June 2016

Alex Jinsung Choi

CTO, SK Telecom

Open-Source Leveraged Telco Infrastructure

1

Feature Phone Computer

IT Server Network

Smartphone

Network virtualization

Programmability, Scalability, Service Agility

Network-IT Convergence

Telco infrastructure is evolving to All-IT Network by software defined technology,

just as feature phone became smart phone by computer technology.

Starting at Data Center Expansion to Mobile Network

All-IT network by

software defined technology

2

SKT Next Gen Infrastructure: COSMOS

SKT’s infrastructure will accommodate platform services, telecom services, and IT services

on a single platform “COSMOS” using open software and hardware technologies.

Server Storage

Open

Hardware (Physical Infrastructure)

T-Phone

T Life Summer

oksusu

Smart Home Application

Virtual Machine Container SDN

Network

Open

Software (Virtual Infrastructure)

Unbundled

Provisioning

Monitoring

LTE-A 5G

LoRa

BSS

OSS

ERP

Smart Factory

Telecom Services IT Services Platform Services Orchestration

“COSMOS (Composable, Open, Scalable, Mobile Oriented System)”

NFV MANO

Image Source: Wiwynn/HP

Big Data

3

Open Infrastructure

Founding Member

Board Chair

Gold Member

OCP Telco Project

SKT joined Open Compute Project (OCP) and Telecom Infra Project (TIP)

to share and lead the open architecture for telco infrastructure.

Server Switch Storage RAN Backhaul Core

Data Center Telco Network

All-IT

Network

4

Open Compute Project

SK Telecom announced the development plan for NV-Array with Facebook and Intel,

and discussed work plan for OCP Telco Project and TIP.

Executive Track (Intel, Facebook, SKT)

Announcement of NV-Array

OCP Telco Panel (AT&T, Verizon, DT, SKT)

Telco Infrastructure Evolution towards 5G

OCP Summit 2016

AF-Media & NV-Array Wedge Switch Trial & T-CAP AF-Media @Hynix Booth

5

Telco needs to clearly define the requirements for open infrastructure

to be extensively used for network function virtualization.

Optimized Performance

for Telco Workload

Hardware Accelerator

Intel Xeon+FPGA

Novel Architecture

for 5G Era

All-flash JBOF Storage

(e.g. Facebook Lightning, SKT NV-Array)

Rack Scale Architecture

(e.g. Ericsson HDS8000)

Design for Smaller and

More Distributed Data Center

Telco Grade

Reliability and Safety

Central Office Re-architecting

Reuse of Legacy Facility

(Power Distribution, Cooling System, etc.)

Environment guideline (e.g. NEBS)

Seismic Tolerance

Open Compute Project Telco Requirements

6

Open Compute Project AF-Media

AF-Media is a high-performance / high-density all-flash storage server optimized for media

streaming, delivering maximized throughput, capacity and response speed.

SCube AF-Media All-flash Media Server

Optimized for UHD/VR Streaming

• Ultra-high throughput

• Minimum footprint, maximum density

• Hot swap SSD, dual power/network

• Minimal hardware cost

• Low power consumption

Ultra High Throughput

High I/O Performance, 40GbE Ethernet

Ultra Small Footprint

16 SSDs in 1U size, 16TB High Capacity

(~5% smaller than HDD)

Ultra Low Power

Under 150W per System Module

(~20% lower than HDD)

OCP contribution

as a open hardware All-flash storage

product

Features of AF-Media

AF-Media (Xeon-D or ATOM)

7

Open Compute Project NV-Array

NV-Array is an all-flash storage array (JBOF) that accommodates 20 NVMe SSD’s

for the next-generation storage solution.

Designed for 5G Storage

SCube NV-Array All-flash NVMe JBOF

PCIe

NV-Array (JBOF*)

Servers

20 NVMe SSD’s in 1U size

High Capacity (over 80TB)

High

Bandwidth

Reliability

& Availability

6 Host Connection with

8GB/s Throughput per each

• High IOPs, Low Latency

• Low cost per GB

• High scalability

• Flexible allocation

• Continuous operation

High

Density

High IO Performance

Millions of IOPS

SSD Drive Hot-Swap Support

OpenBMC Support

Multi Host

Connection

OCP Contribution

as a open hardware

Co-development

with “Lightning”

Key Features of NV-Array

*Just a Bunch of Flash

8

Open Compute Project T-CAP

T-CAP is a converged network appliance,

which integrates high performance Xeon server with data center switch.

Network Applications on ToR Switch

Load Balancing, Firewall, 3rd Party Applications

Convergence of switch and server

T-CAP Converged Network Appliance

• Open hardware

• High computing on a switch

• Lower cost due to convergence

• Simpler deployment and operation

OCP Contribution

as a open hardware

Co-operation with

high performance N/W Controller

T-CAP Use Cases

Server

(Dual E5 Xeon)

Switch

(10/40/100G)

Storage

Data Backup & Network Analytics

Network Traffic Backup and Monitoring

Overlay Gateway for Virtual Network

VTEP(VxLAN Tunnel End Point) Node

9

Open Compute Project Wedge Trial

We build open networking with open source network OS

from the lessons learned by Wedge trial.

