SOLUTION BRIEF

Evolution to SDN, NFV, and

Intelligent Automation
Operationalizing agile service delivery with Blue Planet

As service providers dive deeper into Software-Defined Benefit

Networking/Network Functions Virtualization (SDN/NFV), they realize • Evolutionary approach to
existing operational and Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) lack modernizing operations
the capability and flexibility to fully achieve agile service delivery. through software-defined
programmability and virtualization
This paper outlines how the evolution to SDN/NFV requires an agile
service fulfillment solution that supports the service provider’s • Easier integration across OSS/

journey from their current architecture to a hybrid of traditional and BSS functions using open
standards-driven APIs
SDN/NFV domains, and ultimately to a fully virtualized environment.
Ciena’s Blue Planet architecture provides a cornerstone in the • Immediate tangible benefits
in expediting service delivery
Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) of SDN/NFV services,
and assurance across multiple
delivering significant value-add in the evolution of the service
technology domains
provider OSS/BSS. As a trusted advisor, Ciena provides guidance
• Flexibility to extend service
in this paper on OSS/BSS architectural considerations to simplify
control hierarchically across
and accelerate service delivery. multiple Operating Companies

Current state of SDN/NFV evolution 

As service providers accelerate the trial and adoption of SDN/NFV solutions, they
are increasingly realizing the limitations and barriers of existing OSS/BSS systems,
as illustrated by an industry survey in Figure 11. A key problem facing service
providers is how to build on the promises of SDN/NFV, without the numerous risks
and complexities of overhauling massive legacy OSS/BSSs that currently support
revenue-generating services. For most service providers, this is a question of
intelligent evolution versus potentially costly revolution.

Service providers are realizing they cannot easily build on legacy infrastructure and
processes from traditional vendors. Instead, they are looking for guidance from
SDN/NFV thought leaders like Ciena to light an evolutionary path to realize the values
and benefits of SDN/NFV, while entrusting that the proposed solution is aligned with
the service provider’s unique business and operational objectives.

1
2017 Next-Gen OSS and the Rise of LSO Report (https://www.sdxcentral.com/reports/2017/next-gen-oss-lifecycle-service-orchestration/)
 BIGGEST CHALLENGE WITH CURRENT OSS

36% Too Proprietary

26% Too Fragmented

24% Too Expensive

8% Other

6% Out of date

0 10% 20% 30% 40%

sdxcentral.com

Figure 1. OSS/BSS survey of service providers

Ciena sees the service provider evolution to SDN/NFV
and intelligent automation progressing in three stages
(as shown in Figure 2).
Present Mode of Operations (PMO): This represents
today’s service provider architecture and the current state of
OSS/BSS, which is typically based on silos of physical network
functions and/or service-centric operations and processes.
As service providers begin the evolution toward SDN/NFV,
they find it is becoming increasingly key to successful
transformation to engage with an industry thought-leader
who serves as a trusted advisor to map out the impact to the
company’s OSS/BSS systems and processes.
Transitional Mode of Operations (TMO): In this hybrid
architecture approach, the service provider has identified
a subset of physical networks functions to be virtualized,
and where the Management and Orchestration (MANO) of
these functions begins, with lightweight integration into key
OSS/BSS systems (such as customer and self-service
portals, service assurance, and billing) for rapid delivery of
new revenue-generating services. An important evolutionary
step for the service provider at this stage is moving from an
inventory-centric service fulfilment model to an LSO approach
and virtualized services delivery. Here, LSO is meant in wider
context than originally defined by MEF. It refers to the general

Today’s Architecture Hybrid Architecture Target Architecture

LSO LSO
BSS BSS BSS
OSS OSS NFVO OSS NFVO

EMS EMS EMS EMS EMS EMS EMS EMS

1 2 3 W1 W2 W 1 2
VNF VNF VNF VNF
3 VNFM
VNFM 1 2 3 VNFM
VNFM
PNF PNF PNF VNF VNFM VNFM
1 2 3 2
PNF
1
WAN 1 NFV VIM NFV VIM
VIM Infrastructure VIM
Infrastructure
WAN 2 Data Plane NW Control Data Plane NW Control

WAN 1
SDN Data Plane SDN
Data Plane Controller (Physical Network Connectivity) Controller
(Physical Network Connectivity)

Figure 2. From PMO to TMO to FMO2

2
Impact of SDN and NFV on OSS/BSS, Open Networking Foundation, 2016 (http://www.opennetworking.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/sb-OSS-BSS.pdf)

