Huawei is upping the ante in Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) by announcing the construction of a NFV Open Lab for telecom operators and equipment manufacturers to trial NFV, SDN and cloud computing technologies.
The NFV Open Lab will comprise of three sites, located in China, Germany and US, and focus on the integration of telecom NFV/SDN and cloud technologies, testing, technical showcases and certifications for the emerging NFV industry.
Huawei said its NFV Open Lab aims at “stimulating innovation, industry development and collaborative benefits for global telecom networks supporting NFV/SDN and cloud-computing technologies.”
One of the goals of the NFV Open Lab, Huawei added, is to ensure that NFV solutions and carrier grade infrastructure are compatible with emerging NFV standards and with the Open Platform NFV source (OPNFV).
OPNFV is an industry working group established in September to define an open source reference platform for NFV.
Billed as a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project, the OPNFV was founded by a collective of telcos and vendors, including AT&T, China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Huawei, Nokia Networks, Ericsson, IBM and Cisco, among others.
The NFV Open Lab initiative represents Huawei’s latest attempt at tapping into the booming SDN/NFV markets.
In September Huawei and 21Vianet Group jointly launched what they claim will be the largest commercially deployed SDN network in China. The company has also been working with telcos such as NTT DoCoMo, China Telecom and Telefonica to trial SDN, NFV and cloud technologies.
According to Infonetics Reasearch, the global market for carrier NFV and SDN is expected to grow from less than $500 million in 2013 to over $11 billion in 2018.
“For three years, the telecom industry has been abuzz over SDN and NFV, with anticipation and hard work developing the vision, goals, architectures, use cases, proof-of-concept projects, field trials, and even some commercial deployments, ” Michael Howard, Infonetics Research's co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks said.