Cloud in the Central Office ( Cloud CO) | This project stream proposes developing a next generation Central Office (CO) System that aligns with the BBF Broadband 20/20 vision, which incorporates Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization, running on a cloud-like infrastructure deployed at Central Offices. By ‘cloud-like’ is meant that the infrastructure leverages commodity network switches and commodity compute nodes with virtualization software to host various virtualized network functions (VNFs). Infrastructure operators can offer these functions to 3rd parties, and 3rd party network functions can be inserted into the platform, allowing Value Added Services. The goal of this project is to provide an architectural framework for such a Cloud CO, with appropriate abstracted functional modules, and interfaces, eventual API and protocol choices and/or definitions. The architectural framework allows interconnecting these functional modules in an interoperable manner This project will also establish a reference implementation of the Cloud CO framework, creating a platform for innovation and potential open source upstreaming into other organizations, as well as a platform for industry interoperability testing and certification of NFs and the components that implement the aforementioned functional modules. | |