This is Part III of a three-blog collection on options to beat challenges related to bridging the digital divide.
In half I of this collection, we mentioned conventional broadband community architectures and their limitations. In half II, we mentioned particulars on the evolution of broadband networks, utilizing a distributed structure with a centralized management aircraft, designed to handle the challenges related to conventional broadband networks. In this last weblog, we are going to concentrate on the Cisco resolution with Subscriber Edge.
Cisco Subscriber Edge resolution
The Control and User Plane Separation Broadband Network Gateway (CUPS BNG) resolution from Cisco terminates residential broadband subscribers, is aligned with TR-459, and known as Cisco Subscriber Edge or cloud-native BNG (cnBNG), as a result of cloud-native expertise is used to host management aircraft capabilities.
Given the crucial want for resiliency within the management aircraft, which is tasked with terminating hundreds of thousands of subscriber periods over tons of of distributed consumer planes, Cisco’s subscriber edge management aircraft has been developed as a cloud-native software from the bottom up utilizing Go programming language to make sure superior reliability.
As a part of the evolution to cloud-native community capabilities, the Cisco Subscriber Edge management aircraft structure is decomposed into a number of microservices and deployed as containers that may be independently scaled, upgraded, and deployed based on necessities (see Figure 1 on cloud-native tenets used for the management aircraft structure).
The decomposition of management capabilities into a number of impartial stateless microservices permits higher resiliency. It additionally allows hitless improve of the management aircraft, impartial patching of downside or failed containers, and restricted rollout of options or software program modifications with no widespread practical influence. These microservices are deployed utilizing the identical infrastructure as Ultra 5G Packet Core, which hosts the 5G Packet Core Functions as containers, and may be simply prolonged to run on third-party container-as-a-service (CaaS) platforms.
Cisco Subscriber Edge structure
Cisco Subscriber Edge structure (see Figure 2) is aligned with Broadband Forum TR-459 . In this structure, the management aircraft is cloud-native with decisions of {hardware} and software program consumer planes primarily based on the IOS XR community working system (NOS).
The Cisco Subscriber Edge structure offers quite a few technical benefits and advantages, positioning CSPs to successfully broaden their networks in alignment with the altering calls for of the market. These benefits are distinctive to the Cisco structure and complement the advantages already inherent within the CUPS framework. The further advantages embrace:
- Operational ease: Cisco’s management aircraft structure consists of an Ops Center perform, which makes BNG operations extra user-friendly for BNG community engineers and decreasing the necessity to handle Kubernetes immediately. For added effectivity, Cisco Crosswork Network Automation affords automation for deployment, lifecycle administration, and repair orchestration, whereas additionally sustaining service assurance.
- Industry-leading scale: At the center of Cisco Subscriber Edge is a cloud-native management aircraft, designed for large industry-leading scale, supporting a community of 1 million periods with tons of of consumer planes. Expanding capability is simplified by including further computing sources or new nodes, making certain a clean scale-up course of that retains current subscriber periods on-line with none influence.
- Resiliency: Cisco’s structure makes use of a layered strategy for resilience that ensures the management aircraft is protected against server to knowledge heart failures in a cloud-native setting. The consumer aircraft safety is ensured by subscriber redundancy group (SRG) characteristic help, which mitigates dangers from hyperlink and platform failures to whole web site outages.
- Simplified BNG Monitoring: With Cisco Subscriber Edge, the duty of monitoring BNG key efficiency indicators (KPIs) is simplified by an included Grafana Dashboard, removing advanced monitoring setups and additional licensing prices. This intuitive dashboard showcases an intensive number of metrics that operation groups can customise, simplifying the monitoring expertise considerably. Moreover, Cisco Subscriber Edge ensures clean integration with third-party dashboards, by telemetry and bulk statistics.
- Easier integration: Cisco Subscriber Edge structure is aligned to TR-459 commonplace, which makes use of the CUPS mannequin to cut back OSS/BSS touchpoints with the management aircraft, thereby facilitating smoother integration. Built on a basis of cloud-native expertise and a microservices framework, the management aircraft ensures fast deployment of recent options, streamlining the combination course of for enhanced effectivity.
Bridge to common broadband
The Cisco Subscriber Edge resolution, aligned to Broadband Forum TR-459 commonplace, marks a major development in broadband community gateway expertise. With the cloud-native management aircraft, CSPs can effectively handle the calls for of hundreds of thousands of subscriber periods throughout an enormous array of distributed consumer planes deployed at completely different layers within the community.
The Cisco resolution will help CSPs adapt to evolving broadband and site visitors necessities, develop their networks successfully, and leverage distinctive resolution benefits which enhance advantages inherent within the CUPS framework.
For BNG engineers, the Cisco structure simplifies operations and will increase effectivity by the Ops Center perform and Cisco Crosswork automation capabilities.
Network operators can profit from a fortified resolution utilizing a layered structure that protects each the management aircraft and consumer aircraft from numerous malfunctions and outages, together with web site failures and knowledge heart outages. Other operational advantages embrace simpler integration with standards-based alignment, and simplified monitoring of key BNG efficiency indicators utilizing the embedded Grafana dashboard for a customizable and complete view of efficiency metrics with out further prices.
Cisco’s dedication to innovation and the cloud-native strategy empowers community operators to construct a brighter future for broadband networks. Reducing prices, simplifying networks, and enabling high-quality companies will help make the web extra reasonably priced and ubiquitous with higher end-user experiences for all.
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