2019 Next-Generation Central Office (NGCO) Report

Telcos are reinventing the central office architecture to take advantage of server economics, says Alex Quach, Vice President and General Manager, Wireline and Core Networks Division. Network functions are being distributed to the edge and x86 is an enabling technology.

The NGCO is bringing a lot of change not just at the technical level but also at the cultural level, says Mark Wohlfarth, VP, Global CSP Sales, Network Ecosystem, Red Hat. NGCO is really about Open Platforms, Open Collaboration, and Open Innovation.

Kubernetes, which is sometimes describes as "the Linux of the cloud," is poised to play a major role in next gen carrier infrastructures, says Dan Kohn, Executive Director, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which is part of The Linux Foundation. Over time, virtual network functions (VNFs) will evolve to become cloud-native network functions (CNFs). In this world, Kubernetes can become the universal abstraction layer.

NTT Ltd launched on the 1st of July to bring together 28 brands from around the world like Dimension Data, NTT Communications, NTT Security as well as other NTT acquisitions made in the last 10 years. The combined NTT Ltd is poised to be a next-gen infrastructure company and Jason Goodall, the newly appointed CEO, talks about this new "40,000 employee startup" that brings together the multitude of assets operating in 57 countries.

Network functions in the NGCO require high throughput, low-latency, and deterministic behavior which general-purpose CPUs cannot always deliver. Ethernity provides data path offload on its FPGA SmartNIC, accelerating mobile and fixed networks to meet next-generation requirements and offering complete switch-router capability on a NIC.

With a cloud-native core, the network is able to respond faster to deliver capacity exactly where it is needed, explains Sandro Tavares, Head of Campaign Strategy, Nokia. The new core architecture is really about complementing 5G possibilities.

When we look at how the industry evolves toward cloudification, virtualization and containers, we see that this is really there to support 5G, says Anders Rosengren, Head of Architecture and Technology, Digital Services, Ericsson. Apart from the cloud infrastructure, carriers must also consider how their network functions will evolve to virtualized and then to cloud-native.

The NGCO is an amazing opportunity and a confluence of vision and product development, says Rochan Sankar, Senior Director, Switch Products, Broadcom. NGCO requires virtualization and cloudification of the underlying network. The Ethernet-based interconnects for this infrastructure presents many opportunities for innovation.