Providing open solutions that minimize vendor lock-in are keys to the continued growth of SD-WAN services, writes Heavy Reading's Jim Hodges.

Light Reading/Heavy Reading and MEF have teamed up once again to launch a global SD-WAN Strategies Survey focused specifically on the opportunities for managed SD-WAN services offered by network operators to enterprise customers.

It's time for the industry to walk the 5G walk.

Over the past 12 months in informal discussions with both CSPs and their vendors, it became clear that NaaS was transitioning from the promising technology column to a strategic imperative technology.

One of the major issues for the mobile networking industry going into 2020 is the deployment of 5G core networks and the migration to 5G standalone operation.

Heavy Reading's Gabriel Brown takes stock of the recent TIP Summit, praising the progress made by the industry body but highlighting some blind spots.

Sunrise Communications, the second-largest telecom operator in Switzerland, reported third-quarter service revenue growth of 2.0%.

With service providers installing so much fiber in their plant right now and seemingly no end in sight, the need for automated test solutions will only keep growing.

For the Australian incumbent, reskilling an entire workforce is the route to a successful network and IT transformation.

Four key themes emerged from a recent HPE and Intel reception, 'From NFV to Cloud Native: Future Proofing Your 5G investment.'

A new set of NFV challenges is emerging as operators plan the shift towards cloud-native applications and a container-based strategy.

It's not just about mobile, you know...

Fixed broadband service provider developed its own OSS and BSS systems, a move that gives it cost efficiencies compared with traditional systems and advanced data analysis capabilities, according to its executives.

Among the many considerations facing network operators as they make the leap into the 5G world, service assurance is right up there with the toughest, as CSP executives will explain at the upcoming Software-Driven Operations summit in London.

The Eurasian operator has flipped its digital strategy to give greater autonomy to its geographically diverse operating companies.

With hype around all things 'edge' on the rise, Heavy Reading launched a research study to gain a realistic understanding of how edge computing will affect the future of network connectivity.

There's early evidence that network operators are getting to grips with the opportunities associated with 5G edge cloud architectures.

As operational models evolve, telcos are turning to public cloud platforms to host their OSS and BSS systems, but there are still hurdles to overcome.

Disruptive Indian operator is embracing open source as it evolves its back office strategy.

Heavy Reading recently managed a request for information (RFI) process for a network operator – here's what happened...

The term 'telco cloud' is used often, but it can mean different things to different people.

In a half-day conference at IBC in Amsterdam next week, Intel and partners will show off the visual cloud and demonstrate how it can deliver rich, immersive, interactive video experiences and graphics-based workloads.

Edge computing brings high-performance storage, compute and network resources closer to users and devices than ever before.

Enterprises and other organizations want to operate private mobile networks, but what are their options for getting the needed spectrum?

For the first time, Light Reading will offer two breakfast roundtables on key tech topics at this fall's SCTE|ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans – the first on network virtualization and the second on cable and 5G.

As a keen OSS-BSS observer, I like to parse financial disclosures to gauge the health of the market.

For any operator, revamping an entire business support system (BSS) architecture in just six months and cutting IT opex by 80% as a result is a notable achievement.

Dedicated 5G campus networks, designed to meet the coverage, performance and security requirements of industrial users, are one of the most exciting – and tangible – advanced 5G use-cases under development.

LiFi is the latest effort to bring optical wireless communications into the commercial communications networking fold.

Operators gather in Paris for three days of meetings to simplify NFV infrastructure.

If AI is to play a role in communications network operations, a high degree of trust will be required. Explainable AI might be the route to gaining that trust.

Cable operators may not not need to go all-fiber or adopt the new Full Duplex DOCSIS spec to deliver symmetrical 10Gbit/s speeds to broadband subscribers.

International wholesale operator wants to play a bigger role with enterprise customers but adding services such as data center interconnect and SD-WAN requires additional operational and business support tools.

While there is a fair degree of hype around the term 'cloud native' and plenty of misuse by software marketeers, it is clearly an important topic among CSP CTOs and CIOs.

Telcos need new ways to monitor their services and networks and some are turning to the open source community for inspiration.

What's the best way forward for operators when it comes 5G transport networks?

A collaboration between the industry's largest trade group of mobile network operators and the preeminent open source consortium is aiming to simplify and harmonize dozens of NFVi efforts.

The latest release from The Linux Foundation's Acumos AI Project offers some interesting incremental improvements.

What role will CSPs play as the Internet evolves to support new consumer applications?

NaaS growth stems from the belief that by leveraging the programmability of the cloud, CSPs can create customizable VNF-based services for anybody who requires a full scope of services and does not want to deploy their own infrastructure.

The telco distributed cloud model is gaining support among service providers, even ahead of extensive 5G rollouts.

To gain a realistic understanding of operators' views and plans for transport, Heavy Reading launched its first-ever 5G Transport Market Leadership Study with support from Ericsson, Fujitsu, Juniper and VIAVI Solutions.

US operator is moving toward a more proactive and predictive operational model as it uses AI tools to extract greater value from its data, but there are hurdles to overcome.

Automated control of optical is set to move from labs and single-vendor deployments into the mainstream in the coming years – with 5G as a driver.

Reflections and predictions from a career in the telecom industry.

The Super C-band development from Huawei adds an additional 50% to a standard C-band implementation.

My musings and observations on OpenStack, the open source community, what's working and what could work better.

AI and machine learning are already key components in the closed-loop control of BT's programmable network.

Automation offers the best hope for managing today's vastly complex networks – so what's the hold-up?

The good news is that service providers understand which tools and capabilities they will need to not only successfully implement 5G security services, but also differentiate them.

Consumers are increasingly seeking simple, easily searchable and personalized viewing experiences anywhere, everywhere and all in one place.

