High speed data networks to the customer’s premise are evolving rapidly, driven by the need to innovate quickly and to reduce the cost of both operation and capital spending. Distributed DOCSIS architectures, whether remote PHY or remote MAC/PHY, will create more intelligent nodes in the network that require management and create valuable data on network performance and effectiveness. Mixed distributed and centralized network Architectures will create management domains with different requirements, straining traditional management infrastructures and organizations. Management paradigms from the management of data centers, such as software defined networking (SDN) and network virtualization (NV or NFV) are being applied to telecom networks promising agility and innovation in the creation and monitoring of network services. Managing and innovating on these evolving network platforms will be key to both maximizing the return on past and future investments, enabling service velocity, and containing the operational costs of the network.
We describe an approach of using a service orchestrator that evolves with the network architecture. Using SDN principles, we show how such a cloud based orchestrator in conjunction with purpose built applications can begin to unburden the existing network elements in the collection and management of network data, and to create value added services for network configuration, network optimization, and ultimately network planning. The purpose built applications in conjunction with the Service Orchestrator can be well placed to orchestrate network management between traditional and distributed equipment domains, and play an essential part rapid configuration and control of the entire network.