Growing network complexity and new scalability requirements in light of 5G, the IoT, video, virtual reality, and virtualization. More demanding customers and applications that don’t necessarily translate into added revenue. A need to roll out new features and services faster so they can compete with their peers and reach time-to-revenue faster.
Network operators are facing a lot of challenges today. And the ones noted above are just a few of them.
In an effort to address those challenges, network operators are considering and in many cases adopting technology that allows them to automate various aspects of their networks and processes. Ciena is one of the companies that’s delivering the technology to enable that kind of thing.
But the company continues to reinforce the message that while automation is important, given the legacy networks in place today are too manually intensive, network operators need more than that alone. What they need, Ciena says, are adaptive networks.
Adaptive networks allow for automation, the company says, but it enables that based on specific policy and prioritization. Ciena-powered adaptive networks, it adds, are intelligent, multidomain, open (to allow for the use of solutions from various suppliers), self-optimized, and secured.
Adaptive networks can adapt intelligently and in an automated way to current and future conditions because they leverage analytics and intelligence, programmable infrastructure, and software control and automation.
“Some believe an autonomous network could be the answer,” the company says. “Ciena has a different vision, one that takes the importance of autonomous networking into account, but looks beyond automation to ensure networks can adapt to change, not just be automated in a reaction to change. The Adaptive Network is Ciena’s vision of a new target endstate for network providers. The Adaptive Network utilizes automation, guided by analytics and intent-based policies, to rapidly scale, self-configure, and self-optimize by constantly assessing network pressures and demands.”
Edited by Maurice Nagle