By Javier Ger, Esteban Poggio & Miguel Masache Ojeda, Telecom Argentina; Furquan Ansari & Ben Tang, Bell Labs Consulting
CSPs all over the world are evolving their networks to be future-ready as the march towards 5G continues. The new Telecom Argentina, formed through the merger of a cable and a telco companies, is not only undertaking the complex merger and consolidation of the two disparate and diverse networks, but at the same time also transforming to a unified and converged next-generation architecture that can support all future needs.
This paper addresses the transformation of the IP and optical Core/Backbone architecture and technology, considering not only an optimized and flexible topology from a TCO and current/future services point of view, but also features and functionalities this network has to support to meet the aforementioned objectives for the next 5 years and beyond. It addresses some of the key challenges, drivers, and specific characteristics such as fiber plant locations, diversity and resiliency requirements, traffic patterns, and densities, etc. that must be taken into consideration to develop a candidate set of network topologies for the given geography and demography. Both qualitative and quantitative criteria are then applied to select the right future architecture. It also provides rules that can be applied to determine optimal conditions to adapt this architecture to future demands with minimal impact, i.e. to create a dynamically adaptive network that can support any future, on-demand services.
The work will further elaborate on some of the salient points of this new architecture - including traffic and capacity optimization, content distribution strategies, network function distribution, DC5/edge cloud distribution, IGP6 strategies, optical features, etc. to ensure an economically and operationally efficient backbone. It will discuss the incorporation and use cases of new technologies such as SR7, SDN8, NFV9, etc. as key enablers to truly achieve this target flexible network able to support next-generation services.