B4N Service Platform

The flagship product of company Brain4Net, B4N Service Platform – the complete solution for upgrade of network infrastructure based on SDN and NFV technologies, as a part of different solutions is implemented to telecom operators, providers of cloud services, and to corporate customers. Distinctive feature of B4N Service Platform is management not only virtual infrastructure, but also the physical equipment that allows to build network services, is transparent leading up traffic on l2 level directly from the customer in virtual network function. Such approach allows to provide service to the end consumer within several minutes.

At the same time, the NFV part of the platform which is completely corresponding to reference architecture of ETSI NFV MANO significantly simplifies the procedure of porting of virtual network services in the customer's infrastructure. NFV Management & Orchestration (MANO) sets standards of management and orchestration of the NFV resources within cloud data processing centers. These resources include computing, network resources, storage systems, virtual machines, etc. ETSI developed the reference document describing compound blocks of architecture and interaction interfaces between them.

2017

Release of technology release of version 2.2

On October 10, 2017 the Brain4Net company announced release of the next technology release of B4N Service Platform Release 2.2.

As a part of B4N Service Platform Release 2.2:

• expansion of the list of virtual network functions, compatible to platform,
• improvement of functionality of integration with the existing network of the customer
• improvements of earlier implemented functionality.

In B4N Service Platform 2.2 the innovative solution "by IT the Designer" which will allow to integrate the most part of network services of corporate IT infrastructure in a single virtual network is implemented and to start it from a cloud or 'from a box' - on one server, the client set in network. The product provides fast scaling, allows to provide quickly connection of remote offices in the centralized infrastructure.

In addition:

• products of the companies are added to the directory of virtual functions Fortinet, IP Infusion and Arbor Networks;
• the first commercial release of the solution SDN Fabric for Media – the software-defined transport media platform aimed at step-by-step upgrade of networks of television production, transition to Ethernet technologies for transport of multimedia traffic and the concept of SDN for infrastructure management is released
• support of overlay of technologies for ensuring flexible integration with the existing network of the Customer and the organization of connectivity with the remote points connected to SDN network is implemented;
• a lot of functions, including support of HTTPS, autorecovery of virtual network functions after failure, expanded management of users, granular mirroring of traffic at the level of services, management of disk space for VNF, by virtual interfaces, support of cloud init and others is added.

In release of B4N Service Platform improvements of the developed functionality are reached:

• the design of the most part of the B4N Service Platform WEB INTERFACE on the basis of the project implemented by joint efforts of Brain4Net and Artemy Lebedev's Studio is updated
• instruments of integration IP/MPLS and support of L3VPN services are finished;
• the functionality within the solution B4N Visibility Fabric intended for creation of scalable factories of TAP aggregation based on 10/25/40/100G of switches with an open architecture is expanded. Possibilities of filtering on headings of L2-L4 levels are expanded, the feature for adding of the virtual network functions executing a role of Network Packet Brokers in a service chain is added, the graphical interface of management of TAP factory is considerably finished;
• the functionality of the server of licensing for ensuring support of different models of licensing of suppliers of virtual network services (VNF) is expanded;
• improvements of functionality and the graphical interface of system modules Self-care Portal, VNF Manager, Event Manager, Monitoring and Service Configurator are added.

Integration with FortiGate

On October 4, 2017 the companies Brain4Net also Fortinet announced development of joint technological solutions for implementation of means of cybersecurity at the enterprise.

Brain4Net and Fortinet announced creation of the innovative solution which will allow to integrate the most part of Fortinet services with network functions (routers, balancers and so forth) in a single virtual network and to start it from a cloud or 'from a box', i.e. on one server, the client set in network. The solution provides speed of scaling and connection of remote offices in the centralized infrastructure of information security and also allows to implement in the shortest possible time sufficient means of cybersecurity with the minimum capital costs.

According to the statement of the companies, for October 4, 2017 integration of solutions of Fortinet at the FortiGate and B4N Service Platform platform is complete.

Specialists of Brain4Net tested a possibility of initialization, management of lifecycle and licenses of FortiGate of means of B4N Service Platform, and the directory of the virtual network services supported by B4N Service Platform was replenished with the products Fortinet Virtualized Next-Generation Firewall, FortiADC and FortiMail. Having completed this integration, Brain4Net had an opportunity to implement the majority of cases of application of NFV for implementation of services of security for telecom operators and big corporate customers.

Certification of B4N SwitchOS on the OpenFlow v1.3.4 standard

The Brain4Net company announced on July 12 that B4N SwitchOS for x86 platform, the B4N Service Platform component, underwent certification on OpenFlow Conformance Testing Program in University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) consisting from more than 500 tests and received the certificate of conformity to the OpenFlow v1.3.4 standard.

Passing of OpenFlow Conformance Testing Program guarantees the highest level of compliance of a product to specifications OpenFlow and also functional readiness of B4N SwitchOS for commercial implementation in software-defined networks, emphasized in the company.

B4N SwitchOS is multiplatform network OS which provides high-performance traffic handling in the virtualized environments and on hardware devices based on switching matrixes (ASIC), network processors (NPU) and architecture of x86. The product allows to provide the level of network abstraction "over" the equipment, providing identical user experience and a set of functionality, irrespective of the hardware installed in network explained in Brain4Net. B4N SwitchOS helps customers to pass to full-fledged software-defined networks (SDN), using all advantages of OpenFlow 1.3.4.

"The confirmed compliance of B4N SwitchOS to the OpenFlow standard guarantees that devices based on x86 architecture with the installed network operating system from Brain4Net meet the requirements of network based on this protocol. Thanks to a combination of the innovative technologies, the architecture confirmed to performance and compliance to industrial standards of the solution Brain4Net provide real advantages to customers" — Oleg Shchapov, the CEO of Brain4Net said.

