Hybrid WAN FEATURED ARTICLE

ADVA Optical Networking’s Ensemble this week unveiled a significant update to its network functions virtualization platform and a new deal with Verizon (News - Alert). It also offered an update about its work related to NFV interoperability.

The focus of this upgrade is to optimize the suite to make it simpler and more affordable to deploy universal customer premises equipment in a cloud-native fashion, according to the company.

The new version of the Ensemble solution also features support for LTE (News - Alert) and zero-touch provisioning. That provisioning feature, the company says, will enable service providers to drop-ship servers directly from COTS suppliers to end customers and simplify their supply chain logistics in the process.

Ensemble is based on the technology ADVA Optical Networking (News - Alert) got through its acquisition of Overture, another carrier Ethernet access equipment company, in January of 2016. That deal enabled ADVA to expand its cloud access solution portfolio.

In addition to announcing the Ensemble upgrade this week, ADVA Optical Networking revealed that Verizon will be using the Ensemble Connector as part of its universal customer premises equipment deployment.

“As we expand the number and scope of SDN/NFV-based transformations with our customers, we see significant demand for solutions based on COTS hardware,” said Shawn Hakl, vice president of business networking and security solutions at Verizon. “The demand to move from hardware-based services to software-based, cloud-enabled solutions is growing by the day and is only going to accelerate. Ensemble Connector is an important enabling technology for us to bring these solutions to market. This approach allows us to provide our customers with a simple, rapid installation experience and allows them to securely deploy multiple software-based services on a single uCPE installation.”

ADVA Optical Networking has also been working on interoperability testing of the Ensemble solutions. That included a test organized by the European Advanced Networking Test Center and featuring seven vendor participants.