IT
people see
each other
Source: Cognizant

10. Hierarchies
And this is
how
hierarchies
work within
departments
Source: Swisscom

11. Why are we doing this again?

12. The Impact of OTT on Telecom ARPU
WhatsApp, Viber, and Apple’s
iMessage represent >80% of all
messaging traffic
Skype accounts for >33% of all
international voice traffic
minutes

13. CSPs take lion’s share of industry revenue
-
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
1,600
Semiconductors Network Equipment Wireline & Wireless
Operators
Content Distribution
(cable & satellite)
Content Creators /
Aggregators
Device Manufacturers
Revenue($bn)
2010
2015
Surprise!
Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis based on data from S&P Capital IQ

14. Revenue growth drive by mobile-first world
Source: AID & International Development Forum

15. But telco margins have declined
Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis based on data from S&P Capital IQ
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Semiconductors Network Equipment Wireline & Wireless
Operators
Content Distribution
(cable & satellite)
Content Creators /
Aggregators
Device Manufacturers
EBITDAmargin
2010
2015
Ouch!

16. Margin decline may reflect traffic growth
China Unicom’s public
Internet traffic growth
accelerated in 2015 and
2016.
Mobile Internet traffic
in China grew 140% in
1H17
Source: China Unicom

17. Traffic growth but no ARPU uplift
Source: 3Austria

18. However, CSPs still take majority of industry EBITDA
Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis based on data from S&P Capital IQ
-
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Semiconductors Network Equipment Wireline & Wireless
Operators
Content Distribution
(cable & satellite)
Content Creators /
Aggregators
Device Manufacturers
EBITDA($bn)
2010
2015
Because we have the
bulk of the physical
assets and capital
employed!

19. EBITDA share of the industry has nonetheless fallen
Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis based on data from S&P Capital IQ
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Semiconductors Network Equipment Wireline & Wireless
Operators
Content Distribution
(cable & satellite)
Content Creators /
Aggregators
Device Manufacturers
EBITDAshare
2010
2015
Woe is me!

20. Decline reflects position in pyramid of digital needs
Telecom, Just Eat
Twitter
Facebook
MOOCs
Bitdefender

21. OK, how do we do this then?

22. To V or Not to V(irtualize)
Difficulty to virtualize
Costsavingsthroughvirtualization
Source: Heavy Reading graphic adapted from NFV by Medamana & Siracusa
Media processing
Core router
DSLAM
Wireline access
Edge router
Wireless access
C-RAN
EMS, NMS
IMS
Appliances e.g. firewall
Gateways
CPE – home & biz
Control plane elements e.g. DNS

23. What Rostelecom has virtualized
Enterprise application TTM has fallen from > 1 year to < 2 months
Source: Rostelecom

24. A common information model is the solution
Source: ETSI

25. Making snowflakes from Lego

26. All your problems can be solved with APIs
Source: TMForum
“In the future it is all
going to be about
APIs and
interoperability
between the various
tools involved, which
is something open
source has always
been better at than
proprietary solutions.
The traditional OSS
vendors that
recognize this will
likely survive.”
- Patrick Moore,
Itential

27. Open source makes all your problems disappear
Source: Linux Foundation

28. Is ONAP the holy grail?
• Do CSPs just download the ONAP code and find a friendly systems
integrator to get it working?
• Shannon & Yates (AT&T) admit that “the effectiveness of ONAP will be
governed by the effectiveness of the policies and analytics that define the
control loops”.
• They go on to say that “a ‘bad’ control loop, introduced either accidentally
or maliciously, could have a significant negative impact on network and
service”. Service designers and operators will be responsible for setting
appropriate policies and implementing “guard rails” to prevent policy
conflicts leading to unintended negative consequences.
• NFV may reduce the need for tier 1 support rushing to central offices to
replace faulty equipment but it will increase the need for tier 3 skills such
as mapping alarm correlations, scripting policies, training AI agents,
troubleshooting VNF errors and debugging software-based problems.

29. The Unified Theory of OSS
re: ONAP, OSM and so on
The emperor has no clothes. Teams of tailors
are busy sewing, but we're not much past
the Borat swimsuit level of coverage. There's
still a lot of Grand Unified System stuff going
on here while the small mammals of Ansible
and Chef are doing little things well. Which
method will win out is TBD [to be decided].
Anonymous Coward, The Register
ONAP Community Members by Company
Source: AT&T

30. The generosity of Intel
• Network Builders Program
• Workshops driven by Intel Network
• RFI/RFP inputs from Intel
• Samples to conduct POCs
• Free of Charge Consultancy
Source: Turkcell

31. Can vendors redeem themselves?
Source: Dilbert

32. OSS Vendors – Heavy Reading Mystic Square™
Light Reading Revenue ($m)
HeavyReadingRevenue($m)
Up & coming Winners
Losers Bonkers
A
J
I
H
G F
ED
C
B
Names have been
changed to protect the
innocent

33. Operationalizing SDN and NFV Networks
• Activation – enabled via an intuitive portal with pre-defined templates for
service definition & composition, service activation, modification, etc.
• Provisioning - based on standard protocols such as NETCONF/YANG and
TOSCA to enable end-to-end chaining of functions from multiple vendors.
Must include support for rollback.
• Inventory management - inventory needs to be considered at the service,
application and resource level (container/VM, server, etc.). Repository
needed to track license usage and VNF versions. Automated discovery
needed to establish real-time topology view.
• DevOps – need to automate testing and deployment of changes across
multiple environments. Feedback from operations on production networks
is rolled into subsequent product sprints.
• Service assurance – see panel 3

34. Integrate with OSS and gradually replace
• Most CSPs will extend their existing OSS for hybrid network/services.
• Given that legacy/physical network function/devices will continue to be
used for the foreseeable future CSPs will have to manage hybrid (part
physical, part virtualized) networks. Hence existing OSS will need to be
extended (in some way) to work together with the new management and
orchestration systems that support NFV.
• Shannon and Yates write that “to be able to relate end-to-end service
measurements with VNF and PNFs, we must have detailed end-to-end
service paths … these can be nontrivial to obtain”.
• They go on to note that “change management [and troubleshooting]
activities will need to be coordinated across [physical and virtual]
domains”.
• In fact, Shannon and Yates see the scope for ONAP to manage PNFs and
hence “it can enable legacy OSSs and BSSs to be retired”.

35. And the answer is … 42