S EP T EM B ER 2 0 1 8

Edge Virtualization:
Near-term deployment drivers
for 5G service enablement
By Jason Marcheck
Principal Analyst, Layne Bridge and Associates

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 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

It is often said that 5G is about more than introducing a new wireless

access technology into the networking world. Indeed, 5G is oftentimes
described as creating the ability to match any access technology to the
appropriate transport, and core, networking resources to meet a variety
of use cases. In this regard, edge network virtualization becomes one of,
if not, the fundamental 5G enabler.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Virtualization at the edge can mean different things depending on one’s point of view. This
is largely due to the fact that there are several definitions of where the “edge” of the net-
work resides. For the purposes of this report, the edge will be defined as just beyond the
RAN (or fixed access points), where local traffic must be either backhauled to the mobile
core, or, increasingly broken out for transport directly to the public Internet and/or the
cloud. It is here where the need to manage the explosive growth of video traffic, prepare for
an onslaught of ultra-low latency IoT traffic, and, soon, support concepts such as multi-ac-
cess edge compute (MEC) and network slicing is forcing network operators to virtualize in
both the core and at the edge of their networks.

This report is part of an editorial series published by RCR Wireless News

that delves into the non-radio related networking technologies that will
be required to support 5G deployments. For an examination of the latest
MEC developments, including a comprehensive review of key carrier trial
and deployment milestones, please download, Multi-Access Edge Comput-
ing: Its Role in 5G. Similarly, for an examination of network slicing, please
download, Network Slicing: Unlocking 5G Revenue Opportunities, both of
which can be found in RCR’s reports library by clicking here.

Edge virtualization overview and value proposition

By now, the fundamental premise for virtualizing network resources, mainly by decou-
pling the network control plane from the data plane is well understood in the networking
community. Along these lines, the value proposition for virtualization at the core can also
be applied to the edge. At a high level, the facets of the network virtualization value prop
can be summarized as:

July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company 2

 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

Scale in/scale-out of network resources. While the need for steadily increasing capacity is
a hallmark challenge facing network operators, the need to support increased agility with
respect to service enablement has placed another challenge before network planners. In
order to accommodate and compete with cloud native service providers (think: Netflix, et.
al), network operators need the ability to quickly scale network resources in multiple di-
rections. This is commonly referred to as the “scale-in/scale-out” problem. In a nutshell,
it refers to the ability to dynamically assign network resources to support new service
launches, and the data sessions that come with these launches. Conversely, it also
refers to the ability to quickly reclaim these resources when they are either no longer
required, or needed elsewhere.

Going forward, as video content becomes more personalized, and IoT use cases prolifer-
ate, the ability to dynamically scale-in and scale-out network resources will become more
than a “nice to have” feature; it will be a fundamental survival tool to enable operators
to manage the rapidly changing demands on their networks. In order to accomplish this,
the ability to deploy (and claw back) virtualized network functions is a pre-requisite.

Service flexibility. Hand-in-glove with the previous point, the ability to handle differing
service requirements is also a fundamental tenant of the virtualization value proposition.
As more enterprises move their services to the cloud, the ability to enable a variety of
service definitions and QoS parameters also becomes important. Although some of this
can be done in the cloud and/or in the mobile core, the ability to support a number of
services at the edge will be important, especially as operators deploy solutions to pro-
cess increasing amounts of traffic in micro data centers at the edge of the network and/
or split traffic off for transport to either the cloud or the mobile core. To this end, virtual-
ization at the edge promises to help service providers to choose an appropriate access
type, and map that to the core transport link that is most appropriate for the particular
application performance that is trying to be achieved.

Managing costs and avoiding vendor lock-in. Part and parcel to service agility is the ability
to tap into flexible, lower cost network architectures that help network operators to move
away from traditional product design and update cycles. In a physical network functions
environment, operators are largely dependent on the product cycles of their suppliers to
incorporate customizations and/or introduce new features that help them to either man-
age unique network design requirements, or meet evolving customer expectations. While
this remains true to an extent in a virtual network functions environment, the fact that
the elements are largely software-driven and can run on off-the-shelf hardware means

July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company 3

 TRANSFORMING
MOBILE NETWORK
EC ONOMICS

R EV E N UE COST R E V E N UE
GENE R AT I ON RE D U C T I O N P R O T E CT IO N

5G CORE CLOUD RAN vEPC

5G MEC 5G NR vMBC

mavenir.com
 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

that product development can be done in more agile ways. In turn, this helps to enable
much faster product development, which helps operators to better cope with rapidly
changing networking requirements.

