The MEF has announced the availability of the Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) Reference Architecture & Framework (MEF 55) for service providers.
LSO, which aims to streamline and automate the entire network service life cycle in a sustainable fashion, encompasses all network domains that require end-to-end management and control to deliver on-demand connectivity services (Carrier Ethernet 2.0, IP VPNs, MPLS, SDN/NFV, etc.) and to assure their overall quality and security.
“Service providers worldwide are looking for complete automation of the service lifecycle as a means to overcome OSS/BSS challenges that prevent them from taking full advantage of existing and newer SDN- and NFV-enabled networks,” said Nan Chen, president of the MEF.
“Many of the world’s largest service providers have supported MEF efforts to define LSO capabilities and supporting APIs to address this challenge. We are thrilled to have completed the first phase in the LSO journey and already have launched new initiatives to accelerate LSO development – including in collaboration with other industry organizations within an open networking ecosystem,” Chen noted.
The LSO Reference Architecture describes the functional management entities needed to support LSO and the Management Interface Reference Points between them. LSO provides open and interoperable automation of management operations that include design, fulfillment, control, testing, problem management, quality management, billing & usage, security, analytics, and policy capabilities.
The next phase of LSO development will include detailed work on various LSO operational processes/threads that describe use cases of LSO behavior and the series of interactions among management entities spanning customer, service provider, and partner provider management domains.
Michael Strople, chairman of the MEF said LSO is essential to the evolution and implementation of SDN and NFV.
“The LSO Reference Architecture clearly defines LSO functionality and capabilities and will enable service providers to make big steps forward in the development of virtualized networks and overcoming the operational challenges that have been holding our industry back,” Strople said.