Interoperability is vital to facilitating operator deployment of SDN and accelerating transport network transformation for the 5G era

FREMONT, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — June 16, 2020 — Leading the acceleration of the commercialization of transport SDN worldwide and transport network transformation for the 5G era, OIF today announced plans for its 2020 Transport SDN Application Programming Interface (API) interoperability demonstration.

The 2020 event will focus on SDN-based programmability, control and automation and showcase testing in Telefonica’s lab in Europe over a six-week period (September to October).

Building on OIF’s 2018 and 2016 interoperability demonstrations that helped establish ONF Transport-API (T-API) as the defacto northbound interface (NBI) standard, the 2020 demonstration will test Ethernet, Layer 1 OTN and Layer 0 OTN control using ONF T-API 2.1.3, with additional testing of OpenConfig device APIs for transport equipment in network-operator-defined use cases.

Manageability and flexibility of the network are critical to allow network operators to successfully deliver a range of cloud-based services, meet dynamic bandwidth demands, and to accelerate transport network transformation for the 5G era. Established open Transport SDN APIs can help network operators:

• improve network agility to adapt to dynamic service demands and traffic patterns
• improve service provisioning and time-to-revenue
• reduce maintenance and management with simplified control and automation

The multi-vendor interoperability demonstration includes participating vendors ADVA, Ciena, Cisco Systems, Infinera and Nokia. China Telecom and Telia are participating as consulting network operators.

“Widespread adoption of transport SDN is a must for network operators to accelerate their transformation for the 5G era and reap the benefits of a more dynamic and open network,” said Dave Brown, Nokia and OIF Officer - Director of Communications. “OIF’s facilitation of this thorough test of specifications and interoperability of open transport SDN APIs will highlight the tools necessary to create an open manageable, flexible network.”

“Interoperability is the key success factor for SDN deployment in production networks,” said Arturo Mayoral, Telefónica Transport Global CTIO Unit – Technology Expert and Lead of Optical SDN strategy. “This OIF interop event arrives at the perfect moment to evaluate maturity of the commercial solutions, fostered by the recent efforts done by Telefónica through the iFUSION project, in the design of reference implementations based on ONF T-API and OpenConfig standards.”

Public read-out events highlighting the results of the testing will take place at select industry events in Q4 2020. In Q1 2021, OIF will hold a webinar and launch a whitepaper describing the results of the event. Additional information can be found at https://www.oiforum.com/technical-work/2020-oif-transport-sdn-api-interoperability-demo/

About the 2020 OIF Transport SDN Application Programming Interface (API) Interoperability Demonstration

Leading the acceleration of the commercialization of transport SDN worldwide and transport network transformation for the 5G era, Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), will bring new use cases and deployment scenarios into Telefonica’s lab to test multi-vendor interoperability of Ethernet, Layer 1 OTN, Layer 0 OTN control using ONF T-API 2.1.3 and OpenConfig device APIs. The 2020 Transport SDN Application Programming Interface (API) interoperability demonstration builds on OIF’s previous transport API requirements and interoperability demonstrations which substantiated T-API as the northbound interface (NBI) of choice, establishing a foundation for open, programmable networks that allow network operators to efficiently deliver dynamic multi-domain connectivity services to the market.

About OIF

OIF is where the optical networking industry’s interoperability work gets done. Building on 20 years of effecting forward change in the industry, OIF represents the dynamic ecosystem of 100+ industry leading network operators, system vendors, component vendors and test equipment vendors collaborating to develop interoperable electrical, optical and control solutions that directly impact the industry’s ecosystem and facilitate global connectivity in the open network world. Connect with OIF at @OIForum, on LinkedIn and at http://www.oiforum.com.

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