At the same time, software development can, and oftentimes is, quite proprietary. As
such, in order to help mitigate the possibilities of shifting the notion of vendor lock-
in from hardware to software, most operators have become advocates of open-source
software development models. Although none of this eliminates an operator’s need for
an ecosystem of trusted supplier partners, it does help to increase the flexibility that
operators have in choosing the technology suppliers that they work with, and can help to
reduce product development cycles so as to help them to compete more effectively with
cloud networking providers such as AWS, Google, Microsoft, etc.

Building the foundation for 5G. It is often said that 5G is

about more than introducing a new wireless access tech-
nology into the networking world. Indeed, 5G is oftentimes
described as creating the ability to match any access
technology to the appropriate transport, and core, network-
ing resources to meet a variety of use cases. In this regard,
edge network virtualization becomes one of, if not, the
fundamental 5G enabler.

In addition to the need to scale-in and scale-out on an agile, if not completely, auto-
mated basis, 5G will require rapid, software-centric product development cycles, and
the ability to handle an unprecedented mix of service requirements. It will also require
additional technologies such as MEC and network slicing that are also rooted in the
ability to virtualize at the edge.

Chapter 2:
Edge network virtualization deployment drivers
While scalability and cost savings are a near universal goal with all networking technol-
ogy developments, virtualizing at the network edge will be about supporting a range of
networking and service delivery use cases. In other words, in order to fulfill the neces-
sary ROI requirements to justify adoption, investments in edge virtualization will need
to result in the ability to support new revenue streams as much as conserve network
operating costs.

July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company 5

 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

Along these lines, in examining some of the key near, and longer-term deployment
drivers, we’ll begin at the top of the proverbial pyramid with edge network virtualiza-
tion’s role in supporting 5G roll-outs.

5G service enablement
Circa late 2018, some 5G skeptics will
point out that there is very little in terms of
service requirements that 4G cannot support.
While true to an extent, one primary reason
why 4G will ultimately prove inadequate to
support a myriad of IoT-driven enhanced
mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-low latency
(ULL) use cases is a matter of scale. Simply
put, 4G cannot scale economically enough
to handle all of the requirements related to
eMBB, ULL and IoT. However, while 5G is be-
ing hailed as the solution to supporting these
requirements at scale, we must circle back to the point that 5G is more than a new radio
access technology. If it is about a networking framework for supporting an extremely
diverse set of use cases, then it will require an “all hands on deck” technology approach
to the way networks are designed and architected. By and large, this approach will be
rooted in virtualization and orchestration. So, while the drivers outlined below are not
necessarily dependent on 5G, they do very much represent key ingredients that will make
up the complex 5G service enablement recipe.

Enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-low latency and massive IoT

Two of the most discussed enablers of eMBB, ULL and the associated IoT-driven use
cases are MEC and network slicing. Briefly, MEC refers to the ability to perform a num-
ber of critical core network functions at the edge of the network for the dual purpose of
reducing the amount processing that must be done in the network core, and to reduce
the latency that is introduced when transporting traffic from access to the core and
back again. At its most basic level, network slicing refers to the ability to create mul-
tiple logical networks on top of a common physical infrastructure. This involves using
orchestration techniques to “carve out” compute and storage resources along with
networking resources to run a service with unique quality of service parameters inside
a network slice.

