The Telecom industry is changing and will change radically over the coming decade. Technology is now making it possible to decentralize most of the functions that used to be consolidated in the network. A few more years and smart phones will be an integral part of the overall network, in several cases creating a new network by themselves.
These changes are rooted in the enormous increase in computation and storage capabilities and the corresponding cost decreases that are making smart phones more powerful and accessible. Computing, including network resources is creating a gap between control and transport with control basically becoming software based (and as such it can be allocated anywhere, in the network, in phones, in service centers) and transport being so effective that it no longer needs to save resources.
Because of this phenomena we are today witnessing a growing attention for Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation proposing well-known paradigms of the past years; respectively a clear separation of hardware and software and virtualisation.
SDN and NVF are not directly dependent but are mutually beneficial; when coupled together they amplify the potential for innovative impact on telecommunications infrastructure. SDN and NVF paradigms are facets of an overall systemic transformation, called softwarisation that will also innovate computing architectures and even the roles of the terminals.
The main goal of the EIT Digital project SDN@Edge is to accelerate the exploitation of SDN and NVF at the edge of current infrastructures in order to produce business impact. The activity has three objectives;
- Defining SDN and NFV requirements, validation procedures and best practices in order to specify the framework to establish a Certification Centre for the business acceleration of SDN and NFV
- Deploying field trials to develop and validate two main use-cases (swarm for the home gateway and edge virtual services)
- Defining and testing new business models supporting the transition towards softwarisation
Summary of article featured in DueMille Special edition from MilanExpo 2015
