Open-Source Leveraged Telco Infrastructure

June 2016

Alex Jinsung Choi

CTO, SK Telecom Network-IT Convergence

Telco infrastructure is evolving to All-IT Network by software defined technology, just as feature phone became smart phone by computer technology.

Feature Phone Computer Smartphone

Network IT Server Network virtualization Programmability, Scalability, Service Agility

All-IT network by software defined technology

Starting at Expansion to Mobile Network 1 SKT Next Gen Infrastructure: COSMOS

SKT’s infrastructure will accommodate platform services, telecom services, and IT services on a single platform “COSMOS” using open software and hardware technologies.

“COSMOS (Composable, Open, Scalable, Mobile Oriented System)”

Telecom Services Platform Services IT Services Orchestration T-Phone oksusu Application LTE-A 5G Smart Home BSS ERP T Life LoRa Summer OSS Big Data Smart Factory NFV MANO

Provisioning Open Software (Virtual Infrastructure) Virtual Machine Container SDN Unbundled Monitoring

Open Hardware (Physical Infrastructure) Server Network Storage

Image Source: Wiwynn/HP 2 Open Infrastructure

SKT joined (OCP) and (TIP) to share and lead the open architecture for telco infrastructure.

Gold Member Founding Member OCP Telco Project Board Chair

Server Switch Storage RAN Backhaul Core

All-IT Network Data Center Telco Network

3 Open Compute Project OCP Summit 2016

SK Telecom announced the development plan for NV-Array with and , and discussed work plan for OCP Telco Project and TIP.

Executive Track (Intel, Facebook, SKT) OCP Telco Panel (AT&T, Verizon, DT, SKT) Announcement of NV-Array Telco Infrastructure Evolution towards 5G

AF-Media & NV-Array Wedge Switch Trial & T-CAP AF-Media @Hynix Booth 4 Open Compute Project Telco Requirements

Telco needs to clearly define the requirements for open infrastructure to be extensively used for network function virtualization.

Optimized Performance Novel Architecture for Telco Workload for 5G Era

 Hardware Accelerator  All-flash JBOF Storage (e.g. Facebook Lightning, SKT NV-Array)  Intel Xeon+FPGA  Rack Scale Architecture (e.g. Ericsson HDS8000)

Design for Smaller and Telco Grade More Distributed Data Center Reliability and Safety

 Central Office Re-architecting  Environment guideline (e.g. NEBS)  Reuse of Legacy Facility  Seismic Tolerance (Power Distribution, Cooling System, etc.)

5 Open Compute Project AF-Media

AF-Media is a high-performance / high-density all-flash storage server optimized for media streaming, delivering maximized throughput, capacity and response speed.

Features of AF-Media SCube AF-Media All-flash Media Server Ultra High Throughput Optimized for UHD/VR Streaming High I/O Performance, 40GbE Ethernet • Ultra-high throughput • Minimum footprint, maximum density • Hot swap SSD, dual power/network Ultra Small Footprint • Minimal hardware cost 16 SSDs in 1U size, 16TB High Capacity • Low power consumption (~5% smaller than HDD)

Ultra Low Power Under 150W per System Module

AF-Media (Xeon-D or ATOM) (~20% lower than HDD)

OCP contribution All-flash storage as a open hardware product

6 Open Compute Project NV-Array

NV-Array is an all-flash storage array (JBOF) that accommodates 20 NVMe SSD’s for the next-generation storage solution.

Key Features of NV-Array SCube NV-Array All-flash NVMe JBOF

Designed for 5G Storage High High Density Bandwidth • High IOPs, Low Latency • Low cost per GB 20 NVMe SSD’s in 1U size High IO Performance • High scalability High Capacity (over 80TB) Millions of IOPS • Flexible allocation • Continuous operation

Reliability Multi Host PCIe & Availability Connection

Servers SSD Drive Hot-Swap Support 6 Host Connection with OpenBMC Support 8GB/s Throughput per each NV-Array (JBOF*) *Just a Bunch of Flash

OCP Contribution Co-development as a open hardware with “Lightning”

7 Open Compute Project T-CAP

T-CAP is a converged network appliance, which integrates high performance Xeon server with data center switch.

T-CAP T-CAP Use Cases Converged Network Appliance Network Applications on ToR Switch Convergence of switch and server Load Balancing, Firewall, 3rd Party Applications • Open hardware • High computing on a switch • Lower cost due to convergence • Simpler deployment and operation Data Backup & Network Analytics Network Traffic Backup and Monitoring

Server (Dual E5 Xeon)

Switch Overlay Gateway for Virtual Network (10/40/100G) Storage VTEP(VxLAN Tunnel End Point) Node

OCP Contribution Co-operation with as a open hardware high performance N/W Controller

8 Open Compute Project Wedge Trial

We build open networking with open source network OS from the lessons learned by Wedge trial.

