Alcatel-Lucent launches SDN network services platform
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Alcatel-Lucent launches SDN network services platform

Alcatel-Lucent has launched an SDN-based Network Services Platform (NSP) designed to unify service automation and real-time network control.

The platform claims to allow operators to provision services in seconds, cut development time and costs by over 50%, and increase revenue-generating traffic.

It is said to automate multi-vendor IP/optical provisioning so operators can turn up services in seconds instead of days or weeks, as well as provision IP, Ethernet and optical services across all network layers over any vendor’s equipment.

The platform utilises new technology from Bell Labs and its consulting group that allows service providers to manage their network more efficiently. Self-tuned adaptive routing algorithms are said to use information such as link traffic and use, in addition to network topology and state, to establish the most efficient transportation path. For example, service providers can move paths to avoid network congestion or dynamically release locked bandwidth to allow additional customer services to be added.

“I am proud of what the NSP team has created, working closely with our customers and leveraging our in-house expertise in IP/MPLS, optics and service-aware network management.  We have created a simple interface that can deal with the complexity of network control across multiple technologies,” said Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP routing and transport business. “We built it from the ground up to enable a true carrier SDN that allows our customers to thrive in today’s cloud-driven world.”

In this year’s CIL Report, which is available online now, a staggering 79% of respondents selected SDN as an important technology already on their roadmap – a huge leap in confidence for the technology compared to 2013 results. 

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