How will AXOS and the distributed BNG transform your network?

Service providers are extending the benefits of SDN and virtualization into the access domain. As they do, all components of subscriber service delivery – broadband network gateway (BNG) router, aggregation switch, 10G/GPON OLT – are being disaggregated and reformulated.

Just what is the optimal solution for this network redesign? How would you reassemble the network and physical layer functions to produce an architecture that…

• enables faster time to market for new services,
• simplifies service provisioning,
• results in a step function cost reduction,
• improves subscriber quality of experience, and
• paces investment with subscriber revenue?

If a software platform could transform the business of broadband like Apple’s iOS redefined cell phone service, how would that enable you to compete more effectively in the new digital economy?

The AXOS software platform’s unique ability to deploy modular software components in targeted network locations creates the only solution to the multi-dimensional network optimization problem. Need proof? Just ask Verizon.

Only buy the data plane once

Key to this radical network transformation is the re-use of the data plane, the most expensive part of the service delivery chain. A quick rule of thumb: for every $1 spent on the OLT, an operator spends $4 on the BNG edge router. The very expensive and redundant router data plane needs to go.

The OLT terabit-scalable data plane must, by necessity, support per-subscriber QoS and policy enforcement, so our optimization question becomes, “What else can we use the OLT data plane resource for?” Answer: anything you can implement in software. And that’s a long list of things.

The AXOS E9 Intelligent Edge System, with on-board x86 compute resources, can host a wide range of network functions, including the IP aggregation and subscriber management functions found in the BNG router. With modular and portable software abstracted from the underlying hardware, AXOS consolidates three networks systems into one, providing a step-function cost reduction while simplifying operations, configuration, testing, and integration efforts.

Beyond the direct economic benefits, a distributed BNG architecture has important networking and security advantages. Centralized policy coupled with distributed enforcement provides a more direct and real-time response to security threats, while termination of Ethernet Q-in-Q subscriber connections at the network edge enables simplified insertion of local content and application flows. More on that in a future blog.

The news is out, and the world has taken notice. The optimal solution for broadband network transformation is AXOS and a distributed BNG.