1st Edition

Building the Network of the Future Getting Smarter, Faster, and More Flexible with a Software Centric Approach

Edited By John Donovan, Krish Prabhu Copyright 2017
    439 Pages
    by Chapman & Hall

    440 Pages 50 Color Illustrations
    by Chapman & Hall

    439 Pages 50 Color Illustrations
    by Chapman & Hall

    From the Foreword:



    "This book lays out much of what we’ve learned at AT&T about SDN and NFV. Some of the smartest network experts in the industry have drawn a map to help you navigate this journey. Their goal isn’t to predict the future but to help you design and build a network that will be ready for whatever that future holds. Because if there’s one thing the last decade has taught us, it’s that network demand will always exceed expectations. This book will help you get ready."
    —Randall Stephenson, Chairman, CEO, and President of AT&T



    "Software is changing the world, and networks too. In this in-depth book, AT&T's top networking experts discuss how they're moving software-defined networking from concept to practice, and why it's a business imperative to do this rapidly."
    —Urs Hölzle, SVP Cloud Infrastructure, Google



    "Telecom operators face a continuous challenge for more agility to serve their customers with a better customer experience and a lower cost. This book is a very inspiring and vivid testimony of the huge transformation this means, not only for the networks but for the entire companies, and how AT&T is leading it. It provides a lot of very deep insights about the technical challenges telecom engineers are facing today. Beyond AT&T, I’m sure this book will be extremely helpful to the whole industry."
    —Alain Maloberti, Group Chief Network Officer, Orange Labs Networks



    "This new book should be read by any organization faced with a future driven by a "shift to software." It is a holistic view of how AT&T has transformed its core infrastructure from hardware based to largely software based to lower costs and speed innovation. To do so, AT&T had to redefine their technology supply chain, retrain their workforce, and move toward open source user-driven innovation; all while managing one of the biggest networks in the world. It is an amazing feat that will put AT&T in a leading position for years to come."
    —Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation





    This book is based on the lessons learned from AT&T’s software transformation journey starting in 2012 when rampant traffic growth necessitated a change in network architecture and design. Using new technologies such as NFV, SDN, Cloud, and Big Data, AT&T’s engineers outlined and implemented a radical network transformation program that dramatically reduced capital and operating expenditures. This book describes the transformation in substantial detail. The subject matter is of great interest to telecom professionals worldwide, as well as academic researchers looking to apply the latest techniques in computer science to solving telecom’s big problems around scalability, resilience, and survivability.

    Foreword



    Acknowledgments



    Authors





    Chapter 1 The Need for Change



    John Donovan and Krish Prabhu





    Chapter 2 Transforming a Modern Telecom Network—From All-IP to Network Cloud



    Rich Bennett and Steven Nurenberg





    Chapter 3 Network Functions Virtualization



    John Medamana and Tom Siracusa





    Chapter 4 Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure



    Greg Stiegler and John DeCastra





    Chapter 5 Architecting the Network Cloud for High Availability



    Kathleen Meier-Hellstern, Kenichi Futamura, Carolyn Johnson, and Paul Reeser





    Chapter 6 Software-Defined Networking



    Brian Freeman and Han Nguyen





    Chapter 7 The Network Operating System: VNF Automation Platform



    Chris Rice and Andre Fuetsch





    Chapter 8 Network Data and Optimization



    Mazin Gilbert and Mark Austin





    Chapter 9 Network Security



    Rita Marty and Brian Rexroad





    Chapter 10 Enterprise Networks



    Michael Satterlee and John Gibbons





    Chapter 11 Network Access



    Hank Kafka





    Chapter 12 Network Edge



    Ken Duell and Chris Chase





    Chapter 13 Network Core



    John Paggi





    Chapter 14 Service Platforms



    Paul Greendyk, Anisa Parikh, and Satyendra Tripathi





    Chapter 15 Network Operations



    Irene Shannon and Jennifer Yates





    Chapter 16 Network Measurements



    Raj Savoor and Kathleen Meier-Hellstern





    Chapter 17 The Shift to Software



    Toby Ford





    Chapter 18 What’s Next?



    Jenifer Robertson and Chris Parsons





    Index

    Biography



    John Donovan, Chief Strategy Officer and Group President —AT&T Technology and Operations (ATO), is responsible for the corporate strategy function, technology development, network deployment and operations, and AT&T’s transition to a software-defined network. Donovan previously was executive vice president of product, sales, marketing and operations at VeriSign Inc., a technology company that provides Internet infrastructure services. At VeriSign, Donovan was responsible for leading its global sales organization, driving the expansion of broad solutions offerings, and integrating a global professional services capability. Before that, he was Chairman and CEO of inCode Telecom Group Inc., where he helped shape strategic direction and positioning for wireless network operators around the globe. Previously, Mr. Donovan was a partner with Deloitte Consulting, where he was the Americas Industry Practice director for telecom.



    As President of AT&T Labs and Chief Technology Officer for AT&T, Krish Prabhu oversees the company’s global technology direction which includes network architecture and evolution as well as network, service and product design. He is also responsible for the intellectual property organization and Global Supply Chain. Krish has extensive background in technology innovation from his time at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Rockwell, Alcatel and Tellabs. He has previously served as COO of Alcatel, CEO of Tellabs, and CEO of Tekelec. He also previously served as a partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, where he assisted in developing information technology and communications start-ups. Krish earned a B.S. in physics from Bangalore University, an M.S. in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

    "This book lays out much of what we’ve learned at AT&T about SDN and NFV. Some of the smartest network experts in the industry have drawn a map to help you navigate this journey. Their goal isn’t to predict the future but to help you design and build a network that will be ready for whatever that future holds. Because if there’s one thing the last decade has taught us, it’s that network demand will always exceed expectations. This book will help you get ready."
    — Randall Stephenson, Chairman, CEO, and President of AT&T

    "Telecom operators face a continuous challenge for more agility to serve their customers with a better customer experience and a lower cost. This book is a very inspiring and vivid testimony of the huge transformation this means, not only for the networks but for the entire companies, and how AT&T is leading it. It provides a lot of very deep insights about the technical challenges telecom engineers are facing today. Beyond AT&T, I’m sure this book will be extremely helpful to the whole industry. I truly thank John and his team for providing this insight on best practices for this transformation towards software-centric approach."
    —Alain Maloberti, Group Chief Network Officer, Orange Labs Networks

    "Pinch yourself. AT&T - the big, old, slow telephone company - is completely transforming itself, and the Internet too. This book explains how, in 5 short years, John Donovan has led a revolution, turning around one of the largest companies in the world, retraining a workforce of over 100,000 people. In Silicon Valley it's said that 'Software is eating the world (of infrastructure).' AT&T is doing exactly that by moving everything it does to software.

    "We invented SDN back in 2007 to solve the following problem: Networking equipment (the switches and routers that make up the Internet) were closed, proprietary and vertically integrated. Equipment vendors built badly-engineered products with poor interfa