Sckipio unveils G.fast SDN initiatives

G.fast silicon startup Sckipio Technologies has announced a pair of moves aimed at promoting support of software-defined networking (SDN) in G.fast broadband access networks. The company says its new management stack will support the construction of G.fast distribution point units (DPUs) that can be controlled via the Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) and that uses the standard G.fast YANG data model, with traffic managed via OpenFlow. Sckipio says it also has partnered with ON.Lab to further enable SDN control of G.fast DPUs and CPE.

The new management platform and networking stack includes NETCONF YANG, CLI, SNMP, IGMP, DHCP, MSTP, Y.1731, and CFM support. It also is designed to comply with all relevant Broadband Forum G.fast management specifications (WT-301, WT-318/355 drafts) as they are released. The stack, which runs on the PMC-Sierra WinPath family of network processors, is currently available.

The collaboration with ON.Lab, developer of the Open Network Operating System (ONOS), will leverage some of these capabilities to help promote SDN-controlled G.fast networks. The companies will demonstrate G.fast DPUs under ONOS control as part of a wider Central Office Re-architected as Datacenter (CORD) demonstration with AT&T at the upcoming Open Networking Summit, June 15-18, 2015 in Santa Clara. The demonstration will show a virtualized OLT from PMC-Sierra interfacing with an SDN-controlled, Sckipio-based G.fast DPU. Broadband signals will run through a Sckipio G.fast bridge to a simple CPE whose traditional functions will be virtualized and relocated to the CORD central office.

"Our collaboration aims to leverage Sckipio's expertise to ensure that the next wave of access devices, specifically those for copper-based, local loop broadband, support the vision of an end-to-end virtualized network access model under SDN control instead of being built on proprietary solutions running in closed, siloed environments," said Guru Parulkar, executive director of ON.Lab and ONRC.

Sckipio was the first company to introduce G.fast DPU and CPE silicon (see "G.fast chipsets from Sckipio Technologies debut"). The company also has partnered with iPhotonix on network functions virtualization (NFV; see "Sckipio, iPhotonix partner for G.fast NFV").

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