Evolving Broadband Networks with Cisco Subscriber Edge

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

In half I of this collection, 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 last weblog, we are going to give attention to the Cisco resolution with Subscriber Edge.

Cisco Subscriber Edge resolution

The Management and Consumer Airplane Separation Broadband Community Gateway (CUPS BNG) resolution from Cisco terminates residential broadband subscribers, is aligned with TR-459, and known as Cisco Subscriber Edge or cloud-native BNG (cnBNG), as a result of cloud-native expertise is used to host management airplane capabilities.

Given the crucial want for resiliency within the management airplane, which is tasked with terminating tens of millions of subscriber periods over tons of of distributed consumer planes, Cisco’s subscriber edge management airplane has been developed as a cloud-native software 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 response to 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 allows hitless improve of the management airplane, impartial patching of downside or failed containers, and restricted rollout of options or software program adjustments with no widespread practical impression. These microservices are deployed utilizing the identical infrastructure as Extremely 5G Packet Core, which hosts the 5G Packet Core Features as containers, and might 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 decisions of {hardware} and software program consumer planes based mostly on the IOS XR community working system (NOS).

The Cisco Subscriber Edge structure gives 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 embrace:

• Operational ease: Cisco’s management airplane structure consists of an Ops Heart perform, which makes BNG operations extra user-friendly for BNG community engineers and decreasing the necessity to handle Kubernetes immediately. For added effectivity, Cisco Crosswork Community Automation presents 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 periods with tons of of consumer planes. Increasing capability is simplified by including further computing assets or new nodes, guaranteeing a clean scale-up course of that retains present subscriber periods 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 knowledge heart failures in a cloud-native atmosphere. The consumer airplane safety is ensured by subscriber redundancy group (SRG) function 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 by an included Grafana Dashboard, casting off complicated monitoring setups and further licensing prices. This intuitive dashboard showcases an in depth choice of metrics that operation groups can customise, simplifying the monitoring expertise considerably. Furthermore, Cisco Subscriber Edge ensures clean integration with third-party dashboards, by telemetry and bulk statistics.
• Simpler integration: Cisco Subscriber Edge structure is aligned to TR-459 customary, which makes use of the CUPS mannequin to cut back OSS/BSS touchpoints with the management airplane, thereby facilitating smoother integration. Constructed on a basis of cloud-native expertise and a microservices framework, the management airplane ensures speedy deployment of recent options, streamlining the mixing course of for enhanced effectivity.

Bridge to common broadband

The Cisco Subscriber Edge resolution, aligned to Broadband Discussion board TR-459 customary, marks a major development in broadband community gateway expertise. With the cloud-native management airplane, CSPs can effectively handle the calls for of tens of millions of subscriber periods throughout an unlimited array of distributed consumer planes deployed at totally different layers within the community.

The Cisco resolution can assist CSPs adapt to evolving broadband and site visitors necessities, broaden their networks successfully, and leverage distinctive resolution benefits which counterpoint advantages inherent within the CUPS framework.

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

Community operators can profit from a fortified resolution utilizing a layered structure that protects each the management airplane and consumer airplane from varied malfunctions and outages, together with website failures and knowledge heart outages. Different operational advantages embrace 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 further prices.

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

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