CenturyLink is laying out its plans for baking software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) capabilities into its network platform.
The Louisiana-headquartered operator intends to virtualize 40 percent of its global IP core network locations by end of 2015. It will have full global virtualization coverage in its IP core network and data centers by 2018.
“CenturyLink is taking its network assets and combining them with our expanded NFV platform and cloud services to create a customizable and dynamic applications marketplace infrastructure that will give businesses near real-time provisioning and more control over their service experience,” CenturyLink CTO Aamir Hussain said in a statement. “Integrating virtualized services into our network and developing an interactive marketplace and portal for our customers allows us to be more responsive to market opportunities and meet changing customer demands.”
CenturyLink’s NFV platform is already in 36 network and data center locations in seven countries, and that number should hit 44 by the end of the year. The company says it was one of the first to use NFV technology to virtualize security features such as firewalls and a content delivery network (CDN) for its Prism TV service.
CenturyLink plans to use virtualized voice and data infrastructure services including virtualized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) routers and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) over the coming months.
A lot of CenturyLink’s virtualization activity revolves around its Programmable Services Backbone (PSB). CenturyLink is using Ciena’s Blue Planet NFV Orchestrator to mobilize PSB and the PSB platform will combine the operator’s networking, cloud, hosting and IT services into an integrated offering that will be accessed through a portal and set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).