SANTA CLARA -- AT&T is considering offering bare metal switches and servers to consumers as customer premises equipment for the carrier’s services.
在开放网络峰会会议here, Andre Fuetsch, AT&T senior vice president, Architecture & Design, said the economics of commodity bare metal switching, as well as the scale, performance and programmability, make it appealing for the carrier to sell into the customer premises.
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Fuetsch said bare metal/white box switching also makes sense at the carrier’s cell sites and central offices.
他在ONS主题演讲中说：“白盒不仅适合数据中心。”2020欧洲杯预赛AT&T’s massive software-defined networking and network functions virtualization project。许多操作员等运算符正在部署裸金属/白色盒子开关，以使其服务和操作网络更加灵活和可扩展。
“成本是最大的驱动因素之一，但它也是灵活性，更具控制性，”富斯施在接受采访时说足球竞猜app软件。“通常，客户会购买特定供应商的硬件盒，他们必须运行其软件。通过拥有一个更开放，更灵活的盒子，可以使客户可以选择他们运行的特定VNF（虚拟网络功能）：一个供应商的防火墙，一个供应商的负载平衡器，一个供应商的虚拟路由器。”
Fuetsch说，客户场所的白色盒子开关也可以运行应用程序，例如虚拟化IP PBX。
“因此，在CPE上，这些盒子非常灵活，非常可扩展，它们具有伟大的经济性，我们相信客户将想要它们。”
Fuetsch说，这些交换机将运行一个统一的操作系统和协议堆栈，表面上是由AT＆T开发的，它也将在AT＆T云中运行，以进行规模和操作简单。然后，客户将能够更改在其顶部运行的VNF，无论软件堆栈在场所还是AT＆T云中。
Fuetsch说：“为了出售具有正确性能，可靠性并在其上批准的服务，我们必须对其运行的堆栈有一定的控制权。”
AT&T is also looking at extending SDN and NFV “down the stack” into Layer 1 functions such as optical transport and access. Reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers are proprietary and rigid, he says, so software programmability would enhance configurability and provisioning.
In access, SDN and NFV can be used to offer virtualized optical line termination for fiber-to-the-home deployments based on Gigabit Passive Optical Networks. Indeed, AT&T is looking atON.Lab’s ONOS SDN controller, which AT&T helped define, for that specific function, Fuetsch says.
As for AT&T’s own internal SDN transformation of its service network, Fuetsch says the carrier is 5% of the way along on its goal of 75% virtualization by 2020.
他说：“我们现在正在建立基础。”“一旦我们建立自动化并开始将我们的沙箱（我们的孵化和认证环境）成熟，明年将于2016年大大提高。”
AT＆T通过确定技术和生产准备的200个目标VNF的方式来保持得分。Once determining which services make the 200 VNF target list – legacy services like ATM, frame relay and TDM voice will not – AT&T evaluates the degree to which each is virtualized, under SDN control, and integrated into the carrier’s Enhanced Controller Orchestration Management Policy (ECOMP) operations management framework.
Fuetsch说，ECOMP“为我们提供了更大程度的自动化和自主控制。”
AT＆T Labs开发了ECOMP的政策引擎。差异化是为什么AT＆T开发了自己的原因，而不是采用OpenDaylight基于小组的政策模型之类的原因。
“A lot of our secret sauce makes our architecture unique and differentiates it from the others,” Fuetsch says.
他说，VNF还必须能够通过实时交通或工作量。一旦这些200 VNF中有75％达到了虚拟化，可编程性和实时流量先决条件，AT＆T将达到其75％的虚拟化里程碑。
But VNF suppliers also have to meet stringent requirements. Of the 10 announcedAT＆T的SDN项目的域2.0供应商Fuetsch说，到目前为止，只有四个制造了沙箱，可以通过一套严格的虚拟网络指南和要求将其产品放置。他拒绝说哪一个。
And in terms of customer-facing VNF services, AT&T’s Network On Demand is an SDN back-ended offering rolled out in 100 markets. It uses Brocade’s OpenDaylight-based Vyatta controller as its brains.
AT＆T为转售者提供的MVNO服务基于确认网络的进化数据包核心和控制器。Fuetsch说，随着时间的推移，所有三个控制器（Vyatta和Onos）都可能会收敛到整个服务网络的一个总体控制器。
ONOS might have the inside track.
“OpenDaylight is much more of a grab bag,” Fuetsch says. “There are lots of capabilities, a lot more contributions have gone into it. ONOS is much more suited for greenfield. It takes a different abstraction of the network. We see a lot of promise and use cases for ONOS – in the access side with a virtualized OLT as well as controlling a spine/leaf Ethernet fabric. Over time ONOS could be the overall global centralized controller for the network. But because we have the existing network – brownfield -- we have to coexist” with other controllers. “ONOS is still maturing.”
尽管AT＆T倾向于开源，但AT＆T也正在评估Cisco中心的基础架构和VMware的NSX控制器的角色。AT＆T在其数据中心使用了NSX，但它可能会为其和2020欧洲杯预赛ACI提供更大的作用。
“We haven’t gone public with where we are going with those,” Fuetsch said. “Going forward with our Domain 2.0 architecture the real question is, who is going to be the main player that we end up using? That is still yet to be announced.”
Fuetsch说，在AT＆T近两年域2.0 SDN/NFV旅程中，最大的挑战是对传统运营过程的变化。更改网络意味着更改以前构建，操作，管理，扩展和人群的所有方式。
Also, AT&T combined its network and IT staffs into a 2,000-strong workforce dedicated to Domain 2.0.
“There’s a lot of cultural inertia,” Fuetsch said. “We’ve relied on the supply chain to be the integrators. Now that role is shifting to us. That has cultural implications. The network engineer of yesterday has to be a lot more software savvy for tomorrow. Network engineers and IT engineers speak different languages.”
但是与此同时，现在它正在开放，这是一个激动人心的时刻。
“现在是鼎盛时期，”富施说。“既然网络正在开放，我们可以做很多令人难以置信的事情来利用。这确实是对软件的解放。我们将看到巨大的创新加速。”