Edge Talk – Lanner Vlog

 

Communications service providers (CommSPs) are looking at ways to lower their operating and capital expenses (OPEX/CAPEX) by delivering network services more efficiently. The disaggregation of hardware and software driven by network functions virtualization (NFV) enables them to deliver virtual network functions (VNFs) on small-footprint white box universal customer premises equipment (uCPE), rather than a mix of standalone point products.

A key component of these next generation NFV-based solutions is the ability to leverage commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware platforms to simplify the NFV deployment model. This disaggregation of hardware and software elements is critical for enabling whitebox uCPE deployments, which are gaining popularity as an efficient and flexible way of deploying enterprise and residential communications services. 

Lanner collaborates with netElastic to deliver virtual Broadband Network Gateway and virtual Customer Premise Equipment based on Lanner’s customizable and scalable white-box hardware portfolio and netElastic’s software-based vRouter, vBNG and SD-WAN/vCPE solutions to the market. By software-defining and virtualizing their networks, CSPs and telecom carriers disaggregating hardware from software are leveraging x86 based white box hardware with high networking capabilities as their network and control functions, giving them agility and cost-effectiveness.

Lanner partners with Ekinops to develop a highly flexible universal customer premise equipment (uCPE) solution with simplified VNF deployment and management . The partnership enables Lanner Whitebox network appliances to be pre-validated with Ekinops’ Compose platform, addressing the new challenges for communication service providers (CSPs) in the age of virtualization with a consolidated, cost-effective, and VNF-ready uCPE for PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SD-WAN deployments.

Lanner and 128 Technology have partnered to bring optimized SD-WAN solutions to deliver a transport agnostic solution – combining MPLS and VPN services, 4G LTE, and legacy T1 services on a Lanner Whitebox uCPE platform. Pairing Lanner's uCPE with 128 Technology's Session Smart router software has resulted in a tunnel-free SD-WAN solution. The solution is ideal for providing dynamic services and on-demand network functions that require virtualization-ready uCPE platforms.

5G specifications are anticipated to revolutionize future network communications. To realize the potential of 5G, distributed network architecture is adopted to offer more agile and more reliable communications, based on edge computing infrastructure to minimize the latency in communications. In fact, SD-WAN and Multi-access Edge Computing are two major foundations of 5G that will enable operators to create new revenue streams, by virtualizing the network edge so that diverse networking and agile service delivery models can be realized. Recent successful applications include consolidated branch networking via vCPE, NFVI and SDN Switch, and ultra-low latency MEC.