HPE updates its NFV Portfolio

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has announced updates to its network functions virtualization (NFV) portfolio, providing communications service providers (CSPs) access to new tools to speed NFV deployments, as well as virtualized solutions to build innovative, personalized customer services. Updates include:

* HPE NFV System 1.4 – An update to HPE’s pre-integrated NFV solutions bundle, adding support for and allowing choice between Red Hat OpenStack Platform and HPE Helion OpenStack Carrier-Grade 4.0 and integrating the OpenDaylight-based HPE OpenSDN controller

* HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service – A new programme to enable CSPs to speed up the virtual network functions (VNF) onboarding process

* HPE Virtual Headend Manager – A new virtualized solution for managing Internet Protocol television (IPTV) content deployments for improved customer experiences and opening up potential new revenue opportunities

* Subscriber Data Management on HPE Virtualized NonStop – A new virtualized subscriber data management (SDM) solution optimized for high fault-tolerance, availability and scalability to create new, personalized services faster and more cost-effectively

"As carriers transform into digital service providers, one of their biggest priorities is to establish a solid network foundation and flexible service platforms," said Thomas Sennhauser, APJ CTO, CME, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. "With HPE NFV solutions, carriers can implement a programmable infrastructure, providing the agility of the telco cloud and ability to scale their service deliveries to be more responsive to customer demand."

HPE NFV System, a pre-integrated NFV platform combining HPE hardware and software in a pre-integrated solution bundle optimized for NFV workloads, now offers support for Red Hat OpenStack Platform in addition to HPE Helion OpenStack Carrier Grade. The addition of the Red Hat OpenStack offers CSPs and network equipment providers (NEPs) their choice of pre-packed, pretested and supported carrier-grade virtual infrastructure management (VIM) tools.

HPE NFV System 1.4 includes as an option HPE Helion OpenStack 4.0, providing CSPs with an OpenStack Mitaka-based VIM that meets demanding performance and reliability requirements, while providing the latest OpenStack advancements. It also includes HPE OpenSDN, an OpenDaylight-based software-defined networking (SDN) controller. HPE OpenSDN enables carrier SDN capabilities across various cloud platforms, including proprietary, OpenStack and containers.

HPE Helion Carrier-Grade OpenStack 4.0 and HPE OpenSDN are available now as standalone solutions or integrated with HPE NFV System 1.4, targeted for availability in April 2017.

HPE is launching the HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service, a program that reduces the risk, complexity and time it takes to onboard and deploy new services faster. The service utilizes open-standards-based tools to accelerate the steps to examine the VNF, build the information model/templates and the descriptors used for integration into MANO and NFV infrastructure layers, support onboarding on multi-VIM environments and allows the creation of appropriate service models for vendors that support NFV open orchestration standards.

The HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service leverages more than two years’ of experience gained from the HPE OpenNFV Partner Program, where the same process and toolset has been used to validate numerous HPE and partner VNFs on the HPE OpenNFV reference architecture. The HPE VNF Onboarding Factory service is offered for various levels of VNF complexity and delivered by a global network of trained consultants.

The HPE VNF Onboarding Factory Service is targeted for availability in the second half of 2017.

HPE Virtual Headend Manager (vHM) takes a software-defined approach, providing a non-proprietary, scalable, programmable network infrastructure. This method enables CSPs to quickly deploy new channels in minutes, adapt to new technologies as they become available and reduce the complexity of integration. HPE vHM considerably reduces CAPEX and simplifies operations management, for improved OPEX. Additionally, HPE vHM enables CSPs to create new sources of revenues with innovative Channels-as-a-Service type of solutions.

HPE vHM is expected to be made available in March 2017.

HPE SDM solutions can be deployed as either physical or virtual network functions using a variety of COTS hardware and software. The addition of an HPE Virtualized NonStop as an SDM deployment option adds fault-tolerance, high availability and scalability required by mission-critical CSP environments to already proven virtualized SDM functions, including Home Subscriber Service (HSS); Home Location Register (HLR); authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA); Intelligent Network Server (INS) and Universal Identity Repository (UIR).

SDM for HPE Virtualized NonStop is also targeted for availability in March 2017.