Making “Wedge” support OpenFlow Lessons Learned  Complexity to support diverse types of switching silicon and hardware platform

OpenFlow Control  Need vendor agnostic interface layers (SAI, ACPI) Indigo Agent  SKT’s own solution for network auto- provisioning

OF-DPA Management Protocol (e.g. OpenConfig, OVSDB)

Open Network OS OpenSwitch Silicon SDK Linux Kernel …

Shared and Discussed at OCP Summit & ONS 2016 9 ※ SAI: Switch Abstraction Interface, ACPI: Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Open Compute Project Rack Scale OCP Trial

Rack scale OCP trial will be conducted in two phases, and its results and experiences will be shared through OCP Telco Project.

Phase 1: PoC for OpenStack & Big Data

OCP Server • Verify OCP benefits - power saving, better cooling, higher density, cost reduction, etc. • Deploy in Telco data center - Limit on power supply, coexistence with JBOD/JBOF Storage traditional racks, etc. • Define the requirements of Telco OCP

OCP Switch Open Rack

Phase 2: Telco Workload

SKT SKT SKT • Run VNF on OCP hardware Central Office Central Office Central Office • Identify further requirements on Telco workload (Boramae) (Bundang) (Pangyo)

Image Source: Wiwynn/HP 10 CORD Project @ ON.Lab

SK Telecom is leading the Mobile CORD project to reform mobile network central offices into data centers.

M-CORD for 5G Enabling Platform  Enable virtualized/disaggregated RAN and Core  Deploy network functions as services  Leverage best practices of OpenStack, ONOS, NFV  Use open commodity hardware

11 Telecom Infra Project Overview

Telecom Infra Project (TIP) started in February 2016 to bring openness to Telco infrastructure just as OCP did to data center.

Rebuild the telecom infrastructure together for a sustainable future

Initiated by … Newly joined by … …

Networks of the Future TIP Work Scope

• Face the growth of the internet and the rise of • Explore new approaches and technologies across three data-intensive services like video and VR areas: access, backhaul, and core and management • Collaborate on the development of new • Leverage the unique engineering and operational technologies expertise of each member • Rethink how we deploy existing technologies • Focus on developing new technologies and exploring • Focus on simplicity, flexibility, and efficiency in new approaches to deploying in both developed and everything we do emerging markets.

12 Telecom Infra Project SCALE

Future network should be “Simple”, “Cognitive”, “Automated”, “Lean”, “End-to-End”.

Scalable • Efficient Resource Utilization • On-demand • Adaptive Cognitive End-to-End • E2E Network Visibility • E2E Analytics • Real-time Analytics • E2E Optimization • Policy-based Optimal • E2E Orchestration Decisions ATSCALE Scalable, Cognitive, Automated, Lean, End-to-End

Automated Lean • Intelligent Operations • Open Source HW/SW • Self-configuration • Open Interface • Self-optimization • Modularized • Standardized

13 Telecom Infra Project Software-Defined RAN

Software-based All-IT Network will bring open radio access network (RAN) innovation at scale: simple, cognitive, and agile.

SDRAN Architecture Key Values

Analytics-based SON Biz. Enabling with MEC 1 Open Architecture SDRAN Orchestration • Network function virtualization Open SW Virtualized Functions • Open interface (fronthaul, service API) Access Analytics Distributed Edge • CP-UP separation CP & Infra Mgmt Core Func. VAS • Open HW and SW

Open-source based virtualization 2 Operational Intelligence Light-weight, VM-based virtualization • SW-based risk management • Auto Recovery Physical Infrastructure Open HW • Reconfiguration without service interruption Access UP HW Open-source HW • Automated operation and optimization with real-time analytics

CP-UP Separation Open Fronthaul 3 Biz. Enabling Platform

rd Remote Unit (RU) • 3 party services Access UP HW Radio Unit • Edge service slicing

14 Conclusions

 SKT’s next generation infrastructure “COSMOS” and “ATSCALE” are based on open source hardware and software.

 OCP and TIP are two leading communities to be leveraged in “COSMOS” and “ATSCALE”.

 For OCP, SKT will open its storage and network products (NV-Array, AF-Media, T-CAP).

 An OCP trial is under way to get a firsthand experience before massively applying to SKT infrastructure.

 SKT co-founded TIP and co-led Software-Defined RAN innovation at scale.

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