1. SDN and NVF Network Evolution
Steve Goeringer, Director, sgoeringer@polarstarconsulting.com
14900 Conference Center Dr.
Suite 280
Chantilly, VA 20151
www.polarstarconsulting.com
703.955.7770

2. Are NFV and SDN truly new?
¤ Of course not
¤ The intention of SDN is very similar to advanced intelligent networking (AIN)
¤ The intention of NFV is basically a natural extension of many general
networking and computer science principles such as
¤ OSI protocol abstraction
¤ Object oriented design and programming
¤ Were these legacy ideas successful?
¤ AIN – not so much
¤ AIN has to wrestle with very complex state machines in amongst distributed systems
¤ Alternative technologies emerged at the same time as competitiors
¤ Computer telephony à VoIP
¤ Cellular phones
¤ Protocol abstractions as specified under OSI are fundamental principles today
¤ Object oriented programming was widely implemented and was
transformative, but was also not right for everything
¤ There is much to learn from history
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3. SDN and NFV ARE critical to network evolution
¤ Simplicity
¤ Cost effectiveness
¤ But, can we do more?
¤ These are the obvious strategies
¤ Can we focus adding value? On improving customer experience?
¤ We know that we’re not there yet. Consider cloud networking…
¤ Cloud networking is largely enabled by SDN and NFV prototypes
¤ L2 networking is very limited
¤ Multicast – not supported
¤ Broadcast – not supported
¤ Network resiliency – why would you care about that?
¤ Network aware processing – what’s that?
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4. Imagine…
¤ …a network where you only do gross capacity planning and network
disruption NEVER impacts the customer…
¤ Congestion not a problem…
¤ Protection events at L1 or L2 or even L3 have no impact….
¤ Good-put == throughput (wow!)
¤ Security is a design benefit rather than a cost factor…
¤ Never miss an SLA
¤ Engineering simplicity
¤ No ring constraints…
¤ Mesh network benefits with much simpler implementation…
¤ Experience management based on fact, not assumption…
¤ In other words, now you really can just throw bandwidth at the network and
your users will experience consistently excellent transport service
¤ I believe we are very near to being able to provide such a network
¤ THIS VISION REQUIRES NO NEW TECHNOLOGY.
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5. Assured Packet Delivery
NOT New
¤ “Survey of Packet Loss Recovery Techniques for Streaming Audio”,
Colin Perkins, Orion Hodson, and Vicky Hardman of University College
London, IEEE Network, September/October 1998
¤ Comprehensive taxonomy of solutions
¤ Not all are applicable to every business goal or application
¤ Some are not practical for some network implementations

7. Pervasive performance management
¤ Performance management should be executed with an eye towards
ensuring customer experience
¤ You can’t manage what you don’t measure
¤ Devices end-to-end
¤ Flows end-to-end, across multiple segments, and multiple sessions
¤ Think of it this way: Data analytics and big data applied to networks with an
eye towards measuring and managing customer experience.
¤ Lots of tools
¤ Netflow (and kin), syslog, RMON, SNMP
¤ Open source tools
¤ Proprietary purchased environments
¤ Expensive?
¤ Sure, but most things worth doing are
¤ SDN and NFV may enable flexibility that lower costs
¤ Lots of the data is already collected is done for security purposes
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8. Parting questions
¤ Can you do all that your customer needs alone?
¤ Do you know your customer’s experience with the services you do
provide ?
¤ Can you ensure service delivery in an international market increasingly
comprised of multiple service providers based on multiple technologies
using a wide range of equipment and software manufacturers?
¤ These are hard problems…
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