Most of operators in West African are facing the challenges in the communications network evolution from 2G & 3G to LTE, or from mobile network to fixed mobile convergence (FMC).

With the diversity of the services, the network is transforming to large scale and more complex structure.

Simplified network operation and maintenance to improve efficiency and reducing costs has become the focus of operators CXO concerning. Currently the hottest topic on network evolution should be SDN (software defined network).

In recent years, the communications industry has intensified research and practice, and gradually, the value of SDN is becoming recognized by more and more people.

Since the SDN architecture has eliminated the traditional multi-layer network structure, realizing a design that separates the control layer from the data layer for remote (virtual) controls, it can help enterprises create more flexible, secure and manageable networks.

For this, more and more enterprises, especially telecom carriers, have begun to transform the industry with SDN.

Since early 2015, cases of SDN commercial deployment have multiplied, though there are still many obstacles to overcome in widespread applications. For instance, there are outstanding problems that have yet to be resolved, such as standards unified issue has been outstanding. In this regard, some leading standardization organizations have adopted open solutions, committed to creating an open SDN ecosystem to help enterprise customers dispel doubts and have SDN up and running as quickly as possible.

SDN Prospects Are Broad And Difficulties Are Many
Today, with the overall rise of cloud computing, Big Data, and Internet of Things (IoT), ICT systems have taken center stage in daily operations, and SDN offers advantages for ICT system construction for which carriers have high expectations in the hopes that it will improve their competitiveness in the future.

A recently released report by IHSInfonetics predicts that global telecom carriers will increase spending on SDN software and services from $103 million in 2014 up to $5.7 billion in 2019; during this time, the SDN software market will grow by 15-fold.

SDN has drawn such attention because this concept can help carriers evolve to a brand-new ICT-based architecture to increase flexibility and intelligence.

Over the years, , carriers from around the world have been working hard to avoid pipelining network resources while trying to gain a foothold in the IT cloud services market.

As a new transformational network technology, SDN can help quickly provide customers with cloud services quickly and automatically deploy new businesses.

Likewise, SDN can also help carriers utilize existing network resources as much as possible for a smooth evolution.

At the AT&T’s 2015 Q2 Earnings Call Conference, CFO John Stephens said that networks with added flexibility from SDN solutions are expected to reduce carrier capital expenditures.

However, when it comes to the specifics of SDN deployment, many carriers believe that there are still quite a few obstacles that must be overcome.

During Huawei’s SDN/NFV (Network Functions Visualization) summits held in several countries, surveys conducted by some organizations indicated that many carriers are worried that current SDN providers and solutions cannot satisfy the desired targets, while roughly half of the participants believe that the greatest obstacle to SDN/NFV deployment is the lack of uniform standards.

As for the maturity of technology and solutions, actual performance and other such issues, the secret is finding the right supplier.

This supplier should have a profound understanding of both communications and IT with knowledge of the complexities of the carrier network environment and the ability to accurately judge and fully meet the individual needs of different carriers for SDN deployment in different environments.

As for the lack of uniform standards, many ICT companies and standards organizations are actively working things out.

On the whole, however, the openness advocated for by SDN standards organization Open Networking Foundation (ONF) has been recognized as a core gene of SDN. China’s three main carrier, MIIT China Academy of Telecommunications Research and Huawei, Baidu, Alibaba and other ICT companies are all members of ONF, and to create an open and innovative SDN ecosystem, they have all made major contributions.

Standardization Teams On The Move
As a promising key technology, SDN has captured the attention of foreign and domestic standards organizations.

ITU-T and IETF, a response to the Internet’s future development needs, is carrying out research on SDN-based future network standards.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) network function virtualization industry specifications taskforce of major US and European telecom carriers and ICT companies has focused investments in NFV research with the hopes of replacing private dedicated network elements through the development of standard IT virtualization technology and standard servers, storage and network equipment. In China, CCSA (China Communications Standards Association), MIIT China Academy of Telecommunication Research and other organizations are studying standardization for future networks and SDN.

In current tests or commercial trials, SDN standards organization ONF’s OpenFlow protocol has won the support of most companies, a strong contender for a future SDN standard.

Chinese companies are eager to get involved in SDN standards R&D and have gained a favorable position.

For example, in ONF, Huawei experts serve as ONF’s Service Area Director, L4-L7 Service project chairman, and deputy chairmen to the security project and optical transmission project. Huawei’s launch of plastic optical fiber (POF) technology-based OF-PI also forms a technical basis for the next step of ONF protocol evolution.

Huawei was also one of nine founding members of the Open Network Operating System (ONOS) open source project released in December 2014. Also, in IETF, two Huawei experts serve as chairmen to two major SDN working groups, I2RS and L3SM, partaking in over 50% of IETF’s SDN-related document writing.

In the ETSI ISG NFV project, Huawei is the Industry Engagement Officer holding posts as vice-chair of the reliability group, leader of the architecture hardware acceleration taskforce and multiple speakers for the architecture group.

Clearly, regardless of the global ICT industry’s consensus on SDN standards, meanwhile, concerning the telecommunication network architecture is more and more complex due to the service evolution, so the operators in Western African are going to pay more and more attention on SDN now.

Open Value
In the research and development of SDN standards, even though the big trend is for open SDN, there are also more than a few enterprises that are attempting to introduce private dedicated technology.

In fact, whether the IT industry or the communications industry, closed and open policies have always been competing with one another.

Enterprises that adopt a closed policy often have the first-mover advantage and can rely on proprietary technology to deny others entry into the mainstream markets for exclusive rights to major profits, think of Microsoft in the operating systems field, Qualcomm in the mobile communications field, and Apple in the mobile terminal field.

