NEC Corporation and its wholly owned Netcracker Technology subsidiary say they have partnered with Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN) and Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) to tackle Transport Software Defined Networking (SDN). The combined Transport SDN approach leverages NEC/Netcracker's multilayer control and service orchestration expertise, Infinera's optical transport and SDN knowledge, and Juniper Network's work in IP/MPLS, physical/virtual network functionality, and domain orchestration.
The combined offering provides full visibility across all IP, optical, and microwave domains, including SDN and traditional network environments, the partners say. The offering optimizes network use and automates service provisioning and path restoration, they add. Network operators can use the companies' combined expertise to accommodate changing traffic patterns and on-demand customer requests in an automated fashion that reduces costs, the three add.
The companies took part in the demonstration the Optical Interworking Forum (OIF) and Open Networking Foundation (ONF) recently completed to test the results of the Transport API project (see "OIF details release plans for SDN Transport API demo results"). During the demonstration, NEC/Netcracker's Multilayer SDN Controller used the new Transport API defined by the ONF to communicate with Juniper's NorthStar Controller at Verizon's lab and the Infinera Xceed optical SDN domain controllers at Telefónica's lab. NEC/Netcracker's Service Orchestration platform created and managed Ethernet point-to-point private services across multiple vendors and multiple operators' domains, the company added.
"We are excited to bring this new solution to market, showcasing how virtualization can enable a completely new set of automation and optimization opportunities to enhance networks with innovative visualization, operations, optimized capacity planning and utilization functionality," said Aloke Tusnial, CTO, SDN/NFV Business at Netcracker. "By partnering with industry leaders like Juniper and Infinera, NEC/Netcracker is bringing a pre-integrated best-of-breed solution that offers customers flexibility and choice in fundamentally rethinking their network design and level of automation."
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