Disaggregation: The Foundation
for Agile Networks

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Forum enables the aggregation of service orchestration at the management level.

Disaggregated broadband
and RAN use cases

Disaggregated open broadband use case

For broadband networks, service providers are moving away from legacy chassis-based optical line terminal (OLT) equipment, and they are leveraging broadband access disaggregation to advance their telco cloud capabilities for greater efficiency and automation.

Service providers are swapping out the complex and costly “black boxes” to new “white-box” solutions with software defined networking control and web-based management portals. Disaggregating the network and deploying an open SDN controller increases networking programmability and innovation.

Figure 3: Example of a disaggregated CU and DU architecture
click to enlarge

These broadband access networks leverage open standards from the Broadband Forum (BBF) and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). The open interface from the Broadband Forum enables the aggregation of service orchestration at the management level. ONF’s SEBA VOLTHA interface allows for the disaggregation of the control plane from the OLT, allowing scaling of the solution in both centralized and distributed architectures (seen in figure 4).

Figure 4: Open and disaggregated broadband architecture
click to enlarge

Open and disaggregated broadband access allows service providers to realize faster service delivery by eliminating constraints based on single vendor components and reduced cost due to use of white-box OLTs, ONTs and switches. This enables faster broadband rollout and innovation on their own terms and time schedule.

Disaggregated open RAN use case

Open RAN is one of the hottest topics in the telecom industry and service providers are seeking to build their 5G networks with open RAN-based components. In addition to broad industry support from tier-one CSPs, maturing standards work for open RAN