The Pivotal Role of Service Assurance Systems in NFV/SDN Environments

Network virtualization technologies of network functions virtualization (NFV) and software defined networking (SDN) are increasingly being prioritized by communications service providers (CSPs). CSPs agree that NFV/SDN can significantly reduce capex and opex, and there is broad agreement that the success will largely depend on the evolution of the operation support system (OSS) environment to support virtualized next-generation networks (vNGNs) – a combination of virtualized and traditional physical network assets, in which most of the core is virtualized, initially. However, most CSPs do not have clarity on the details of the capex and opex reduction. This white paper seeks to provide some insight into these costs savings from a service assurance perspective, using a supporting virtualized IMS business case.