July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company 6

 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement
“Our customers are looking for
ways to maximize efficiency
as they adopt virtualized
network services. The ability
to reduce the number of cores
needed to run a single VNF
down from, say, 3 to 2 cores
can have an important impact
on NFV adoption. It can mean
that a system of 3 to 4 VNFs
can run on 8 cores rather than
having to upgrade to a more
expensive 16 core system.
When we get there we will
really see some interesting
things happen.”
Kevin O’Toole, Senior VP,
Product Management,
Comcast Business
“We must have the ability
to choose the access type
based customer availability
requirements, and choose
the appropriate core
transport based on the
app performance that
the customer is trying to
achieve.”
Winston Carrera,
CTO – Future Networks,
Global Services, BT
July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company
From a use case point of view, eMBB can be thought of within the context of video
content proliferation. In short, gigabit data rates will be needed to handle traffic related
to the combination of AR/VR, remote gaming, UHD video conferencing, and a host of
other services that will run across a service provider’s network. Similarly, many of these
same applications will also require very low latency performance in order to deliver an ac-
ceptable quality of experience for the end-user. Taking things a step further, autonomous
driving and many sophisticated factory automation use cases will require latency in the
sub-millisecond range in order to adequately ensure the safety of people in the vehicles,
or on the factory floors.
Beyond eMBB and ULL, the introduction of potentially thousands of IoT devices in any given
square meter of physical space will create another vector of networking demands that can
only be met through the ability to support a massive number of network connections that
are orders of magnitude larger than what networks must be able to support today.
All in all, each of these requirements will hinge on the capabilities that MEC and net-
work slicing can enable. In turn, these concepts will depend heavily on giving network
operators the ability to innovate rapidly through open-source, agile software development
cycles, scale-in/scale-out networking capabilities, and COTS-based cost models that
network virtualization can bring.
Enterprise service delivery
Although most industry media attention and tradeshow marketing is focused on fun
(e.g., AR/VR), cool (e.g., autonomous vehicle), and, at times, way out there (e.g., pas-
senger drones) use cases, the opportunities that many network operators and service
providers are interested in addressing today are related to supporting new and innova-
tive enterprise services. It is fair to say that they days of business customers needing
reliable phone service and available internet are largely gone. In order to support
a wide, and growing, range of services related to employee BYOD schemes, public,
private and hybrid cloud networking, consolidated branch networking via SD-WAN, and
many other service possibilities, network operators must move on from the paradigm
where access circuits are wedded to a specific type of core network transport. Here
too, virtualization at the network edge will have a huge enabling role to play in terms of
being able to support the service agility, scalability and network flexibility required to
meet a diverse set of enterprise connectivity needs.
7
 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

Local/cloud traffic breakout

Along the lines that improvement in the ability to deliver enterprise services helps to
“pay the bills”, another important deployment driver that helps to quantify the near-
term ROI potential of edge network virtualization is the ability to perform cost effective
traffic breakout. As a case in point, several years ago Netflix realized that the video
traffic that it was putting on to the network was creating an untenable situation for
itself as an OTT player, and the operator networks that carried the traffic. As such, they
proactively engaged in a cloud-based CDN strategy that helped them to cache content,
and enable a more localized service delivery model.

Today, while Netflix remains a prime source of video content traversing operator networks,
“In many discussions that
it is far from the only source. In a separate whitepaper, Vasona Networks presented
we have, operators respond
data projecting that by 2025, 75% of network traffic would be video traffic (a data point
to the future low-latency/
corroborated by the GSMA during a presentation at Mobile World Congress Americas in
IoT applications and the
September, 2018). As a potential solution to this issue, Vasona offers a suite of solu-
promise of more revenue.
tions that can be deployed as virtual network element(s) that can sit at the edge and
Even though it is a more
breakout video traffic that can either be kept local, or transported directly to the cloud. In
speculative business case,
turn, this helps to keep a substantial portion of video traffic from traversing an operator’s
it captures the imagination.
core network. As to be expected, Vasona is far from alone in offering such a solution.
But, the cost efficiencies
Most CDN providers claim to support similar capabilities. What’s more, vendors such as
and capital expenditure
Mavenir and Alef Mobitech, just to name a few, also offer fully virtualized solutions to
avoidance are more tangible
help breakout traffic that is either local or can be sent directly to the cloud.
and reliable in the short-
term, especially in the face of
While local traffic breakout does not garner the headlines as driverless cars, it is
runaway demand growth.”
becoming a key mechanism by which operators can help to control traffic growth in the
John Reister, Senior VP of core of their networks. Earlier in 2018, Mavenir published a study in which it estimated
Product and Marketing, that as much as one-third of the video traffic on today’s networks could be handled by
Vasona Networks local traffic breakout. In turn, the offloading of this traffic enabled CapEx on core net-
work capacity expansion to be deferred by up to two years. What’s more, traffic shaping
solutions by the likes of Allot, and others, also promise similar benefits of deferring
CapEx through smart traffic management schemes.

