The Open Network Automation Platform initiative is showing that the telecoms industry is making progress toward an end-to-end, multi-domain management and orchestration (MANO) platform.
The combination of Open-O and Open Source ECOMP (Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management &Policy) is making this possible, according to a report from research firm TBR.
Yet, more work is needed to bridge the efforts of other open-source groups around SDN, such as OpenDaylight and OpenFlow, to truly unlock the value of end-to-end MANO, the report added.
While the industry is moving forward with standards, commercial implementations of software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) ramped up significantly in the latter half of 2016.
TBR telecoms analyst Patrick Filkins said the SD-WAN ecosystem, in particular, is flourishing.
“Startups, traditional suppliers and Tier 1 operators are pushing SD-WAN into the commercialization phase, with some, such as Orange, planning to introduce SD-WAN on a global scale,” the analyst said.
While the majority of Tier 1 operators are commercially launching services based on software-mediated solutions, a significant upfront investment is required to do so, prompting most Tier 2 and Tier 3 operators to delay adoption until the technology and implementation steps are standardized. The goal is to wait for the availability of lower-cost, off-the-shelf solutions, but this model will take several years to become a reality, the research firm said.