Ekinops, a prominent provider of telecommunications solutions tailored for both telecom operators and enterprises, has unveiled compelling evidence of a highly effective and economically viable virtualization business model catering to service providers.
For some time, Ekinops has been diligently developing a virtualization solution known as OneOS6-LIM (Local Infrastructure Manager). The primary objective of OneOS6-LIM is to furnish network services rooted in virtualization, encompassing the entire spectrum of design, creation, validation, and deployment operations. This innovative solution establishes a virtualized computing environment primed for hosting numerous Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) on a universal Customer Premise Equipment (uCPE).
Historically, uCPE solutions faced skepticism, chiefly due to their relatively higher hardware costs compared to traditional Customer Premise Equipment (CPE). Critics contended that the economic viability of this hardware investment hinged on providing at least an equivalent feature set as that of a CPE, particularly advanced routing capabilities.
Ekinops’ response has been to harness the hardware’s full potential by optimizing its footprint and performance. This approach enables them to deliver superior services on a more cost-effective hardware platform. OneOS6-LIM comes bundled with the embedded ONEe600 router, incorporating an extensive feature set, including Quality of Service (QoS), zone-based firewall, encryption, and tunneling mechanisms. The ONEe600 router’s goal is to provide standard networking services while minimizing its footprint, thereby conserving processing resources for vendors’ VNFs running on the same device.
To validate the performance of their embedded router, Ekinops enlisted the expertise of EANTC AG (European Advanced Networking Test Center), an internationally renowned objective testing center. EANTC executed a total of fifteen test runs encompassing three test scenarios involving Ekinops’ virtualization and the embedded router e600 on an entry-level uCPE hardware platform based on Intel’s C3xxx Atom Denverton CPU. The results affirmed the robust performance and adaptability of the ONEe600 router, positioning it as a viable option for small to medium-sized offices seeking a routing solution.
Sylvain Quartier, VP Marketing & Product Strategy for Access at Ekinops, emphasized, “Not so long ago, NFV was pronounced dead, and we say no way. Ekinops has a long history of providing network access solutions to Service providers. By working with them in close partnership, we acknowledge the huge opportunities, but also the challenges associated with virtualization, especially in terms of return on investment. By using our experience as a carrier-grade software connectivity solution, we succeeded in combining routing and VPN technology with virtualization, in such a way that not only a fast time to market but also a quick return on investment can be achieved. In the past two years, we have signed a significant number of telcos for virtualization, and we have more projects lined-up. We have also noted a strong interest from enterprises, and our partner’s eco-system is constantly growing. NFV is not only ‘alive’ but definitively kicking and healthy for the foreseeable future.”
