SDN: The Road to Customized Services

Telecom operators will be able to use a combination of software-defined networking (SDN) and Carrier Ethernet 2.0 capabilities to develop services that are better suited to customers' needs, according to Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Stan 'Etherman' Hubbard. "Combining carrier SDN and CE 2.0 capabilities will accelerate the ability of operators to deliver more customized services, more rapidly, over much more efficient networks," Hubbard told Light Reading. "The community of industry thought-leaders that we've assembled at Ethernet Europe 2013 will explore the extensive standards and technology developments that will take the services market to a whole new level," he said, adding that the event will be the first in Europe to focus on the benefits derived from the convergence of Carrier SDN & CE 2.0. Hubbard added that DWDN and Carrier Ethernet have delivered more network bandwidth in recent years but that operators were no further forward in tackling their operating costs, a critical consideration for all carriers. "SDN helps to address that," he said. Hubbard won't be the only person at the Ethernet Europe event talking about SDN and its kissing cousin, network functions virtualization (NFV), during the Ethernet Europe event. Uwe Janssen, vice president of Innovation & Research at Deutsche Telekom AG, will be providing an update on the work of the NFV Industry Specifications Group, which was formed in late 2012 under the auspices of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), while Nicolas Fischbach, director of Network Platform & Strategy And Architecture at Colt Technology Services Group Ltd, will be discussing the role of SDN in next-generation services. NFV and SDN will also be hot topics of conversation at the "Eurotrashed" early evening networking gathering that will take place in the Champions Sports Bar at the Frankfurt Marriott Hotel, where the event is located. To find out more, check out the Ethernet Europe LinkedIn group. — Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading