AT&T on Wednesday took another step in its network function virtualization (NFV) journey when it announced the migration of its network probe functions to the cloud.
According to the carrier, the move was made possible through new service assurance software from RADCOM. AT&T said the change will both aid performance optimization and help identify and isolate network problems.
AT&T said it will integrate the new virtual probe functions into its network via its ECOMP infrastructure delivery platform and will use RADCOM’s MavriQ software to deploy the probes as virtual network functions running on AT&T’s Integrated Cloud.
The move comes as part of AT&T’s efforts to virtualize nearly three quarters of its network by 2020. Earlier this year, AT&T said it managed to virtualize 5.7 percent of its network in 2015 and plans to virtualize 30 percent of its network by the end of this year.
“Our shift to a software-based network began a few years ago when we saw the exponential growth in traffic on our wireless and broadband networks,” AT&T’s senior vice president of Global Supply Susan A. Johnson said. “To keep up with that demand and scale our capacity, we needed to change our network to be more software-centric. Network function virtualization is an important part of this shift. We’re turning routers, switches and other network gear into virtual network functions. ”
The development is the second recent announcement from AT&T on the NFV front.
Late last month, the carrier announced a new partnership with French telecommunications company Orange to collaborate on open source and standardization initiatives for software-defined networking (SDN) and NFV.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
