Evolving Broadband Networks with Cisco Subscriber Edge

That is Half III of a three-blog sequence on options to beat challenges related to bridging the digital divide.   

In half I of this sequence, we mentioned conventional broadband community architectures and their limitations. In half II, we mentioned particulars on the evolution of broadband networks, utilizing a distributed structure with a centralized management airplane, designed to deal with the challenges related to conventional broadband networks. On this ultimate weblog, we’ll concentrate on the Cisco answer with Subscriber Edge.

Cisco Subscriber Edge answer

The Management and Person Aircraft Separation Broadband Community Gateway (CUPS BNG) answer from Cisco terminates residential broadband subscribers, is aligned with TR-459, and referred to as Cisco Subscriber Edge or cloud-native BNG (cnBNG), as a result of cloud-native know-how is used to host management airplane capabilities.

Given the vital want for resiliency within the management airplane, which is tasked with terminating hundreds of thousands of subscriber classes over a whole lot of distributed person planes, Cisco’s subscriber edge management airplane has been developed as a cloud-native utility from the bottom up utilizing Go programming language to make sure superior reliability.

As a part of the evolution to cloud-native community capabilities, the Cisco Subscriber Edge management airplane structure is decomposed into a number of microservices and deployed as containers that may be independently scaled, upgraded, and deployed in line with necessities (see Determine 1 on cloud-native tenets used for the management airplane structure).

The decomposition of management capabilities into a number of impartial stateless microservices permits higher resiliency. It additionally permits hitless improve of the management airplane, impartial patching of downside or failed containers, and restricted rollout of options or software program modifications with no widespread useful impression. These microservices are deployed utilizing the identical infrastructure as Extremely 5G Packet Core, which hosts the 5G Packet Core Capabilities as containers, and will be simply prolonged to run on third-party container-as-a-service (CaaS) platforms.

Cisco Subscriber Edge structure

Cisco Subscriber Edge structure (see Determine 2) is aligned with Broadband Discussion board TR-459 . On this structure, the management airplane is cloud-native with selections of {hardware} and software program person planes primarily based on the IOS XR community working system (NOS).

The Cisco Subscriber Edge structure supplies quite a few technical benefits and advantages, positioning CSPs to successfully broaden their networks in alignment with the altering calls for of the market. These benefits are distinctive to the Cisco structure and complement the advantages already inherent within the CUPS framework. The extra advantages embody:

• Operational ease: Cisco’s management airplane structure contains an Ops Middle perform, which makes BNG operations extra user-friendly for BNG community engineers and lowering the necessity to handle Kubernetes instantly. For added effectivity, Cisco Crosswork Community Automation affords automation for deployment, lifecycle administration, and repair orchestration, whereas additionally sustaining service assurance.
• Business-leading scale: On the coronary heart of Cisco Subscriber Edge is a cloud-native management airplane, designed for enormous industry-leading scale, supporting a community of 1 million classes with a whole lot of person planes. Increasing capability is simplified by including additional computing assets or new nodes, making certain a clean scale-up course of that retains current subscriber classes on-line with none impression.
• Resiliency: Cisco’s structure makes use of a layered strategy for resilience that ensures the management airplane is protected against server to information heart failures in a cloud-native atmosphere. The person airplane safety is ensured by subscriber redundancy group (SRG) characteristic assist, which mitigates dangers from hyperlink and platform failures to total website outages.
• Simplified BNG Monitoring: With Cisco Subscriber Edge, the duty of monitoring BNG key efficiency indicators (KPIs) is simplified via an included Grafana Dashboard, taking out complicated monitoring setups and additional licensing prices. This intuitive dashboard showcases an intensive collection of metrics that operation groups can customise, simplifying the monitoring expertise considerably. Furthermore, Cisco Subscriber Edge ensures clean integration with third-party dashboards, via telemetry and bulk statistics.
• Simpler integration: Cisco Subscriber Edge structure is aligned to TR-459 normal, which makes use of the CUPS mannequin to scale back OSS/BSS touchpoints with the management airplane, thereby facilitating smoother integration. Constructed on a basis of cloud-native know-how and a microservices framework, the management airplane ensures fast deployment of latest options, streamlining the mixing course of for enhanced effectivity.

Bridge to common broadband

The Cisco Subscriber Edge answer, aligned to Broadband Discussion board TR-459 normal, marks a major development in broadband community gateway know-how. With the cloud-native management airplane, CSPs can effectively handle the calls for of hundreds of thousands of subscriber classes throughout an enormous array of distributed person planes deployed at totally different layers within the community.

The Cisco answer may also help CSPs adapt to evolving broadband and site visitors necessities, develop their networks successfully, and leverage distinctive answer benefits which counterpoint advantages inherent within the CUPS framework.

For BNG engineers, the Cisco structure simplifies operations and will increase effectivity via the Ops Middle perform and Cisco Crosswork automation capabilities.

Community operators can profit from a fortified answer utilizing a layered structure that protects each the management airplane and person airplane from varied malfunctions and outages, together with website failures and information heart outages. Different operational advantages embody simpler integration with standards-based alignment, and simplified monitoring of key BNG efficiency indicators utilizing the embedded Grafana dashboard for a customizable and complete view of efficiency metrics with out additional prices.

Cisco’s dedication to innovation and the cloud-native strategy empowers community operators to construct a brighter future for broadband networks. Lowering prices, simplifying networks, and enabling high-quality companies may also help make the web extra reasonably priced and ubiquitous with higher end-user experiences for all.

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