2
 OSS / BSS XaaS Portal
Multi-Domain Service Orchestration
VNF
Metro Core NFV
Figure 3. Multi-Domain Service Orchestration
context of services being delivered across multiple networks,
as jointly defined by the TM Forum and the MEF through Open
API initiatives3.
Future Mode of Operations (FMO): The service provider’s
target architecture for a fully virtualized network supports
service orchestration end-to-end, across MANO and
OSS/BSS functions. At this stage, intelligent automation
and end-to-end orchestration are the cornerstones of rapid
service definition, deployment, and management. At the heart
of the LSO concept is Multi-Domain Service Orchestration
(MDSO), where a domain can represent different technologies,
services, and even Operating Companies (OpCos) within the
service provider. By building a target architecture based on
MDSO principles, the service provider is free to flexibly define
a domain that meets its business objectives, while stitching
these services end-to-end. This avoids the need to redefine
domains for new services, in contrast to what is required today
with current monolithic operational models and processes.
This hierarchical approach simplifies and accelerates
the operational evolution of OSS/BSS toward intelligent
automation to enable rapid SDN/NFV services deployment.
Today, many traditional OSS/BSS software vendors are still
locked into a monolithic architecture where multiple domains
each represent different software implementations loosely
coupled across network technologies and services. This
makes end-to-end orchestration slow, process-heavy, and
error-prone. Rather, a modern orchestration solution like
Ciena’s Blue Planet offers a flexible software architecture that
provides powerful modeling and programming tools
3
https://www.tmforum.org/press-and-news/mef-tm-forum-major-service-providers-standardizing-lso-apis-agile-assured-orchestrated-services
Analytics Domain
• A “silo” of vendor equipment or networking technology
that requires people, processes and tools to manage
Multiple domain service
• Service spanning WAN, NFV and cloud
• Requiring coordination between domains
Multi-domain service orchestration
Cloud • End-to-end fulfillment and assurance
Simplify and automate
• A single unified view for consuming the network
as a programmatic resource
• Normalized interface for integrating OSS/BSS,
self-service portals and 3rd party applications
that are common across the domain and multi-domain scope
to significantly help operationalize SDN/NFV services.
How Blue Planet helps operationalize SDN/NFV services
MDSO is essential in the evolution toward SDN/NFV services,
and is at the heart of Ciena’s Blue Planet solution, as illustrated
in Figure 3.
Here, a domain represents a grouping (or silo) of vendor
equipment or networking technology that is supported by
people, processes, and management tools. A multi-domain
service is a service that spans several domains such as WAN,
NFV, and cloud, and, requires coordination between these
domains. MDSO supports the fulfillment and assurance
processes of dynamically managing services end-to-end
across different domains based on customer demand and
resource availability. With Blue Planet MDSO, the service
provider can quickly simplify and automate the delivery of
new revenue-generating services as part of a single and
unified view of capabilities for consuming the network as a
programmatic resource. Furthermore, with Blue Planet open
APIs, the service provider can expose a normalized view of
services across complex domains, simplifying integration into
key OSS/BSS systems such as customer portals and third-
party applications for rapid service delivery and monetization.
Blue Planet Sofware Suite
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3
OSS/BSS Environment
Ops Support Fulfillment Assurance Billing & Revenue
& Readiness Management
Customer Interface Management
Bill Payments & Blue Planet Multi-Domain
Selling Receivables Mgt. Service Orchestration provides
Customer CRM Problem Customer a day 1 solution for end-to-end
Relationship Support & Marketing Order QoS/SLA Bill Invoice Bill Inquiry service delivery
Readiness Handling Management Management Handling
Management Fulfillment Handling
Response
Manage
Billing Charging Blue Planet real-time service
Events data integration augments
Service Assurance processes
Retention & Loyalty

Service SM&O Service Service Service Service Guiding

Management Support & Configuration Problem Quality Blue Planet service view
Readiness & Activation & Mediation integration enables greater
& Operations Management Management
Customer Service Assurance
RM&O Support Resource Resource Resource
Resource Resource Trouble Performance Mediation
& Readiness Provisioning
Management Management Management & Reporting Blue Planet usage data
& Operations Manage integration will drive better
Workforce Resource Data Collection & Distribution Customer Experience

S/P Problem S/P S/P Settlements

Supplier/Partner S/PRM S/P Requisition Reporting & Performance & Payments
Management Blue Planet can also integrate
Relationship Support & Management Management Management with different supplier/partner
Management Readiness systems for third party services
Supplier/Partner Interface Management

