OCPSummit19 - EW: Networking: Hardware - Real Examples of Telecom Services Built Using White Boxes

For decades, telecom services have been enabled almost exclusively by proprietary, vendor-supplied hardware and software, often bundled, resulting in little choice, customization, or flexibility for operators and at high cost. The disaggregation of hardware and software and the open sourcing of both, pioneered by OCP, has inspired the telecom industry to break out of its chains and adopt white boxes for servers, switches, various appliances, and the new Universal CPE as platforms for VNFs that eliminate the service specificity of the hardware. And as more telecom services, orchestration, and management are conducted in data-center environments, thanks to SDN and NFV, the OCP model becomes the one to emulate. In this talk we will describe some examples of working proofs of concept shown recently by MEF members and partners of white boxes and open-source or proprietary software to enable new, agile services and capabilities. Presented by Dan Pitt