Wireless carrier Verizon on Monday said it has completed a massive Network Function Virtualization (NFV) OpenStack cloud deployment in five of its U.S. data centers.
Verizon said the project, which has been in progress since last year, was completed in collaboration with Big Switch Networks, Dell and Red Hat. Together, the companies developed the OpenStack pod-based design that that was implemented in more than 50 racks in five production data centers.
Verizon said the time from concept to deployment was less than nine months.
“This NFV project is another step in building Verizon’s next-generation network – with implications for the industry,” Verizon vice president of Network Technology Planning Adam Koeppe said. “New and emerging applications are highlighting the need for collaborative research and development in technologies like NFV. We consider this achievement to be foundational for building the Verizon cloud that serves our customers’ needs anywhere, anytime, any app.”
According to Verizon, the NFV design is based on OpenStack with Red Hat Ceph Storage and a spine-leaf fabric for each pod controlled through a Neutron plugin to Red Hat OpenStack Platform. The deployment also utilizes Big Switch’s Big Cloud Fabric for software-defined network (SDN) controller software managing Dell switches, which are orchestrated by Red Hat OpenStack Platform.
Verizon said the design will help provide resiliency at scale, avoid bandwidth bottlenecks, provide network flexibility, reduce operational complexity and integrate security with visibility.
The carrier said it is in the process of deploying the technology at additional domestic data center and aggregation sites and is also planning deployments at international locations in the coming months. Verizon said the design will also be adopted in edge network sites by the end of the year.
But Verizon isn’t the only carrier looking to NFV solutions.
AT&T has previously detailed its goal of virtualizing 75 percent of its network by 2020. In February, AT&T said it was successful in virtualizing 5.7 percent of its network in 2015. This year, the carrier said it is aiming for 30 percent.
Filed Under: Infrastructure