Taken together, these solutions, and the subsequent network efficiencies that they can
help to create allow operators to better orchestrate capital spending as part of broader,
more holistic network transformation agenda(s), as opposed to reactive spending simply
to keep up with increasing capacity demands.

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 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

“Existing network
Chapter 3: Edge Virtualization Deployment Challenges
architectures don't allow
operators to move fast At its September, 2018 analyst conference, Kevin O’Toole, SVP of product management
enough to compete with for Comcast Business commented with respect to offering services over virtualized net-
web-scale service provides work infrastructure saying, “We’re under no illusions that we are very early in the game,
- this is driving operator and that things can, and likely will, change rapidly.”
discussions around mobile
edge computing and While it has become somewhat commonplace to take for granted that network operators
moving computer are working hard on virtualizing aspects of their networks, the insight above is a salient
functionality out to the edge reminder that the industry is still in the early days of shifting from a physical networking
of the network. environment to a virtual networking environment. To this end, if there is still quite a bit of
John Baker, work to be done, it is worth examining some of the key hurdles that continue to stand in
SVP, 5G Business the way of widespread implementation of VNFs in operator networks.
Development, Mavenir
VNF footprint: compute resource requirements
It is a commonly accepted notion that VNFs are less expensive to purchase, deploy
“Right now, one gating and operate than PNFs. At the same time, the resources needed to run workloads in a
factor in virtualizing at telecom grade environment can be substantial. As such, in some cases, operators are
the edge is that the VNF finding that the compute resources required to run VNFs in their network can actually
footprint(s) can be rather work against the claim that virtualizing network elements helps operators to cut their net-
large. We see value in being work OpEx. Beyond the raw compute power to run some VNFs, operators are also finding
able to use Microservices that, as with PNFs, some level of customization can be required to make the VNF a good
as a means of reducing the fit for their network. In many cases, changes to one aspect of the VNF can have down-
footprint, and providing the stream implications on its performance. To this end, the need to customize VNFs, while
flexibility to add or remove theoretically easier in a software environment (especially in an open source software
features without changing environment), can take quite a bit of time, and cause delays in the ability to execute on a
the entire VNF.” virtualized network implementation.
Winston Carrera,
CTO – Future Networks, For these reasons, operators are looking to their supplier ecosystem for innovative solu-
Global Services, BT tions to these problems. Two vectors of product development that operators are keen to
see progress on can be summarized as:
• Compute resource optimization – the ability to follow Moore’s law as applied
to VNF development can be a powerful tool in helping to reduce the number of
cores needed to run a VNF in a production environment.
• Microservices – Beyond reduction in raw computing resources needed to run a
VNF, operators are also interested in using microservices to compartmentalize
functions within the VNF. In this sense, it could then become possible to make

July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company 9

 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

changes – add or remove features – within the VNF without changing the entire
structure of the VNF. What’s more, using microservices also allows for increas-
ingly agile design methods to reduce the cycle times required to change and/or
optimize particular aspects of the VNF.

Service assurance – testing and diagnostics

As networks become increasingly virtualized, it can become substantially more complex to
“Moving to the cloud run testing and diagnostics, and as a result, perform service assurance. At a basic level, vir-
with SDN/NFV is a tualizing network functions allows for the possibility of multiple suppliers to be contributing
huge transformation. As features to a VNF, or a system of VNFs. As this happens, the instrumentation requirements
operators move from needed to run the required testing and diagnostics can increase. Going further, because
on-premise, physical development cycles for VNFs are becoming more agile in nature, there is a need for continu-
networks to a distributed, ous testing throughout the design process. This also holds true in a production environment
cloud-based virtualized where the dynamic nature of virtualized networks can also create this need for continuous
environment the biggest testing. In turn, this also contributes to the VNF footprint issue described above.
challenge they face is
orchestrating and assuring Similarly, as service delivery over virtualized infrastructure becomes more complex – with
those services.” massive IoT, ULL and increasingly tailored video content all bringing different service
delivery requirements – testing and assurance requirements will become even more
Ari Banerjee, Vice
critical. Most telecom-grade OSS/BSS vendors such as Amdocs, Netcracker and others
President, Strategy,
offer comprehensive testing and assurance solutions, as do testing specialists such as
Netcracker
Spirent. The figure in the middle of the page describes Spirent’s approach to VNF testing.