However, while closed technology may prevail for the time being, its vitality is nothing compared to open technology.

The Windows operating system has teetered on with sluggish growth, successors to the CDMA2000 standard lack strength, and the Android camp has been gaining an edge on Apple – all of which stands testament to this fact.

For telecom carriers, open SDN can bring obvious value. Earlier this year, when China Telecom Science and Technology Committee director and SDN Industry Alliance chairman Wei Leping spoke of the openness of SDN, he believed that it had three main benefits: First, an open ecosystem can give all walks of life the chance to get involved, thereby stimulating even more network and business innovations; second, an open policy creates a wealthier and flatter ecological chain, there by attracting even more software developers; third, an open SDN can help carriers from being bound to single solution providers, thereby giving them more options and bargaining power when it comes to hardware and software selection.

From the perspective of promoting commercial SDN deployment, open thinking offers SDN networks with superior flexibility and can be fully adjusted with the progress of industry standards; carriers first to invest in commercial applications won’t have to think twice about standard issues.

 At the 2015 MWC Conference held earlier this year, ONF executive director Dan Pitt said that more and more open source software is becoming a key component to rapid SDN deployment. This helps to meet critical carrier needs.

At the conference, SDN open source platform ONOS board member and Huawei’s fixed network product line president Zha Jun also stated that SDN openness and innovation is linked to the development of the entire industry chain, requiring the active participation of all sides. Huawei will continue to invest in open SDN technology and product R&D and promote an open SDN ecosystem and the healthy growth of the entire industry.

As a leading global communications company, Huawei’s attitude toward the development of an open SDN ecosystem is incredibly important.

As is well known, Huawei is pragmatic in that it quickly implements its promises with movement in the marketplace; Huawei’s own SDN solutions already fully support the open source ONOS platform architecture, and the company is working with ONOS, ONF, Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV), and other industry organizations to join together in creating a cohesive, open and programmable SDN network architecture for carriers.

Picking Up The Pace Of Commercial Deployment
As commercial value and application models become clearer than ever and as technology and solutions will become ever more mature, despite the SDN issues yet to be resolved, this won’t hinder global carriers’ plans to partake in its development.

As for expectations, from 2015 to 2016, major global carriers will complete top-notch SDN designs based on their existing networks; from 2016 to 2017, major global carriers will launch new SDN/NFV architecture; from 2018 to 2019, some leading carriers will use SDN/NFV solutions in 70% of new networks.

In a recent IHS SDN strategy survey (survey respondents were carriers accounting for 49% of global telecom spending and 46% of global telecom revenue), 82% of respondents’ service providers had already deployed SDNs or were planning to appraise SDN within the year. In other words, SDN has already become the preferred solution of global carriers for subsequent network construction.

During the Moscow SDN/NFV Summit held in August, Euguene Solomatin, chief analyst at Russia’s largest ICT media group CNews, said that Russia would launch a commercial SDN/NFV network between 2016 and 2017, and he expects that the market share related to SDN projects would reach $2.5-3 billion in 2017.

 Over the past two years, major carriers around the world, including AT&T, NTT, Telefónica, Verizon and China’s top three carriers, have begun to launch SDN testing based on their own circumstances.

On account of strong growth in market demand, Chinese carriers have repeatedly set precedents in commercial SDN deployment. For instance, the world’s first carrier commercial SDN deployment was completed in April 2014 by Beijing Telecom and Huawei.

Based on information disclosed, Chinese communication company Huawei has successively carried out over 35 SDN joint innovation projects and commercial deployment with over 20 leading carriers from around the world, including China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile as well as Telefónica, VDF, and SingTel. At the end of March, Huawei and Telefónica also jointly completed the industry’s first SDN-based IP+Optical synergy field trial.

As for Huawei’s progress in the SDN field, industry commentators believe that apart from its position in the telecom industry and its outstanding communications technology, its adherence to open policies has been a key factor. Huawei is a strong supporter of open SDN, and its SDN solutions fully support the ONOS open platform architecture.

Currently, Huawei is actively promoting the user-friendly next-gen SDN network programming language NEMO and next-gen virtual network – Open Network Hypervisor technology, making it easier for networks to be open; Huawei’s innovative SDN sandbox technology has simplified SDN application development and verification to provide even more developers with convenience in SDN R&D. Additionally, unlike the veiled “open” of some SDN providers, Huawei’s open is much more thorough.

Huawei not only actively promotes open source controller applications, but it also pushes for open source at the synergy level and is committed to building a fully open SDN.

For a single SDN supplier, although this will lead to dilute some market opportunities and lower their control over the industry chain, the benefit of openness is that they can win over even more partners to make the “cake” bigger and promote full SDN implementation.

From development perspective, so long as the supplier has a competitive advantage in new technology, industry solutions and other such fields, it will naturally drive more and more partners to keep up, thereby influencing the future direction of open SDN. So, in a way, the success of Huawei’s openness is precisely its leadership in the field of SDN.

Since early 2015, the true SDN commercial implementation projects have multiplied as the market has actually experienced the benefits of SDN firsthand.

Telecom carriers have also become more willing to use this to develop smart and efficient networks and services, all of which is inextricably linked to their adherence to openness and their joint promotion of the commercial progress of SDN which aims to give customers more freedom and flexibility will naturally be open.

Chinese companies that adhere to openness like Huawei will also win the respect of the market and partners in promoting the full implementation of SDN while raking in generous returns.

Ms. Yuqing Ji, editor in Chief, CCTIME.COM, a leading IT trade media in China