Nokiaannounced the launch of its cloud-native solution, Adaptive Cloud Networking, to transform service provider cloud networks to be consumable, agile and automated. The comprehensive solution is designed to respond to the unpredictable demands of the 5G era by supercharging a service provider’s data center fabric and seamlessly extending its operations to the edge clouds. This innovation in the way telco clouds are built and operated will enable service providers to reinforce their critical role in the 5G digital network value chain.

5G networks are pushing the limits of existing data center fabrics and edge cloud infrastructures: cloud native designs drive the agility and dynamicity of applications, and low latency performance requires those applications to be delivered from edge clouds close to end users. Data center fabrics need to adjust to these new demands. A new NetOps era is emerging – onethat provides the tools and capabilities that allow service providers to transform their networks to become more efficient and productive and increase both service revenue and ARPU.

Nokia’s comprehensive Adaptive Cloud Networking solution helps service providers overcome these challenges to deliver a consumable, agile and automated network. A consumable network provides a needed foundation of openness, extensibility, visibility and control to access network data to optimize network operations. An agile network adapts to the constantly changing scale and performance required from the application layer, ensuring needed elastic scalability as dictated by the applications. An automated network supercharges network operations by making various built-in automation tools available throughout the network’s lifecycle.

Nokia’s Adaptive Cloud Networking solution provides these values in three key areas of the service provider network – the data center fabric, the rapidly emerging edge cloud, and the seamless inter-connectivity needed across the WAN, connecting applications across the WAN to different parts of the network.

The solution leverages Nokia’s proven data center fabric elements, including the SR Linux network operating system, the Fabric Services System and the Nokia 7220 and 7250 IXR hardware platforms; the newly introduced Edge Network Controller, designed specifically for the automation of the network in edge clouds; and Nokia’s Network Services Platform (NSP) forprogrammable automation, connecting data centers and edge clouds across the wide area network (WAN).

Kalle Lehtinen, CTO, Elisa, said: “With Adaptive Cloud Networking, having the capability to extend the flexibility and dynamicity of a cloud to the network and interconnecting services in different cloud environments, will further enhance Elisa’s position as the global leading digital service provider in automating operations. Applications in a cloud are able to consume the network as a dynamic resource in which the network automatically adapts to changes in service demand. This is a big benefit for Elisa’s 5G deployments. Elisa is a telecommunications market leader in Finland where its 5G network already covers over 70% of the population.”

Paul Parker-Johnson, Chief Analyst and Practice Lead for Cloud and Virtual System Infrastructures, ACG Research, said: “Delivering cloud-native networks and application services effectively in the future will rely on enhanced data center fabrics built from the start for cloud-native operations, from core to edge. Cloud-native networking fabrics need a strong foundation of open, standards-based protocols and data models, broad software modularity, dynamic and complete alignment with service intent, and rich automation at every layer of operation. Nokia has heard these requirements from customers clearly and its solution incorporates what is most important for use in service providers’ distributed clouds. Combined with its experience delivering solutions at scale in operator mobile, IP/MPLS/Segment Routing, edge, and SD-WAN deployments, and use of rich automation in each of those domains, Nokia’s Adaptive Cloud Networking presents an innovative, scalable, and agile solution to use as the foundation of operators’ cloud-native services.”

Vach Kompella, Vice President, IP Networks Division, Nokia, said: “Nokia’s Adaptive Cloud Networking is about automating every phase of the data center fabric and network lifecycle, including design, deployment and operations. Intent-based automation capabilities can be implemented every step of the way, supercharging service provider operational productivity without having to expand staff and skill set. We’re pleased to offer service providers a complete solution that will help them transform their business both now and into the future.”

Adaptive Cloud Networking combined with Nokia’s new 5G Edge Slicing solution opens additional opportunities for service providers to create value for enterprises.

The following Nokia products comprise the Adaptive Cloud Networking solution:

For the data center fabrics:

• ​At the heart of the data center fabric solution is Nokia’s SR Linux network operating system (NOS), which was built from the ground up to provide an open, extensible model-driven architecture, providing uncompromised visibility, resulting in a network that is highly consumable.
• The Nokia Fabric Services System is a data center fabric management and automation platform that provides next generation data center fabric automation capabilities. Service providers can provide intent-based automation across their entire data center fabric lifecycle from Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2+.
• The Fabric Services System provides comprehensive integration into the leading cloud management platforms and leverages a plugin infrastructure to keep the network agile and in “lockstep” with the applications it serves.
• As part of the Nokia Fabric Services System is the Digital Sandbox, a digital twin of the production networks that can provide service providers programmable testing and validation of network changes before deployment.​
• Service providers can build open and automated data center fabrics with the 7220 Interconnect Router (IXR), Nokia’s high-performance, fixed-configuration platforms; and its modular, high-performance 7250 IXR-10/IXR-6 Interconnect Router (IXR) platforms.

For edge cloud network automation:

• The new Nokia Edge Network Controller is a lightweight Kubernetes application designed specifically for edge cloud locations, which are both space and cost constrained. It enables operators to improve network agility and programmability while ensuring services delivery with ultra-reliability and low-latency requirements. It is unique because it is built within a Kubernetes system, making the IP network components of the edge cloud consumable by the entire Kubernetes ecosystem and its wealth of tools and applications, enabling a consistent orchestration of containers and networks.
• The Edge Network Controller supports both the SR Linux and the Nokia Service Router Operating System (SR OS). With its plug-in architecture, it is designed to support any modern network operating system that uses advanced data models.