RAD Launches Unique vCPE Platform at NFV & SDN Summit 2015

RAD, the industry pioneer of virtualization at the customer edge, today expanded its Service Assured Access (SAA) solutions with the launch of a unique carrier-grade virtual CPE (vCPE) platform with Distributed-NFV (D-NFV) capability.

“As the prime candidate for early commercial NFV deployments, vCPE gets industry-wide attention,” notes Ulik Broida, RAD’s Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.“ In addition to hardware abstraction, vCPE enables shorter and more flexible deployment cycles for new services, with a lucrative cost structure,” he continues.“ The ETX-2i is the ideal vCPE platform for service providers and private network operators wishing to take advantage of these benefits in their transition to programmable networks.”

RAD’s ETX-2i is a powerful IP and Carrier Ethernet NID/NTU with a field pluggable x86 NFV module for hosting virtual network functions (VNFs). Serving as a virtualization engine at the customer edge, it is specially designed for L2 and L3 business, mobile backhaul and wholesale services. The ETX-2i can be managed by RAD’s D-NFV Orchestrator or any third-party orchestrator using open standards, and supports various options for vCPE architecture and VNF placement to meet agility, performance, security and cost needs.

Dynamic Forwarding Enables Chaining Flexibility
What makes ETX-2i unique is that it supports dynamic forwarding to enable chaining flexibility for embedded and virtualized functions. Moreover, it features a high-scale built-in router and modular network interfaces for any access infrastructure – fiber, PDH, SDH/SONET, SHDSL, or VDSL.

“Service providers in our global carrier research clearly indicate that vE-CPE – the virtualization of enterprise CPE for business customers – is the #1 NFV use case they are investing in,” states Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks at IHS-Infonetics Research. “Further, the providers voted vE-CPE the #1 use case for producing new revenue, the #1 use case for CapEx savings, and the #1 use case for reducing operational expenses. RAD has been an early proponent of D-NFV, and operators are interested in

RAD’s innovative and pragmatic approach to vE-CPE deployment."
RAD will be exhibiting the ETX-2i at the NFV & SDN Summit 2015, which is now being held in Paris. At the show, it will also be conducting a demo of its D-NFV Orchestrator, which converges the control of physical and virtualized network elements and has open interfaces to end-to-end network orchestrators.