CHICAGO - Four providers of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) solutions announced today that they will publicly demonstrate their joint European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) NFV ISG-approved proof of concept (PoC) at the Big Telecom Event in Chicago, to be held June 17-18, 2014. The four companies are Cyan, RAD, Fortinet and Certes Networks.

Sponsored by CenturyLink, the multi-vendor distributed NFV (D-NFV) PoC is based on RAD’s dedicated customer-edge D-NFV equipment running Fortinet’s Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Certes Networks’ virtual encryption/decryption engine as Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) with Cyan’s Blue Planet system orchestrating the entire ecosystem.

As the sponsor of the PoC and a valued advisor, Tier 1 service provider, CenturyLink, continues as an industry leader in its commitment to innovation.

“The Distributed NFV concept supports CenturyLink’s managed services strategy by providing a platform for developing unique NFV-enhanced network services and bringing desired functionality directly to the customer premises,” said James Feger, VP of Network Strategy and Development at CenturyLink, and a keynote presenter at BTE. “We’re pleased to sponsor this ETSI multi-vendor proof of concept as it provides the industry with an opportunity to prove vendor interoperability while determining which functions work best at the edge versus the network core.”

D-NFV allows the placement of VNFs where they will be both most effective and least expensive, including at the customer edge. This approach enables service providers to quickly and easily roll out new services and implement advanced capabilities without having to put capital expenditures upfront into the data center or redesign the network. The PoC demonstrates an innovative, open and agile D-NFV deployment model comprised of multiple vendors collaborating to deliver key values for service providers using physical and virtual components.

Cyan Inc.

RAD Data Communications Ltd.

Fortinet Inc.

Certes Networks Inc.