Making “Wedge” support OpenFlow

Open Network OS

OF-DPA

Indigo Agent

OpenFlow Control

Lessons Learned

Complexity to support diverse types of

switching silicon and hardware platform

Need vendor agnostic interface layers

(SAI, ACPI)

SKT’s own solution for network auto-

provisioning

Shared and Discussed

at OCP Summit & ONS 2016

… Linux Kernel

Silicon SDK

OpenSwitch

Management Protocol (e.g. OpenConfig, OVSDB)

※ SAI: Switch Abstraction Interface, ACPI: Advanced Configuration and Power Interface

10

Open Compute Project Rack Scale OCP Trial

Rack scale OCP trial will be conducted in two phases,

and its results and experiences will be shared through OCP Telco Project.

Open Rack

OCP Server

JBOD/JBOF Storage

OCP Switch

SKT

Central Office

(Boramae)

Phase 1: PoC for OpenStack & Big Data

• Verify OCP benefits

- power saving, better cooling, higher density,

cost reduction, etc.

• Deploy in Telco data center

- Limit on power supply, coexistence with

traditional racks, etc.

• Define the requirements of Telco OCP

Phase 2: Telco Workload

• Run VNF on OCP hardware

• Identify further requirements on Telco workload

SKT

Central Office

(Bundang)

Image Source: Wiwynn/HP

SKT

Central Office

(Pangyo)

11

CORD Project @ ON.Lab

SK Telecom is leading the Mobile CORD project

to reform mobile network central offices into data centers.

M-CORD for 5G Enabling Platform

Enable virtualized/disaggregated RAN and Core

Deploy network functions as services

Leverage best practices of OpenStack, ONOS, NFV

Use open commodity hardware

12

Telecom Infra Project Overview

… …

Initiated by … Newly joined by

Telecom Infra Project (TIP) started in February 2016 to bring openness to Telco infrastructure

just as OCP did to data center.

Rebuild the telecom infrastructure together

for a sustainable future

Networks of the Future

• Face the growth of the internet and the rise of

data-intensive services like video and VR

• Collaborate on the development of new

technologies

• Rethink how we deploy existing technologies

• Focus on simplicity, flexibility, and efficiency in

everything we do

TIP Work Scope

• Explore new approaches and technologies across three

areas: access, backhaul, and core and management

• Leverage the unique engineering and operational

expertise of each member

• Focus on developing new technologies and exploring

new approaches to deploying in both developed and

emerging markets.

13

Telecom Infra Project SCALE

Future network should be “Simple”, “Cognitive”, “Automated”, “Lean”, “End-to-End”.

Scalable • Efficient Resource

Utilization • On-demand • Adaptive

Lean • Open Source HW/SW • Open Interface • Modularized • Standardized

Automated • Intelligent Operations • Self-configuration • Self-optimization

ATSCALE

Scalable, Cognitive, Automated, Lean, End-to-End

End-to-End • E2E Analytics • E2E Optimization • E2E Orchestration

Cognitive • E2E Network Visibility • Real-time Analytics • Policy-based Optimal

Decisions

14

Telecom Infra Project Software-Defined RAN

• SW-based risk management

• Auto Recovery

• Reconfiguration without service interruption

• Automated operation and optimization with real-time

analytics

Operational Intelligence 2

Open Architecture 1

• Network function virtualization

• Open interface (fronthaul, service API)

• CP-UP separation

• Open HW and SW

Biz. Enabling Platform 3

• 3rd party services

• Edge service slicing

SDRAN Architecture Key Values

SDRAN Orchestration

Virtualized Functions

Access

CP

Analytics

& Infra Mgmt

Distributed

Core Func.

Edge

VAS

Open-source based virtualization

Light-weight, VM-based virtualization

Physical Infrastructure

Access UP HW Open-source HW

Remote Unit (RU)

Access UP HW Radio Unit

Open Fronthaul CP-UP Separation

Open HW

Biz. Enabling with MEC Analytics-based SON

Open SW

Software-based All-IT Network will bring open radio access network (RAN) innovation at scale:

simple, cognitive, and agile.

15

Conclusions

SKT’s next generation infrastructure “COSMOS” and “ATSCALE” are

based on open source hardware and software.

OCP and TIP are two leading communities to be leveraged in “COSMOS”

and “ATSCALE”.

For OCP, SKT will open its storage and network products (NV-Array,

AF-Media, T-CAP).

An OCP trial is under way to get a firsthand experience before massively

applying to SKT infrastructure.

SKT co-founded TIP and co-led Software-Defined RAN innovation at scale.