back to article EMC: Make like the Doctor's Tardis and virtualise telecoms

EMC wants traditional and new communications service providers to use a single network function virtualisation scheme to introduce new services layered on the existing telecoms infrastructure. The Provider Cloud System (PCS) is a reference architecture for Network Functions Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI). By using it, …

  1. ukgnome

    Only the Doctors TARDIS or will any timelord time capsule do?

    Does it have to be a type 40 Mk3?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Single network function virtualisation scheme?

    "EMC wants .. service providers to use a single network function virtualisation scheme .. By using it, communications service providers can virtualise their networks."

    Will this NFVI be more or less reliable than existing telecom hardware appliances?

  3. AndyFl

    And when it fails, everything goes down

    Concentrating more functionality into a few boxes increases the chances of catastrophic failure. Segregation of functionality is much more appropriate to critical networks and services.

    One example I saw a year ago was the complete collapse of the entire national Omantel network for about 8 hours after a routing failure. All fixed telephony failed, their cellular network collapsed as did large parts of the competing network where backhaul was delivered over Omantel. All Internet and private data network backhaul failed. Most importantly the Police emergency call centres saw calls drop by over 90%. You can be pretty sure that some people died because of delayed emergency services response.

    You save money by combining all your backhaul and other services but it also means the consequences of failure are much more severe as Omantel discovered.

    I've spent over 30 years working in the critical communications industry and have seen this sort of thing on many occasions where people come out of the IT industry into telecomms and try to bring the same work practices as their previous organisations.

    It doesn't really matter if Facebook falls over for an hour or two but people will die if a national communications or a power network goes down. You should physically segregate critical and non-critical systems not because the critical systems hardware is more reliable but because you don't want some PFY doing something silly on a router when deploying a new Cisco IP phone and taking out other services.

    Andy

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