July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company 10

 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

Chapter 4: Conclusions and Recommendations

As industry momentum behind 5G development, and deployments continues to build,

edge networks are going to become a fundamental piece of the service enablement
puzzle. However, if these networks are not architected properly, they could become the
bottleneck that hinders a network operator and/or service provider’s ability to meet
customer demands. To this end, as operators look to extend the benefits of network vir-
tualization from the core of their network(s) to the edge, they need to be careful that they
take the proper steps to ensure that they are creating efficiencies, not bottlenecks.

While no two operators’ network migration journey will be exactly the same, there are
“First, they should think
some signposts to following terms of logical steps that can be taken. One potential
about virtualizing the data
investment path is described by John Reister, VP of Product Marketing at Vasona Net-
path into the mobile core.
works in the box to the left. In any case, however, it will be important for operators to
Then, they can start putting
balance the temptation to look forward to the ability to support new breeds of services
a NFV-based MEC software
related to IoT, interactive digital content, enterprise services based on SD-WAN, etc. with
platform and apps on that
the near-term practical realities of managing network costs – both CapEx and OpEx – and
infrastructure. Next they can
complexities as virtual network functions move from the core to the edge.
use a spine/leaf architecture
in their aggregation network,
Summary recommendations
or hub sites, which allow
• Embrace the practical benefits – While the ability to support applications such as
them to build in the servers
autonomous driving, remote telesurgery, and massive IoT is an eventuality that op-
to host ‘X-RAN’ capabilities.
erators must prepare for, focusing on cost saving benefits related to concepts such
After that, they can migrate
last local/cloud traffic breakout is a way to reduce strain on their core networks,
MEC towards the edge”
and potentially, defer capacity related CapEx. Beyond the financial benefits of more
John Reister, Senior VP of
efficient capital deployment, traffic breakout schemes can help operators to ensure
Product and Marketing,
a better quality of experience for video content. This not only helps to enhance
Vasona Networks
customer satisfaction and loyalty, but also sets the stage for potential new service
offerings as video content becomes more ingrained in everyday data usage patterns
of customers.

• Push hard on the “blocking and tackling” – As described in Chapter 1, network

virtualization holds several important benefits that will become fundamental to
5G service enablement. At the same time, there remain fundamental challenges
associated with migrating from PNFs to VNFs in pursuit of a fully virtualized (and
automated) network architecture. One such “fundamental” is the current compute

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 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

requirements of many VNFs. To this end, operators need to actively engage with (i.e.,
push) their supplier ecosystem to produce VNFs that can run on fewer cores than
they can today. In the same vein, operators must also take an active role in helping
their providers architect VNFs, perhaps using microservices, so as to make them
more malleable in their ability to support unique characteristics that will be a facet
of nearly all large telecom grade network implementation.

• Don’t wait for the future, build it – While the somewhat practical benefits related
to local traffic breakout and the ability to deliver enterprise service more efficiently
should occupy much of the near-term business case and ROI modeling in support
of edge virtualization, the future in undeniably in the ability to support 5G, IoT, and
Industry 4.0 use cases. To this end, operators need to embrace this destiny by not
only planning for it, but also by investing in it. One potential way would be to leverage
techniques such as local traffic breakout to defer capital spending on core network
capacity, and reallocated that spending to advanced technologies at the edge such
as MEC, and the platforms needed to support network slicing.

July 2018. Copyright © 2018 Arden Media Company 12

 Edge Virtualization: Near-term deployment drivers for 5G service enablement

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