NTT Com Wins Two MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Awards

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group (TOKYO: 9432), announced today it received MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Awards in two categories, “MEF3.0 SD-WAN Implementation 2019” and “Network Slicing Implementation 2019,” during the MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Showcase event held in the U.S. city of Los Angeles from November 18 to 22.

The showcase was organized by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), a global telecom industry alliance with more than 220 members. NTT Com attended the showcase to introduce an SD-WAN¹ service and a 5G-related proof of concept (PoC)², joining other telecom carriers and manufacturers that presented their own initiatives for judging.

About MEF Awards
https://www.mef.net/2019_MEF_Awards

MEF3.0 SD-WAN Implementation 2019
NTT Com’s orchestrated virtualized multivendor SD-WAN services received the award presented for the best SD-WAN service in compliance with MEF specifications. The NTT Com service was recognized for enabling lifecycle³ management and operation of multiple SD-WAN products with a unified portal and white box CPEs⁴.

SD-WAN is not a standardized technology, so many unique network devices exist, requiring operation methods to be designed to each manufacturer’s technologies. To solve this problem, NTT Com conducted a PoC to implement unified control of multiple SD-WAN products based on MEF-standardized SD-WAN specifications, data models, interfaces and test methods.

NTT Com collaborated with partner companies to co-develop the orchestrated virtualized multivendor SD-WAN services in conformance with the MEF70 and MEF SD-WAN Presto API standard⁵. The service uses a universal CPE platform, enabling multiple SD-WAN products to be installed on the white box CPE, and a unified configuration portal, enabling unified control of multiple SD-WAN products.

The partner companies involved in co-development are ADVA, Netcracker Technology, Silver Peak, Spirent Communications, Versa Networks and NEC Corporation.

Network Slicing Implementation 2019
The award for the best network slicing⁶ technology was presented to NTT Com collaborating with partner companies for its 5G xHaul Sharing Slices with LSO Orchestration, which enables automatic control by using network slices for multiple-operator interconnection.

5G technology is anticipated to be used in companies and local governments in addition to telecom carriers by utilizing to such as private 5G service. The new network system that the various companies can use in common like this is necessary to build the network effectively.

NTT Com collaborated with partner companies to co-develop the shared xHaul architecture in conformance with the MEF standard by utilizing network slicing technology.
The architecture creates end-to-end network slices by multi-operator collaboration to share the access network (xHaul) required for 5G service.

The partner companies that contributed to the solution are NTT Corporation and Okinawa Open Laboratory.

SDN⁷ and network functions virtualization (NFV)⁸ technologies continue to be advanced through open-source development projects and by standardization organizations. Going forward, NTT Com aims to help drive the development of SDN and NFV technologies through its participation in MEF and ONF⁹.

1:	SD-WAN simplifies the management and operation of a WAN by separating the networking hardware from its control mechanism.
2:	Verification and demonstration of prototype development to demonstrate new concepts, theories, principles and ideas for commercialization and service development
3:	Service provision process covering application, start of use, settings and quality control
4:	Separates CPE hardware and software functions and allows software selection and installation for each application
5:	MEF specification for SD-WAN: https://www.mef.net/resources/technical-specifications/download?id=122&fileid=file1
6:	Virtual division of network according to characteristics, such as low latency, wide bandwidth or high reliability, by application purpose
7:	Technologies that dynamically control network configuration and settings using software
8:	Method for operating network devices as software on virtualized infrastructure of general-purpose servers
9:	Open Networking Foundation, which standardizes SDN technologies and develops open source software

Related links

• Orchestrated Virtualized Multi-Vendor SD-WAN Services
• 5G xHaul Sharing as Slices with LSO Orchestration

About NTT Communications
NTT Communications solves the world's technology challenges by helping enterprises overcome complexity and risk in their ICT environments with managed IT infrastructure solutions. These solutions are backed by our worldwide infrastructure, including industry leading, global tier-1 public and private networks reaching over 190 countries/regions, and more than 450,000m2 of the world's most advanced data center facilities. Our global professional services teams provide consultation and architecture for the resiliency and security required for your business success, and our scale and global capabilities in technology world are unsurpassed. Combined with NTT Ltd., NTT Data, and NTT DOCOMO, we are NTT Group.
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Contact information

For more information
Ryu Kanishima
Service Strategy Department
NTT Communications
Mail: mgr-nwcore-td@ntt.com