Brocade Communications was the ACG Research HotSeat Winner of 2015 for the video Evolution of Mobile Network Visibility. The video features a discussion about Brocade’s significant new network visibility product announcement: carrier-grade, physical and virtual network packet brokers, virtual TAPs, an SDN based session director and a single pane of glass management application. Sanjay Munshi, senior director of product management at Brocade Communications, and Michael Bushong, vice president of product management, accepted the award on behalf of the company.
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Monday, March 28, 2016
Friday, March 25, 2016
ACG Omega Award for Breakthrough Innovation Product Winner Big Switch Networks
Big Switch Networks was the winner of the Breakthrough Innovation Product for its Big Cloud Fabric 3.0., which provides hyper-scale networking in public, hybrid and private clouds. BCF is unique in that it delivers on the core vision of SDN on more dimensions than any other solution currently available. Big Switch Networks is the first supplier to have achieved that goal. BCF uses open software running on low-cost, high performance merchant silicon switches from multiple white box partners. This makes the physical underlay network both efficient and programmable.
BCF’s overlay virtual network is programmable in the same manner as the physical underlay network, supporting consistent policy deployments in a unified cloud computing fabric.BCF’s controller is also open and modular, able to integrate with cloud management systems like OpenStack and VMware, and providing visibility from the cloud management platform into the operation of its supporting network transparently. BCF’s controller is also open for extension and integration of optimization applications like Fabric Analytics to collect traffic data and use it to perform network optimizations directly. With BCF 3.0 “Big Switch Networks is achieving an important milestone in creating open, scalable, and versatile software-driven networking for the cloud. The true logic for the unified fabric’s operation is created in the BCF Controller and propagated to all participating network elements dynamically,” states Paul Parker Johnson.
Congratulations to the Big Switch team!
Roll It! ACG’s 2015 Omega Winners Are…
ACG Research is honored to announce the 2015 Omega Awards. The award recognizes excellence in message marketing for either a HotSeat, Whiteboard or Spotlight Innovation video as well as vendor operational excellence. The 2015 winners are Big Switch Networks, Brocade, Cisco, and iXia. Winners were cited and honored because “of their achievements in the areas of product innovation, message marketing or operational excellence,” said Ray Mota.
Big Switch Networks was the winner of the Breakthrough Innovation Product for its Big Cloud Fabric 3.0., which provides hyper-scale networking in public, hybrid and private clouds. BCF is unique in that it delivers on the core vision of SDN on more dimensions than any other solution currently available. Big Switch Networks is the first supplier to have achieved that goal. BCF uses open software running on low-cost, high performance merchant silicon switches from multiple white box partners. This makes the physical underlay network both efficient and programmable. BCF’s overlay virtual network is programmable in the same manner as the physical underlay network, supporting consistent policy deployments in a unified cloud computing fabric.
Left to Right Ray Mota, ACG; Douglas Murray, CEO, Kyle Forster, Founder; Shaun Page, VP of Worldwide Sales
BCF’s controller is also open and modular, able to integrate with cloud management systems like OpenStack and VMware, and providing visibility from the cloud management platform into the operation of its supporting network transparently. BCF’s controller is also open for extension and integration of optimization applications like Fabric Analytics to collect traffic data and use it to perform network optimizations directly. With BCF 3.0 “Big Switch Networks is achieving an important milestone in creating open, scalable, and versatile software-driven networking for the cloud. The true logic for the unified fabric’s operation is created in the BCF Controller and propagated to all participating network elements dynamically,” states Paul Parker Johnson.
HotSeat Winner was Brocade Communications. Sanjay Munshi, Senior Director of Product Management at Brocade Communications, and Ray Mota, CEO of ACG Research, discuss Brocade’s significant new network visibility product announcement: carrier-grade, physical and virtual network packet brokers, virtual TAPs, an SDN based session director and a single pane of glass management application. Sanjay highlights the challenges operators have in 4G/LTE visibility, how to address them in a cost effective manner and the critical need for new, next-generation network visibility architectures as mobile operators ramp up to virtual EPC and 5G with billions of M2M connections and Internet of Things in the not too distant future.