The ON2020 group is looking to address the optical transport challenges presented by the predicted surge in user traffic on carrier networks.

The focus on business readiness at Mobile World Congress served to reinforce the importance of fully addressing the business of security requirements.

Without question, the additional requirements that the 5G control plane supports will inject additional complexity into security enforcement.

The scope of 5G security changes is so broad that it is a tall order to address all the resulting challenges in lockstep.

Automation plays a critical role in the ongoing digital transformation of the telecom industry.

A new Heavy Reading white paper explores various approaches to Continuous Delivery/Deployment in the telecom domain.

The two operators have been working to develop a number of NFV infrastructure (NFVi) configurations to meet the needs of different types of virtual network function (VNF) deployments.

Digital warriors from major telcos gathered at a recent Action Week organized by the TM Forum to find out how their peers are building new IT architectures that encourage service development and innovation.

Communications service providers are about a fifth of the way towards their virtualization targets.

Edge networking and edge cloud are closely associated with 5G. It's not an overstatement to say edge computing is inherent to 5G architecture.

Heavy Reading's James Crawshaw talks to the team at UK operator TalkTalk about their efforts to revamp their all-important support systems.

No, it's not a self-help group for struggling authors...

A new Tractica report looks at how cable providers are mining their big data and using data-based methods to boost network performance, resolve service issues and manage customer care.

In a comprehensive new study conducted for Incognito Software Systems, Heavy Reading finds that communications service providers must implement new OSS strategies to support their next-generation fiber-based services.

IPV6, security, DNS evolution and automation were all on the agenda at the UK Network Operators' Forum gathering in London.

Developing an open architecture for domain-specific accelerators could empower service providers to accelerate edge computing and related applications.

Auctions of 5G-suitable spectrum are now generating billions. Meanwhile, vendors are waiting on a different bounty — the further billions operators will need to spend to finally realize their 5G ambitions.

US cable providers are gearing up to play a crucial role by supporting transport of 5G communications, but their aspirations are clouded by the complexity of 5G itself.

Many operators are expected to initially deploy 5G RANs in non-standalone mode on an LTE network, migrating later to standalone mode. But that migration is less than straightforward, and there are multiple options to consider.

Next-generation networks need innovation in the radio access network and Open RAN developments are set to disrupt the market – in a good way.

The optical line system is undergoing a revolution. Web-scale providers are bringing the concept of disaggregation to optical networking in the form of the open line system (OLS). But are operators buying it?

The Linux Foundation's Acumos AI Project has issued its initial release on schedule but its 'app store' is still rather bare.

Operators need an accurate, up-to-date network and service topology view in order to determine the 'Eulerian path' of service configuration and implementation.

Most communications service providers (CSPs) surveyed for this month's Thought Leadership Council (TLC) report feel they are on track with network security planning, but more than 80% of respondents worry about future technology being used to launch complex attack vectors.

The growth of public and private cloud data centers is driving a strong and growing market for high-performance switch chips, and the choices dominating operators in the market make will have a dramatic impact.

The BT executive shares his views on NFV, automation, in-house development, what he wants from his team and more.

Zen Internet, an alternative ISP in the UK, has ambitious growth plans and is looking to a refresh of its back office software, including the introduction of SDN capabilities, to help achieve its goals.

Almost 70% of service providers in this month's Thought Leadership Council (TLC) survey say they either already have or will move compute and application execution to the edge by 2020.

For CenturyLink, transformation is about enhancing its business in terms of effectiveness, cost efficiency and customer experience. So how is it trying to achieve that?

Open source MANO (management and orchestration) developments are providing network operators with something of a conundrum.

Collecting large volumes of data is one thing. Making sense of it is another.

Further innovation is needed if optical transport networks are to support traffic growth and there was plenty of evidence at a recent ECOC workshop that key work is already underway.

Survey finds that many CSPs are boldly forging a path towards the open, agile, automated and efficient networks the telecom industry requires.

Communications service providers (CSPs) are working towards more open architectures as they develop their next-generation networks.

The 5G market is set to take off soon, and vendors are racing to make their first 5G radio access network (RAN) offerings available.

Yves Bellego, director of network strategy at Orange, explains how the operator is approaching automation, how it has developed a data lake and the ongoing challenges associated with NFV.

Open source may have gained support from the communications service provider (CSP) community, but there are some major challenges in making use of it.

Cable is exploring coherent optics technology to better access the cable network and improve fiber networks to increase capacity tenfold.

To really get the benefits of the applications that are possible in a 5G world, the industry first needs to transition to software-defined testing and assurance solutions that are flexible and efficient.

Issues relating to services orchestration have still not entirely been resolved.

The 5G Transport event will examine how packet/optical networking, edge data centers and distributed cloud platforms can combine to support the new 5G RAN and core architecture, and the many new service types associated with 5G.

Key developments and research for future optical networks will be discussed during a special workshop at ECOC on Sunday, September 23.

To meet the goals of network quality, customer experience and cost containment, operators will need to embrace even more intelligent forms of network maintenance.

Communications service providers (CSPs) are slowly adopting automated processes for their Internet of Things (IoT) network architecture, with more than 80% of CSPs who participated in this month's panel citing automation as critical to their IoT networks.

When it comes to mobile technology generations, telecom operators are highly procrastinational.

Respondents to Heavy Reading's Multicore Processor and Switch Survey consider programmability as the most important differentiator in switch functions.

5G looks to be much more than just a way to deliver faster wireless access… it could lead to a new way of designing, deploying and operating communication networks.

While more locations – perhaps orders of magnitude more – presumably mean better service performance, it also means more devices that someone needs to install, monitor, maintain and troubleshoot.