Pierre Lynch, Lead Technologist, Ixia Product Management
Mats Nordlund, CEO & Co-founder, Netrounds
Ricardo Torres, Director of Product Marketing, VeEX Inc
Alistair Scott, CTO Staff Technologist, Viavi Solutions
Communications networks are being virtualized because virtualization provides remarkable benefits. Virtualization complicates operations, however. The responsibility for dealing with many of those complications falls on test & measurement companies.
Even some of the network operators who are virtualizing as quickly as technology allows have not anticipated some of these issues. In this one-hour discussion, four leading T&M companies will not only identify the hidden pitfalls of virtualization, but talk about some of the best ways to side-step them. Industry collaboration is key to developing NFV testing and validation techniques that provide carriers with the assurance needed to move virtualization technologies from the lab to production. The importance of active, software-based test and service assurance becomes even greater as operators must ensure that their services are delivered right the first time and any issues can be detected in real-time in an end-to-end manner. Automation will be a key enabler of service agility. And at the end of the day -- or more accurately, at the edge of a virtualized network -- signal integrity will remain critical.
- How virtualization increases the importance of highly sophisticated T&M equipment for installation and maintenance.
- Key testing developments within ETSI and other industry organizations including OPNFV and the IETF.
- How to programmatically assure services with the increasing complexity of the network, to achieve zero-touch automation and greater degrees of flexibility and dynamic control.
- How test as a service (TaaS) can enable the test and monitoring aspects of the service to be automated through service orchestration, all in support of service agility
Brian Santo, Senior Editor, Test & Measurement/Components, Light Reading
Santo joined Light Reading on September 14, 2015, with a mission to turn the test & measurement and components sectors upside down and then see what falls out, photograph the debris and then write about it in a manner befitting his vast experience. That experience includes more than nine years at video and broadband industry publication CED, where he was editor-in-chief until May 2015. He previously worked as an analyst at SNL Kagan, as Technology Editor of Cable World and held various editorial roles at Electronic Engineering Times, IEEE Spectrum and Electronic News. Santo has also made and sold bedroom furniture, which is not directly relevant to his role at Light Reading but which has already earned him the nickname ‘Cribmaster.’
Pierre Lynch, Lead Technologist, Ixia Product Management
Pierre Lynch is a Lead Technologist with the Ixia Product Management organization. In his role Pierre drives technology strategy, product portfolio alignment with technology trends, and Ixia participation in industry standards bodies and organizations. He is vice-chair of the ETSI NFV Test Working Group and rapporteur for key work items. Pierre brings over 20 years of diverse experience in the telecommunications industry.
Mats Nordlund, CEO & Co-founder, Netrounds
Mats comes from a successful engineering background focused on test and measurement in the telecommunications industry. Prior to co-founding Netrounds, Mats managed nationwide projects within broadband services and fixed wireline access at the Swedish network operator TeliaSonera Networks. Previously, he also spent 7 years as a research engineer with both Ericsson’s and Telia’s research and development arms. Mats obtained his Master of Science degree in Computer Engineering and Signal Processing from Luleå University of Technology in Sweden.
Ricardo Torres, Director of Product Marketing, VeEX Inc
Ricardo Torres is a founding member of VeEX. He leads the product marketing, strategic positioning and product management of VeEX’s Ethernet portfolio. He is also responsible for the company’s global business initiatives encompassing Carrier Ethernet/IP networks, mobile backhaul, 40GE/100GE and Ethernet synchronization technologies. Prior to joining VeEX, Ricardo worked at Sunrise Telecom, where he was responsible for managing the Ethernet/IP portfolio. He has also worked at Agilent Technologies in the area of high-speed fiber optic networking.
Alistair Scott, CTO Staff Technologist, Viavi Solutions
Alistair works in Viavi Solution’s CTO Office, responsible for NFV and SDN strategy. He participates in multiple influential groups working on NFV, including ETSI and ON.Labs’ CORD project, driving automated orchestration of network service test and assurance. He brings over 30 years of experience in the real-time systems and telecommunications domain and holds multiple patents for real-time monitoring and data analytics. He has earned Computing Science and MBA degrees, and lives in Colorado, USA with his family, who don't yet share his passion for networking technology.