Left to Right, Sanjay Munshi, Senior Director of Product Management; Michael Bushong, Vice President of Product Management; Ray Mota, CEO
The Trusted Vendor Award went to Cisco, which has continued to demonstrate operational excellence and sustainability as measured by ACG’s financial vendor index. Cisco has very high operating margins because of sales, solid gross margin, improved productivity and expense discipline; operating income increased 22.4% y-y. The company also has effective asset utilization, which yielded $3.52 for each fixed-asset dollar in 4Q15. Other operational factors contributing to Cisco receiving the award include efficient inventory management, one of the highest net cash ratios in the industry and a high receivables efficiency ratio.
Left to Right, Ray Mota and Sanjeev Mervana, Sr. Director, Cloud, Infrastructure, & Business Solutions for SPs
Ixia was awarded the Whiteboard winner category. In this video Dennis Cox, chief product officer of Ixia, and Ray Mota, CEO of ACG Research, discuss the need for true 100% visibility. Today, many vendors claim to provide 100% visibility, but many drop packets and create blind spots in your application performance. Understand what is needed for true visibility and providing a secure network for optimal application performance.
Left to Right, Dennis Cox, Chief Product Officer; Ray Mota
Congratulations to the 2015 Omega Award winners!
rmota@acgcc.com
www.acgcc.com
WORLDWIDE MOBILE IP INFRASTRUCTURE WILL GROW TO $7.4 BILLION BY 2020
Mobile data, LTE upgrades, all-IP transformation and services, and network modernization are expected to positively impact demand for mobile IP infrastructure
The Worldwide Mobile IP Infrastructure market is projected to increase from $4.5 billion to $7.4 billion by 2020. ACG Research anticipates that the total Mobile IP Infrastructure market will increase 15% in 2016 as well as increase in each successive year. Mobile IP Routing Backhaul revenue will increase 7.1% and Switching Backhaul revenue will grow 1.8% during the forecast period. The Packet Core, both Mobile Packet Core and Evolved Packet Core, will surpass 15% by 2020. Although major LTE roll-outs, mainly in the macrocell layer, were completed in 2015, there is continued pressure for more mobile data capacity as mobile broadband subscribers and smart devices continue to grow. Providers want advanced services such as WiFi calling and VoLTE, fueling the demand for packet gateways, control plane functions and virtualization. LTE Carrier Aggregation, 5G and IoT capacity planning are expected to positively impact demand for mobile IP infrastructure. Vendors continue to upgrade their networks and technologies, as densification will be the key driver behind demand for data, which is expected to increase.
The projected five-year growth will be strongest in the Americas region, CAGR +11.0%, followed by the EMEA, CAGR +10.5%, and APAC, CAGR +9.0%.
“In the next five years, service providers will continue to focus on LTE but also target ultra-network transformation, looking into new architectures that will allow them to capitalize on the existing networks, identify new revenue streams, and deliver high quality of experience, service agility and innovation,” says Elias Aravantinos, mobility analyst. “Service providers are looking at vendors’ solutions that will allow them to not only manage existing networks but also let them transform to next-generation networks with simplicity, scalability and, most importantly, with low failure risk services to preserve service viability and minimize network downtime.”
TREND AND DRIVER HIGHLIGHTS
To address the demand for capacity and average revenue per user pressures, service providers are looking at 5G technology as the engine to optimize the different parts of their networks and deliver faster, new and more profitable services.
Mobile data traffic and 4G/LTE subs are projected to increase significantly during the next six years with operators responding with faster network deployments to satisfy subscribers’ demand, which is driven by video, for more capacity.
Data centers, flexible virtualized platforms and new software modules are now changing the traditional physical infrastructure thinking over the next 6 years that will put pressures to operators as they need to manage and maintain both virtual and legacy networks.
How networks proliferated by SDN and NFV will look in next 3 to 5 years will impact 5G standards and subsequent deployments. New network architectures delivering service agility, such as network slicing and virtual automated platforms, could save time and generate quick revenue.
For more information about ACG's mobility services contact info@acgcc.com.
