By: Chris Busch

Are you ready for the next device revolution? What if it doesn’t look at all like you expected?

The latest industry disruption isn’t a result of a cool consumer electronics gadget with all the latest bells and whistles. It’s actually the transformation of the communication service provider relationship with subscribers to enhance customer experience management in the age of supporting new consumer electronics and the proliferation of the Internet of Things.

The way to transforming the CSP-subscriber relationship is through virtualization. Specifically, it’s by changing the way we think about customer experience management via customer premise equipment (CPE) virtualization.

First, understand that software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) are not alone an answer to implementing new services, simplifying the ones already being delivered, or improving customer experience. Virtualization requires a control plane and a network infrastructure responsive in the relationship between SDN and NFV. This is how SDN becomes an enabler of NFV; and when the two are combined, virtualization of the customer premises becomes possible.

What is vCPE and how does it fit in with SDN and NFV?

Understanding virtualized customer premises equipment (vCPE) and how it can benefit your organization requires a basic understanding of SDN and NFV.



Let’s start with SDN. SDN gives network administrators the ability to manage services through an abstraction of higher-level functionality. This approach represents a deconstructed view of switching and routing architectures, and offers operators more control to create virtualization strategies that build out public, private, and hybrid cloud architectures, delivering multiple new applications to the market.  

NFV refers to the process of decoupling software functions from hardware. Today, NFV occurs at multiple levels and reaches across applications and network elements guided by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Network Function Virtualization program and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) NFVRG (NFV Research Group).