arlier this year at ITW, I highlighted the fact that the industry transition to assured services orchestrated across automated networks is accelerating due to an increase in collaboration efforts among service providers, technology vendors and other industry players.
I am happy to report from our
vantage point at MEF that we have seen transformational momentum continue to build throughout the past 12 months.
We see this reflected in the enthusiastic embrace of MEF 3.0 by top service and technology companies worldwide, progress across all major aspects of MEF 3.0 development work, and a massive increase in MEF 3.0-related proof of concept (PoC) activity.
We have more than 50 companies participating in 20 PoC demonstrations at the MEF18 networking event in Los Angeles, (which takes place from 29 October to 2 November).
Urgency for transformation
Aamir Hussain, EVP and CTO of CenturyLink, recently said: "Our industry is going through a massive transformation where customers are learning from an Amazon-like buying experience and a Netflix-like watching experience."
Customers want simplicity and agility, and they are looking for service providers to help them navigate through their own transformation.
With each passing day, we see a consensus building that service providers must become more cloud-like, automated and interconnected to deliver the dynamic performance and security required to thrive in the digital economy.
MEF introduced the MEF 3.0 global services framework last November to define, deliver and certify assured services orchestrated across a global ecosystem of automated networks.
Major areas of work include standardised, orchestrated services; open lifecycle service orchestration (LSO) APIs; and service, technology and professional certification.
The planned MEF 3.0 service family includes dynamic Carrier Ethernet, optical transport, IP, SD-WAN, security-as-a-service, and other virtualised services that will be orchestrated over programmable networks using LSO APIs.
These services promise to provide an on-demand experience with unprecedented user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities.
MEF enhanced the family of current MEF 3.0 CE services by publishing a specification, MEF 62, that defines a new managed access e-line service with a specific set of management and class of service capabilities designed to accelerate service provisioning and simplify management of services that traverse multiple operators.
MEF approved our first optical transport services specification, MEF 63, for subscriber services that support Ethernet and fibre channel client protocols as well as SONET/SDH client protocols for legacy WAN services. This paves the way for service providers to automate multi-vendor service offerings.
MEF published MEF 61, the subscriber IP service attributes technical specification, as the first in a planned series of IP specs to describe subscriber and operator IP services. This is an important step toward our goal of enabling orchestrated IP services.
In a landmark development, we are moving close to publishing the industry’s first standard for defining an SD-WAN service and associated service attributes by the end of this year. Meanwhile, numerous MEF members have been involved in a multi-vendor SD-WAN implementation project with the goal of addressing the challenge of orchestrating services over multiple SD-WAN deployments, and they will have a proof of concept demonstration related to this work at MEF18.
MEF’s LSO reference architecture guides development of standardized LSO APIs for end-to-end service orchestration across multiple providers and over multiple network technology domains. We have work related to multiple interface reference points, but I just want to touch on LSO API development associated with two key reference points.
Inter-provider LSO APIs
All eyes have been focused on development of inter-provider LSO Sonata APIs that deal with business and operations interactions between connectivity providers. As MEF’s CTO Pascal Menezes has shared in a companion article (page 42) focused on LSO Sonata, MEF is on track to release a set of LSO Sonata APIs related to serviceability, product inventory, quoting, ordering, trouble ticketing, and commercial billing and settlement.
MEF has released two specifications that advance intra-provider orchestration of MEF 3.0 services over multiple network technology domains: MEF 59, the network resource management: information model, and MEF 60, the network resource provisioning: interface profile specification. As a result, the LSO Presto API for automated network resource provisioning is now available for standardised use with a mix of network technologies.
Certification
In July, MEF recognised the first three companies in the world to achieve MEF 3.0 certification: Ciena, H3C and CMC Telecom of Vietnam.
Meanwhile, we have expanded our professional certification programme to include MEF-SDN/NFV, MEF Carrier Ethernet certified professional, and MEF network foundations certifications.