Figure 4. Impact of Blue Planet in operationalizing virtual services—Day 1 service delivery with value-add across OSS/BSS

Blue Planet integration across OSS/BSS
Blue Planet does not require extensive and expensive forklift
upgrades, as experienced by service providers with many
traditional OSS/BSS vendors. Instead, Blue Planet implements
key automation and orchestration functions that enable the
rapid evolution toward, and delivery of, SDN/NFV services.
Using the TM Forum Business Framework (eTOM), Figure 4
highlights the key support systems Blue Planet helps
operationalize across a service provider OSS/BSS (in dark
blue), as well as the remaining support systems that benefit
from Blue Planet value-add data.
At the Network Management layer, the Blue Planet Resource
Adapters (RAs) discover the network and are responsible for
delivering configuration commands to the network elements.
Blue Planet RAs have the role of Resource Data Collection
and Distribution for end-to-end service orchestration. Blue
Planet includes the function of Resource Provisioning, which is
responsible for defining the multi-technology and multi-vendor
resource configuration instructions communicated by the RAs
into the network. Blue Planet can also be extended to map fault
events and performance-related events to a normalized view
of combined physical and virtualized resources as part of Fault
Management and Performance Management functions in eTOM.
To be clear, Blue Planet today does not by default perform
Alarm Correlation, Alarm Suppression, or Root Cause
Analysis; rather, large service providers have extensive fault
and performance management systems and investments
in those functions that Blue Planet can leverage. By actively
discovering the network, creating a consistent and normalized
view of combined physical and virtualized resources, and
providing the ability to map (Fault or Performance) ongoing
events to this dynamic network model, Blue Planet provides a
stream of enriched, accurate data that augments the value and
capabilities of network and service assurance functions.
Drive intellient automation with
advanced analytics
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For Blue Planet, the network is the database and, through
discovery, Blue Planet maintains an ‘as-is’ view of the resources for
Fulfillment and Assurance service providers can use to align their
physical and logical Inventory Systems with the dynamic changes
in the SDN/NFV environment. Today, up to 60 percent of traditional
Inventory System data can be out of sync with the network, and
these discrepancies are the cause of significant service fulfillment
fallout. Service providers can access the ongoing discovered
addressable network data through Blue Planet’s open API to
keep inventory systems in sync with the network.

