Author: Tom Nolle

When AT&T and Verizon released their architecture models for SDN and NFV, I did a quick blog overview of the two.  I’ve had a chance to talk with operators and vendors about the approach now, and I’d like to revisit the two architectures based on what I’ve heard.  This is going to be a three-part…

Network operators have accepted open source software.  Or, sort of accepted.  I don’t want to minimize the fact that operators have indeed made the culture shift necessary to consider the adoption of open-source software, but that’s Step One.  There are other steps to be taken, and you can see some of the early attempts at…

Whatever your party, if you are concerned about the country’s future, I recommend this poem, one I’ve quoted to friends in the past.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging…

Telecom is really more about regulatory posture than technology.  The US is now looking at a change in the FCC Chairmanship and the overall political balance of the body, and so there’s a chance that regulatory policy will shift.  It might even shift sharply.  However, FCC workings are murky so it’s not always easy to…

How personal should a network be?  The vast majority of things I could find on the Internet, I never want to see.  The vast majority of people who could reach me, or who could reach, are those I never want to talk with.  Enterprises tell me that the great majority of the possible user-to-application or…

Google opened a lot of interesting topics with its developer conference this week, and I think there’s a common theme here that aligns with other industry moves and foretells something even more important.  We are moving closer to the concept of the digital assistant as our window on the world, and that could open a…

I had an opportunity this week to look over some material from Netcracker on their notion of a “digital service provider”, part of the documentation that relates to their Agile Virtualization Platform concept.  I also reviewed what was available on the technology and architecture of AVP.  I find the technology fascinating and the research and…

Overlay networks have been a topic for this blog fairly often recently, but given that more operators (including, recently, Comcast) have come out in favor of them, I think it’s time to look at how overlay technology might impact network investment overall.  After all, if overlay networking becomes mainstream, something of that magnitude would have…

One of those who comment regularly on my blog brought a news item to my attention.  The OPNFV project has a new activity, introduced by AT&T, called “Event Streams” and defined HERE.  The purpose of the project is to create a standard format for sending event data from the Service Assurance component of NFV to…

At the TMF event in Nice Verizon opened yet another discussion, or perhaps I should say “reopened” because the topic came up way back in April 2013 and it was just as divisive then.  It’s the topic of “microservices” or breaking down virtual functions into very small components.  NetCracker also had some things to say…