Global Router and Switching Market Will Grow to $14.2 B by 2020
Demand for high-speed Internet, big data solutions, SDN, and cloud computing are expected to positively impact demand for the routers and switches
rmota@acgcc.com
www.acgcc.com
The Worldwide Router and Switching market is projected to increase from $11.9 billion to $14.2 billion by 2020 according to ACG Research. ACG anticipates that the total router and switching market will increase 5% in 2016 as well as increase in each successive year. Core routing revenue will increase 3.9% and Edge routing revenue will grow 2.7% during the forecast period. Recent technological advancements such as big data solutions, software defined networking, and cloud computing are expected to positively impact demand for the router and switch market. Vendors continue to upgrade their networks and technologies, and with the shift in demand from hardware networking solutions to software-based solutions, the demand for core Ethernet devices is expected to rise.
The projected five-year growth will be strongest in the APAC region, CAGR +4.0%, followed by the Americas, CAGR +3.7%, and EMEA, CAGR +2.8%. “There will be modest yet consistent growth projections for each router segment for 2016–2020 except for Multi-Services Edge Routing segment,” says Ray Mota, principal router and switching analyst. “Legacy technology and next-gen IP have converged into one box at tremendous cost benefits for providers and the need for these devices continues to decrease. With network performance and quality of the networks becoming a key differentiator and with an increase in the penetration of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, many service providers are upgrading their networks to support and monetize traffic growth. This escalation in mobile data traffic will have a positive impact on router sales.”
The global demand for data centers is also contributing to router growth. According to the Cisco® Global Cloud Index, data center traffic will grow nearly three-fold and by 2019 data center traffic will reach 104 zettabytes per year. Eighty-three percent of this data center traffic will be from the cloud and 80 percent of data center workloads will be processes in the cloud. Because of the increasing application of big data analytics and cloud-based services, the worldwide demand for data centers is expected to increase and this increase will fuel the adoption of Ethernet switches and routers.
“In the next five years service providers will continue to focus on monetizing emerging opportunities, which will require networks that enable them to accelerate service innovation, scale services, and expand the customers’ experiences within a viable economic framework,” says Ray Mota. “Service providers are looking at vendors’ solutions that provide a single operating system, operational simplicity and a platform with the highest possible scale across bandwidth, subscribers and services.”
TREND AND DRIVER HIGHLIGHTS
Growing operational needs of businesses and the advent of IoT will spur the increase in the global Ethernet switch and router market during the forecast period. The ability of Ethernet switches and routers to aid consumers and businesses in accessing advanced technologies is estimated to result in modest growth.
Mobile data traffic is projected to explode over the next six years as operators deploy faster networks and consumers add more devices to the mobile networks. This surge in demand is due to increase in smartphone usage, rise in wireless devices in networks combined with deployment of faster networks such as 3G/4G/5G and LTE.
Wireless vendors are already drawing up architectures and scoping out the requirements of next generation wireless platforms; the monetization of current investments amid rapidly changing consumer buying behaviors is a priority of carriers. Major transitions and disruptions from SDN/NFV are also playing out before 5G standards can be decided. How networks proliferated by SDN and NFV will look in next 3 to 5 years is going to impact 5G standards and subsequent deployments.
For more information about ACG's router and switching services contact info@acgcc.com.
rmota@acgcc.com
www.acgcc.com
Another Positive Quarter for the Global Router & Switching Market
Demand for data center interconnect products is driving growth in the routing and switching market
The 4Q15 total Worldwide Carrier Routing and Switching market increased 6.9% percent quarter over quarter and 3.9% year over year. The core routing segment posted revenue of $605.7 million, increasing 3.1% q-q and 7.5% y-y. The edge/switching segment posted revenue of $2.5 billion, increasing 7.9% q-q and 3.1% y-y.
In 2015 we saw
- Significant increase in deployments of 100 GE ports, driven by the growth in IP traffic as well as the availability of higher capacity line cards.
- Core router upgrades and replacements prompted by the move to 100GE helped the market to grow in 4Q15. The core router space saw diversification and expansion from traditional IP/MPLS and Internet peering to metro and DCI. Some vendors, specifically Juniper and ALU/Nokia, experienced growth in most regions because of this diversification.
- The increase in demand for high-speed Internet, expansion of cloud networking combined with adoption of virtualized technology has companies thinking of upgrading their technology.
- And with the shift in demand from hardware networking solutions to software-based solutions, the demand for core Ethernet devices increased.
In rank order, Cisco Systems, Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Networks, and Huawei Technologies were the market share leaders in the Service Provider Router & Carrier Ethernet Switch markets, accounting for almost 90 percent of revenue in 2015.