We look forward to sharing more progress in the coming months.
arlier this year at ITW, I highlighted the fact that the industry transition to assured services orchestrated across automated networks is accelerating due to an increase in collaboration efforts among service providers, technology vendors and other industry players.
I am happy to report from our
vantage point at MEF that we have seen transformational momentum continue to build throughout the past 12 months.
We see this reflected in the enthusiastic embrace of MEF 3.0 by top service and technology companies worldwide, progress across all major aspects of MEF 3.0 development work, and a massive increase in MEF 3.0-related proof of concept (PoC) activity.
We have more than 50 companies participating in 20 PoC demonstrations at the MEF18 networking event in Los Angeles, (which takes place from 29 October to 2 November).
Urgency for transformation
Aamir Hussain, EVP and CTO of CenturyLink, recently said: "Our industry is going through a massive transformation where customers are learning from an Amazon-like buying experience and a Netflix-like watching experience."
Customers want simplicity and agility, and they are looking for service providers to help them navigate through their own transformation.
With each passing day, we see a consensus building that service providers must become more cloud-like, automated and interconnected to deliver the dynamic performance and security required to thrive in the digital economy.
MEF introduced the MEF 3.0 global services framework last November to define, deliver and certify assured services orchestrated across a global ecosystem of automated networks.
Major areas of work include standardised, orchestrated services; open lifecycle service orchestration (LSO) APIs; and service, technology and professional certification.
The planned MEF 3.0 service family includes dynamic Carrier Ethernet, optical transport, IP, SD-WAN, security-as-a-service, and other virtualised services that will be orchestrated over programmable networks using LSO APIs.
These services promise to provide an on-demand experience with unprecedented user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities.
MEF enhanced the family of current MEF 3.0 CE services by publishing a specification, MEF 62, that defines a new managed access e-line service with a specific set of management and class of service capabilities designed to accelerate service provisioning and simplify management of services that traverse multiple operators.
MEF approved our first optical transport services specification, MEF 63, for subscriber services that support Ethernet and fibre channel client protocols as well as SONET/SDH client protocols for legacy WAN services. This paves the way for service providers to automate multi-vendor service offerings.
MEF published MEF 61, the subscriber IP service attributes technical specification, as the first in a planned series of IP specs to describe subscriber and operator IP services. This is an important step toward our goal of enabling orchestrated IP services.
In a landmark development, we are moving close to publishing the industry’s first standard for defining an SD-WAN service and associated service attributes by the end of this year. Meanwhile, numerous MEF members have been involved in a multi-vendor SD-WAN implementation project with the goal of addressing the challenge of orchestrating services over multiple SD-WAN deployments, and they will have a proof of concept demonstration related to this work at MEF18.
MEF’s LSO reference architecture guides development of standardized LSO APIs for end-to-end service orchestration across multiple providers and over multiple network technology domains. We have work related to multiple interface reference points, but I just want to touch on LSO API development associated with two key reference points.
Inter-provider LSO APIs
All eyes have been focused on development of inter-provider LSO Sonata APIs that deal with business and operations interactions between connectivity providers. As MEF’s CTO Pascal Menezes has shared in a companion article (page 42) focused on LSO Sonata, MEF is on track to release a set of LSO Sonata APIs related to serviceability, product inventory, quoting, ordering, trouble ticketing, and commercial billing and settlement.
MEF has released two specifications that advance intra-provider orchestration of MEF 3.0 services over multiple network technology domains: MEF 59, the network resource management: information model, and MEF 60, the network resource provisioning: interface profile specification. As a result, the LSO Presto API for automated network resource provisioning is now available for standardised use with a mix of network technologies.
Certification
In July, MEF recognised the first three companies in the world to achieve MEF 3.0 certification: Ciena, H3C and CMC Telecom of Vietnam.
Meanwhile, we have expanded our professional certification programme to include MEF-SDN/NFV, MEF Carrier Ethernet certified professional, and MEF network foundations certifications.
We look forward to sharing more progress in the coming months.
