Earlier this year, Coriant, shared a study of more than 80 network operators and found the following:

A reported 80 percent of them showed a high interest in using SDN to make their networks better and more capable of handling the demands of a mobile clientele.

Not surprisingly, the company has been doing its best to establish itself

 as the go to resource for these operators as they make the shift into these new areas. In fact at MWC16 they introduced the Transcend Packet Controller which Extends SDN control from transport to IP/MPLS Networks. It further enhances multi-layer optimization and improves service performance in IP/MPLS based mobile backhaul and carrier aggregation networks.

I had an exclusive interview with Uwe Fischer (above/right depending on browser), Chief Technology Officer and Bill Kautz (below), Director of Strategic Solutions Marketing where they told me automated provisioning takes place via customer portals and dynamic load distribution responds to network congestion. In addition, there is alarm-based service re-routing which reduces network instability.

This works via a centralized Path Computation Element (PCE) that defines traffic flows based on real-time performance criteria in addition to traditional routing algorithms for context-optimized path computation and routing (e.g., routing based on network congestion or underlying optical transport paths). These capabilities have been shown to enable network operators to increase network utilization, improve network reliability, simplify operations, and deliver performance-aware services, while enabling efficiency improvements that can generate CapEx savings of up to 35% – according to the company.

In addition, Coriant touts programming interfaces built upon standards-based interfaces (RESTCONF/YANG) for seamless interoperability with third-party OSS, orchestrators, and applications. The goal of the open API framework is to simplify end-to-end service provisioning and enable automated synchronization between IP/MPLS and optical layers for enhanced multi-layer traffic engineering and optimization.

“The introduction of the Coriant Transcend SDN Packet Controller follows upon successful completion of Tier 1 customer and multi-vendor interoperability trials,” said Paul Smelters, Executive Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, Coriant. “This solution significantly strengthens the Coriant Transcend SDN Solutions portfolio by advancing SDN-enabled IP/Optical interworking at a time when network operators are looking to simplify multi-layer architectures without sacrificing scalability, flexibility, or resiliency.”

The company also aims to help the network come under SDN control (yes, software is eating the world) allowing a multilayer integrated network which fits in perfectly with NFV-based solutions. It’s why the company is working with Brocade on a virtualized EPC and mobile backhaul solutions. In this way they said customers can have a better view of their network. In fact, Coriant is now part of Brocade’s Open Mobile Networking Partner Ecosystem.

Certainly, the company seems to be in the right place at the right time – last week they announced SDN professional services. This comes at a time when researchers believe the market is poised to grow from just over $2 billion last year to $56 billion by 2020! Certainly this lines up well with the research at the top of this post.

In closing, Coriant sees the move to 5G being powered by an IP-routed optical network and they think with their SDN, routing and optical experience, they are in the perfect position to help network-operators in the future.

See also: Coriant’s participation in OpenNFV