The Worldwide Carrier Routing and Switch market has been affected by increases in fixed broadband traffic and mobile broadband traffic on 3G and LTE networks, which are driving infrastructure growth. Next-generation devices as well as pressure on service providers to provide content-rich applications is nudging many service providers to upgrade their access, aggregation, core networks, and mobile backhaul. In 2016, we expect the developments in technologies such as DOCSIS3.1, LTE, 5G and G.fast, which in turn will drive IP traffic growth and prompt service providers to invest more in routers to keep their competitive advantage.
TREND HIGHLIGHTS
Equipment vendors saw double- and in some cases triple-digit growth in 100G ports. In 2015 we saw a significant increase in adoption of 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100GbE), which was driven by the continuous increase in IP traffic as well as the availability of higher capacity line cards. We expect this momentum to continue into 2016 as newer core router platforms go from test to deployment stages, and next generation 100 Gbps Ethernet optical interfaces become available.
In 2015, NFV saw traction with proof of concepts becoming deployments. Increasingly, operators are turning to NFV as an enabler of new services, short service innovation cycles, and as a means to drastically reduce the operational cost of new and existing services. AT&T has targeted virtualizing 75 percent of its business by 2021. Virtual CPEs, software-defined data centers, and VPN platforms are strong candidates for SDN/NFV transition. AT&T has identified wireless packet core as its first major function to virtualize. Dell Inc., which purchased EMC for a $67 billion, has entered the virtualization market to offer public/private software-defined datac enter cloud. Additionally, carriers realize cost savings as they do not have to buy, in some cases, additional hardware or vendor-specific hardware.
Data center interconnect has become a vital part of the service provider edge; currently, ACG sees six to eight percent of edge routers being dedicated to DCI. Traditionally, the router was used at the gateway function in the data center, but a large number are now for the data center for connectivity. The global demand for data centers has increased and data center equipment is seeing double-digit growth every quarter. Global data center traffic is expected to grow nearly three-fold, and by 2019 data center traffic will reach 104 zettabytes per year.
For more information about ACG’s router and switching services contact info@acgcc.com.
Meghna Zutshi
mzutshi@acgcc.com
www.acgcc.com
Thursday, March 10, 2016
ACG HotSeat with Kelly Ahuja, Cisco, on CloudScale Networking
Kelly Ahuja, SVP, Service Provider Business, Products, and Solutions, Cisco, and Ray Mota, CEO of ACG Research, discuss Cisco’s recent announcement of software solutions for CloudScale networking. Cisco worked with web-scale and service providers to identify their network priorities; across the board, these providers want deployment capabilities that can scale rapidly, are easy to execute,and automated and optimize the network so that they can deliver services on demand. Listen as to how Cisco with its software-centric approach and leading-edge network platforms meets SPs current and future requirements to address not only cloud-scale networking but deliver exceptional operational efficiency.
Contact sales@acgcc.com for more information about ACG's video services.
rmota@acgcc.com
www.acgcc.com
Friday, March 4, 2016
Ray Mota Talks NFV with Affirmed Networks & RCR Wireless
This CEO panel, filmed during Mobile World Congress 2016, brings together Hassan Ahmed, Affirmed Networks CEO, ACG Research CEO Ray Mota and Jeff Mucci, CEO of RCR Wireless News. The group discusses the use cases driving carrier NFV adoption and how the NFV landscape has changed in the past year.
Contact info@acgcc.com for more information about ACG's video services.
www.acgcc.com
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Business Case Analysis: Ericsson Router 8801 Distributed Subscriber Management
OTT traffic places huge demands on the backbone network. Three major trends are contributing to this: 1. Content moving towards 4K media streaming and requiring seven-times the bandwidth for each individual stream; 2. Increase in subscriber scale with the explosion of connected devices; 3. End users’ expectation of 24x7 connectivity with a high quality of experience to all of their favorite content from any location or device.
To address these trends, service providers must be able to satisfy consumers’ expectations and offer personalized services in a dynamic manner. To prepare the network to handle the relentless growth, service providers are reassessing their network and system architectures and building their content distribution networks based on a distributed network deployment model and disaggregated system architecture.
This paper will primarily focus on the shift in service providers’ requirements for the subscriber management function. It also discusses the disaggregation of functions in relation to subscriber management and distributed cloud-based networking.
