Introducing Automation in Service Delivery Procedures

Abstract

The combination of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) with Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) approaches is gaining momentum in the Industry as a new way of implementing, managing and controlling telecommunications networks. This chapter aims to go through SDN and lightly over NFV, presenting main characteristics and the standardization work on that technologies. SDN enables programming networks together with the ability to adapt to applications requirements and network dynamics. NFV aims at virtualizing network services by merging several network equipment types onto standard Information Technologies (IT) high volume virtualization technology (switches, servers and storage) located either in data centres, customer premises or network nodes. SDN and NFV interworking ambition is to bring on-demand resource provisioning, resource elasticity, among others with a centralized view of the overall network, able to automatically and dynamically honor service requirements.