4
 Order Management (CFS)
End-to-end Service Order
Service Catalog Multi-Domain Service Orchestration
End-to-end Service Configuration (RFS)
RA RA
VIM SDN
Domains under Scope
Completed End-to-end Customer Service Request
Figure 5. OSS/BSS architectural considerations
At the Service Management level, Blue Planet’s MDSO
capabilities implement the eTOM Service Configuration and
Activation function across technology and vendor domains.
When services, as defined in Blue Planet’s Service Catalog,
are invoked through GUI or open API (such as the Order
Management System), these services are stitched from
end-to-end across the network. Here, Blue Planet maintains a
real-time Inventory view of the end-to-end services configured
across domains. Furthermore, as fault and performance events
are captured from the network through RAs, Blue Planet can
be extended to map these events at the resource and services
level, enabling an end-to-end view of service impact across
the network that adjacent Support Systems (such as CRM)
can use for faster customer problem resolution steps and
greater accuracy in Quality of Service (QoS) and Service Level
Agreement (SLA) reporting. Above Service Management, Blue
Planet does provide the basic capabilities of portal/GUI order
submission (Customer Interface Management) and order
decomposition (Order Handling), enabling service providers
to deliver Day One SDN/NFV services while defining a wider
integration strategy into more complex BSSs.
Blue Planet can be programmed to report on Usage Data
Records (UDRs) of the network resources consumed by end-to-
end services. For a given service, these UDRs may include the
resource supporting the end-to-end service, the duration these
resources were used, the amount of bandwidth consumed,
and the customer connected to the service. UDRs provide an
important insight into how valuable network resources are used
Extended
Service
Definition
BPMN SOM
Domain X
RA
Network
Services
by customer services stitched end-to-end. Service providers
can use the UDRs to analyze and optimize resources assigned
to customer services, and UDRs can also feed into rating and
charging systems for dynamic real-time billing.
Finally, the Blue Planet environment includes business
process capabilities (BPMN 2.0), allowing for the management
of tasks and events internal to Blue Planet automation and
orchestration, and for the trigger of external processes
across Fulfillment and Assurance domains. As an example,
the orchestration of service may require a manual task to
complete the service fulfillment flow. Blue Planet may trigger
such a task into a Workforce Management system to complete
the provisioning steps. Or, in another instance, the delivery
of service to a customer requires resources from a third-
party partner/supplier (see Supplier/Partner Relationship
Management in Figure 4). Although Blue Planet does not
provide the e-portal and functions to negotiate/bind the
resources from the supplier/partner by default, Blue Planet
can determine the third-party resources needed for the
end-to-end service and trigger the resource request/process,
with the service provider operations functions executing the
supplier/partner engagement.
OSS/BSS architectural considerations
Based on discussions with IT and network teams with multiple
service providers, Ciena has developed the following OSS/BSS
architectural considerations, which support the evolution to
automation of multi-domain service delivery.
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 Customer Portal
Service Catalog
Domain Catalog BPMN Domain Catalog BPMN
OpCo “A” OpCo “B”
End-to-end Service Orchestration Across OpCo
Figure 6. MDSO across OpCos
First, as shown in Figure 5, service definitions are modeled
based on the MDSO approach, where each technology in
the service provider network is managed as part of its own
domain and MDSO provides the end-to-end service stitching
across domains. This approach will enable the service provider
to model each technology domain independently, rather
than trying to define a single model that covers all domain
possibilities from the start. The RAs will allow each domain to
expose Resource-Facing Service (RFS) definitions specific to
the resources capabilities and under domain control. At the
MDSO level, the service catalog will contain the Customer-
Facing Service (CFS) definitions that support the product
offered to the customer.
In this model, the Service Order Management system will
trigger the CFS through Blue Planet’s open API, and MDSO
will use the service definition within the Service Catalog
to orchestrate the service end-to-end across technology
domains. This hierarchical approach provides greater solution
flexibility and accelerates service delivery by separating the
technology-specific RFS from Service Order Management CFS
definitions through Blue Planet’s Service Catalog. Furthermore,
in the case of end-to-end services that may span resources
beyond the service provider’s control, the service definitions in
the catalog can be extended to include the business process
request to an adjacent domain for coordination of service
orchestration across all domains.
The solution becomes a federated orchestration system
when an end-to-end service request is triggered through a
common open API with Blue Planet, and MDSO coordinates
the orchestration of end-to-end services as part of a single
contained order request. In that case, the service provider
Service
BPMN
Orchestration
Domain Catalog BPMN
Domain
Orchestration
OpCo “C”
and the adjacent domain can evolve their domain-specific
RFS definitions independently, while the service provider can
use the higher-layer Service Catalog and CFS definitions to
trigger the requested RFS from adjacent domains. The result
is a higher-level RFS, CFS and service provider inter-domain
flexibility, and speed of service delivery.
Second, for large service providers for which services span
multiple Operating Companies, there is an architecture
evolution whereby services will be orchestrated both at the
OpCo (Domain) level and across OpCos for end-to-end service
orchestration. Figure 6 illustrates a scenario where different
OpCos could leverage Blue Planet for end-to-end service
orchestration within their domains, allowing each OpCo to
deliver new revenue-generating services tailored to the specific
needs of their domain while remaining independent of each
other’s operations. For corporate-wide services spanning
multiple OpCo domains, Blue Planet MDSO will stitch services
across the RFS definitions exposed through the Domain RFS
Catalog. Through the Domain Catalog, each domain will expose
the RFS made available for higher-level end-to-end services
across the OpCo. Within each OpCo, the Blue Planet Catalog
will also contain the service templates for end-to-end services
(multi-vendor and multi-technology) within the OpCo domain
that are triggered through the OpCo’s Order Management
system, for those customers the OpCo is serving within its
domain. In this approach, each OpCo has the flexibility to define
revenue-generating service specific to their customer domain,
and then expose for end-to-end service across OpCo the
Resource Facing Services that are relevant and meaningful
for corporate-wide service offerings to global customers.
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Operationalizing SDN/NFV
through intelligent automation
Although SDN and NFV technologies provide the
underpinnings of an agile network, rapid rollout of new services
cannot happen without end-to-end automation across multi-
domain infrastructure and processes. The situation becomes
more complex when taking into account integration with
legacy OSS/BSS, coordination with adjacent domains, and
interoperability across OpCos. As described in this paper,
Ciena’s Blue Planet MDSO approach provides the evolutionary
path to support service providers’ operational requirements,
and help realize agile service delivery

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