VMware NSX Powers Service Acceleration and Energy Efficiency for VMware Telco Cloud Platform

Mobile World Congress 2023 is upon us and that means new features and cool innovations to help telcos manage their increasingly complicated 5G networks. This year, we are focused on building smarter networks and increasing telco efficiency. These networks are expanding the concept of network functions virtualization (NFV) to build a virtualized software-defined architecture with virtual network functions (VNF) and cloud-native network functions (CNF).

Modern telco networks depend on flexibility, scalability and security. The network demands constantly change requiring an integrated orchestration and automation strategy across different services and technologies. All of this needs to be done with an eye on efficiency, optimizing the human resources along with the energy and infrastructure requirements. VMware NSX platform is a key technology to enable these benefits.

VMware Telco Cloud Platform is designed to address these challenges that Communications Service Providers (CSPs) face. VMware Telco Cloud Platform (TCP) is a solution that integrates key VMware components (vSphere, vSAN, and NSX) to create a Virtual Infrastructure Infrastructure (VIM) for 5G core networks and their VNF/CNF environment. VMware NSX then powers the Telco Cloud Platform to provide telco-grade networking and lateral security. At the top of VMware TCP core component is VMware Telco Cloud Automation, to streamline the deployment, management, and operation of distributed RAN and fully leverage NSX Advanced Load Balancer  along with new NSX core networking and security features (DPU-based Acceleration, Antrea, EVPN, IPv6) to orchestrate and automate Telco networking and security functions.

Enhanced Services Acceleration with DPU-based acceleration for NSX

Recent advances in the NSX platform include DPU-based acceleration to improve the networking and security performance for VNFs and CNFs, increasing the host resources available while providing enhanced network visibility. VMware is extending the DPU-based acceleration to include security features within the NSX platform including distributed firewall and intrusion detection and protection.

Enabling DPU-based acceleration enables CSPs to take advantage of the benefits of their infrastructure while expanding the operational benefits of their architecture. CSPs can reduce their infrastructure requirements and simplify their operational management with this technology.

 

Energy Efficiency through Auto-Scaling with NSX Advanced Load Balancer

VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer is designed to provide the elasticity and agility that modern networks require. NSX Advanced Load Balancer can auto-scale CNF/VNF resources up and down based on demand and energy availability. Thresholds can be preconfigured to automate the process through a closed-loop feedback system. You can learn more about how this is done in this recent blog post.

With Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) built into the solution, this can scale across multiple clouds and data centers to offer the unprecedented ability to manage energy consumption globally across different regions and power grids. CSPs now have the ability to minimize their impact on the increasing global energy demands through VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer’s advanced auto-scaling intelligence.

Driving Telcos to 5G and Beyond

VMware is committed to supporting the CSP community by constantly adding new capabilities and creating innovative use cases that provide significant benefit to the business. VMware is providing next-generation networking within VMware Telco Cloud Platform with VMware NSX delivering telco-grade intelligent networking and lateral security capabilities. With recent advances, including the DPU-based acceleration announced last August, VMware offers accelerated networking and security performance for VNF and CNFs, while enhancing network observability and increasing the host resources available to applications. VMware announced the availability of DPU-based acceleration of lateral security features like distributed firewall and distributed intrusion detection and prevention along with energy efficiency use cases for 5G core load balancing needs.

Learn more about the VMware NSX, NSX Advanced Load Balancer and VMware Telco Cloud Platform to see what VMware can do for your telco networks. You can check our virtual booth of Cloud Networking and Security demos at https://engage.vmware.com/mwc2023netsec