There are sometimes concrete answers to abstract questions. In some cases, the reason why those answers don’t seem to gain traction or acceptance is that they come from a different sector. So it is today with network transformation or “next-gen” networks. We have spent half-a-decade framing principles that were already framed better elsewhere, and with…
What do we need, in a technical sense, to advance to next-generation networking? Forget trite suggestions like “carriers need to change their culture” or “we need to focus on customer experience.” When has any of that been in doubt, and how long has it been said? If there are problems that need to be solved,…
Operators tell me that they are still struggling with the details of service lifecycle automation, even though they’re broadly convinced that it’s a critical step in improving profit per bit. There are a lot of questions, but two seem to be rising to the top of everyone’s list, and so exploring both the questions and…
Does a network that presents an IP interface to the user constitute an “IP network?” Is that condition enough to define a network, or are there other properties? These aren’t questions that we’re used to asking, but in the era of virtualization and intent modeling, there are powerful reasons to ask whether a “network” is…
Telefonica has long been a leader in virtualization, and there’s a new Analyst Mason report on their UNICA model. There’s also been increased notice taken of Telefonica’s issues with OpenStack, and I think it’s worth looking at the report on UNICA and the OpenStack issues to see where the problems might lie. Is OpenStack a…
For the current quarter, we’ve seen Ericsson post a profit warning, Nokia warn of deteriorating outlook, and even Huawei slowing its rate of growth (to something other vendors would die for!) Analysts say that “digital transformation” for operators is a must. A Wall Street research company says that only one of the US operators (Charter)…
The topic of SD-WAN just keeps getting hotter. Juniper, one of the network equipment vendors who hasn’t seen quarterly revenue declines, talked about it a bit on their earnings call. Here are some interesting quotes to explore: “Telcos are going through a significant transformation as trends such as SD-WAN…” and “So as we talk to…
Are we seeing signs of sanity in networking? Just the other day, Light Reading did a piece on service lifecycle automation. Yesterday they did one on edge computing. I’ve been arguing (and blogging) on both topics for quite a while, so it’s no surprise that I think the coverage represents a sane shift. I doubt…
One of the topics the people I speak with (and work with) are most interested in is “intent modeling”. Cisco made an announcement on it (one I blogged on) and the ONF is turning over its intent-model-based northbound interface (NBI) work to the MEF. Not surprisingly, perhaps, however popular the notion might be, it’s not…
We read a lot about smart cities these days, but like many popular topics there’s a surprising lack of consistency in assigning a meaning to the term. In fact, only about half the attributes of smart cities that governments and network operators name are recognized by at least two-thirds of the people I talk with. …