Robert Haim of ACG Research conducted an analysis of Router 8801 deployment in a distributed subscriber management network architecture. The scenario compares Router 8801 to a leading second best alternative offering. The study found Router 8801 return on investment (ROI) levels of 299% for a single stack (IPv4 or IPv6 addresses) and 335% in a dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6 addressing) mode over seven years. Total cost of ownership savings levels of 65% (single stack) and 66% (dual stack) were found during the same period.
Contact sales@acgcc.com for more information about developing your business case.
Robert Haim
rhaim@acgcc.com
www.acgcc.com
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
The 5G Wave of the Future
Today, congestion plagues low-frequency below 6GHz spectrum bands, which, consequently, not only makes it very difficult to add more capacity but also limits the number of antennas used (no more than two or three antennas).
The landscape, however, is much different in the high-frequency bands, usually known as the millimeter wave (mmW). The channels are much wider, reaching even 250MHz and multiples thereof in some bands (such as E-band), providing the needed capacity for 5G access and backhauling. In general, the mmW can request a wide availability of spectrum, which is a prerequisite for both access and backhaul. More antennas can be used (ranging from 4, 16 or even 32), resulting into beamforming that as it advances to shorter wavelengths allows for smaller antennas (including arrays needed for beamforming and beamsteering). Antenna directivity is much better in high frequencies, allowing a high spectral reuse factor. High-frequency radios can widely be used today and demand will continue to grow, especially for E-Band (80GHz) in dense areas where high capacity is needed. ACG anticipates that the momentum for E-Band will continue and will be preferred for new 5G (by 2020 or earlier) deployments technologies. (One in five links could be E-band in 2020.)
Regulation is the main enabler for high-frequency solutions adoption because by applying different licensing models it could encourage better use of spectrum, weighing in factors such as frequency bands, geographic region, and local microwave hop density. Ericsson recently described the multiband booster method, which could maximize spectrum efficiency, add new technologies that can exploit unused spectrum, and upgrade the capacity of microwave backhaul networks up to tenfold. This is a great option that has been used for years from other leading vendors as well but in most cases is still restricted by regulation.
Introducing and allowing wider channels in less deployed areas would further encourage the use of multiband solutions. Leo Macciotta, Huawei’s Senior Marketing Manager, highlights that “the challenges in capacity and latency requirements posed by LTE-A and in the future 5G make this kind of equipment the best and most cost-efficient choice for a future-proof deployment. Continuous investments in component, system and antenna technology provide a clear and dependable road map of improvement in performance such that we are confident that E-band will become one of the key building blocks of the future front- and back-haul networks for 5G and beyond.”
For access, most vendors could offer high modulation, wider channels, and multiple antennas (MIMO). The capacity offer varies between 2 and 4 Gbps full duplex, although some vendors are testing solutions in the lab that could go up to 10 Gbps in a range of a few kilometers. The MIMO types used today in most cases are 2x2 and 4x4 but could increase much higher along the 5G spec. This is not the case for backhaul; although the MIMO feature is offered, there is no real demand yet, but that might change beyond 2020.
E-band has recently come into mainstream use for mobile backhaul, allowing capacities of up to 10 Gbps over link lengths up to several km (even more than 10 km when bundled with lower frequency bearers) and is currently shipping in volume. Regarding backhauling, Yigal Leiba, co-founder and CTO of Siklu, mentioned that “a capacity of 2 Gbps could be enough today and possibly for the next 2 years for Mobile Operators and specifically for network aggregation layers and major Macro Base Stations backhauling, while 1Gbps street level backhaul could serve effectively Small Cells.” Looking to the future, the industry shares a vision of using frequencies above 100 GHz, as they will enable capacities in the 40 Gbps range over hop distances of about a kilometer but mostly for access. Regarding 5G and backhaul, there is already pressure, and leading vendors and major Tier 1 operators are worried that backhaul requirements may not be kept in the right considerations.
Tying the whole industry ecosystem together is the ETSI mWT (Millimetre Wave Transport) ISG, a common forum for component, subsystem and system manufacturers, telecommunications operators, and regulator. The forum promotes understanding and acceptance of mmW worldwide. With endorsements from such respected groups the future of these technologies looks promising.
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