ADVA Optical Networking is getting into the NFV market, launching a new line of demarcation devices intended to allow network operators to smoothly introduce NFV services to their network.

The ADVA FSP 150-GE110Pro Series, currently in trials and to be available later this year, combines demarcation of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and IP services in one network element, along with security and privacy protections using its ConnectGuard technology. It runs standardized architecture to support third-party VNFs. (See ADVA Launches NFV Demarcation Products and ADVA Announces ConnectGuard Security Suite.)

Initial versions of the product will support centralized hosting, with VNFs centrally located. Later versions will host VNFs in the demarcation devices.

ADVA previewed its virtualization vision for Light Reading at MPLS SDN World Congress in March. Representatives from ADVA demonstrated routing, firewall and security controlled by a straightforward graphical user interface. (See ADVA Gets Real About Virtualization.

While NFV advocates dream of reducing the need for customer premises equipment (CPE) by running virtual functions in the cloud, the reality is that some functions need to be at the network edge. "If I move the firewall in the cloud, it looks like I have a secure perimeter with an open entry point. I have the firewall in the cloud but in between I go through a public network," Ulrich Kohn, ADVA director of technical marketing, told Light Reading. Enterprises will find that unacceptable.

Moreover, it's not possible to do everything with software. "You cannot do all functions as virtual network functions. There are some areas where you should do physical network functions -- as hardware," Kohn says. Hardware services improve performance and security.

Find out more about network functions virtualization on Light Reading's NFV channel.

The new ADVA product reflects those realities, by integrating encryption into CPE, Kohn says.

The demarcation device supports OpenFlow, to allow operators to automatically configure devices, as opposed to needing to do so manually.

In the future, ADVA plans to broaden support for VNFs, but it plans to leave orchestration and other higher-level functions to other vendors, who specialize and will do a better job, Kohn says.

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— Mitch Wagner, , West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].