Design of the interface and UX from Lebedev

Brain4Net was faced by a task to develop the functional interface for a full stroke of management of virtual services and distributed networks and also to create the user experience (UX) of interaction with a system. Administrators of network and service infrastructure in customer companies (telecom operators, Internet and service providers, the corporations and departments with distributed networks creating the cloud computing environment) had to become target users of a management system. At the same time it is important that the management system for the complex service platform of an operator class was convenient, clear and reliable and also did not require retraining of personnel.

As the partner for the solution of this task Artemy Lebedev's Studio having authority in the Russian market in the field of industrial design and the user experience was selected. From the beginning of negotiations on the project before obtaining result there passed nearly 1.5 years, and all this time project teams of both companies worked on the concept of the interface and UX, its visualization and practical testing.

Partners managed to create the single interface of interaction with the platform meeting the complex requirements from customers, the industry and the modern UX standards and also to implement the following scenarios of interaction with a system:

• management of components (controllers, physical and virtual network devices, servers);
• management of external and internal customers (tenant), selection of network and computing resources by it;
• consolidation of the equipment in clusters for creation of the failsafe systems with runtime allocation of loading;
• management of services, task of templates of network services, their configuration and start of services;
• virtualization systems management;
• demonstration of a current status of infrastructure and services in the form of different types of metrics and also in the form of physical and logical topology;
• operational notification of users of a system on errors or critical condition of the equipment;
• formation of different report types about a system status;
• output of logs about events and actions of users in a system;
• management of users and their roles in a system.

Program of certification of virtual network functions

The Brain4net company with assistance of Marvel company, the Russian distributor a telecom and IT solutions, announced in April, 2017 start of the program of certification of the virtual network functions compatible to B4N Service Platform. This initiative will allow developers of network solutions to expand sales market with telecom operators and providers of cloud services and also to offer convenient model of use of the software to corporate customers.

Relying on requirements of architecture of MANO, Brain4Net own VNF manager, drivers developed a graphic configurator and templates of the network services described strictly on the ETSI model for integration of the platform with a network stack of OpenStack. By means of a configurator of network services the network administrator has an opportunity to easily create complex services in the form of templates. These templates are service chains, the including virtual network functions (VNF) integrated by different relationship types (Point-to-Point, Point-to-Multipoint, Multipoint-to-Multipoint). The administrator has an opportunity to apply the created templates to the specific tenant (to a user group of network – the corporate customer, the individual, etc.). Such approach allows to reach the maximum abstraction of computing infrastructure and to provide flexibility of design of new services of the operator.

In the nearest future Brain4Net is going to integrate with B4N Service Platform a broad spectrum of virtual network functions, such as:

• Routing (routing);
• Firewall (firewalls),
• IPS/IDS (intrusion detection and prevention system);
• DPI (system of the deep analysis of packets);
• DLP (system of prevention of leaks);
• Anti-DDOS (system of prevention ddos-attak);
• BRAS (broadband servers of remote access);
• WAN-optimization (system of optimization of wan-channels).

In joint laboratory Marvel Distribution and Brain4Net the demo stand consisting of computing powers, virtual and hardware switchboards is located and also as the close as possible to real infrastructure of network of service providers and including NFV infrastructure OPNFV and also the platform of network management B4N Service Platform is unrolled. Thus, developers have an opportunity to hold functional and stress testing of the applications in the laboratory equipped with the latest technology and to use successful passing of tests as important competitive advantage.

In March, 2017 certification was undergone:

• VyOS, network operating system with support of a stack of L2-L4 protocols and the open code which can work as in the form of the virtual router and to be network OS on physical network equipment. The source code VyOS became a basis for a commercial product of Brocade Vyatta in due time, but now these solutions exist in parallel;
• pfSense, the firewall based on FreeBSD including the functionality on an equal basis competing with many commercial solutions. It is delivered in the form of virtual network function or a distribution kit for installation on hardware platforms. The product is free in this connection enjoys wide popularity among Customers

B4N Service Platform 2.0

On April 11, 2017 the Brain4Net company announced release of B4N Service Platform Release 2.0 – the second global release of a complex software platform for upgrade of network infrastructure^[1].

В B4N Service Platform Release 2.0:

• the functionality of NFV is expanded,
• management of lifecycle of services is upgraded,
• integration with IP/MPLS networks is improved,
• the user interface is upgraded.

The majority of the improvements implemented in the second release are aimed at approach of an era of a 5G networks. We aim to provide to providers of cloud services, the telecommunication and corporate companies the infrastructure solution of the future which cornerstone the convergent platform combining the multi-service network and computing resources placed in telecom DPC under control of a management system for a service life cycle (LSO) is. This approach will allow providers and corporate customers to construct the service-oriented infrastructure ready for rapid implementation of new demanded technologies, such as separation of network into Network Slicing, Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (Virtual Reality), augmented reality (Augmented Reality), V2X communications and other. Oleg Shchapov, CEO of Brain4Net

As a part of release of B4N Service Platform Release 2.0:

• Functionality of NFV MANO: Management of virtual infrastructure (VIM Management), including integration with OpenStack; mechanisms of porting of virtual network functions (VNF) which significantly simplify and facilitate loading process of new network services on the platform; formation of distribution kits of virtual network functions based on VNF descriptors; mechanisms of control of the virtual machines started in the environment of OpenStack, directly through B4N Orchestrator.
• Expansion of functionality of SDN and improvement of the existing services: instruments of integration IP/MPLS and support of L3VPN services; expansion of the sheet of the equipment, compatible to B4N Service Platform, switches of Huawei and Mellanox; support of LACP Link Aggregation Groups (LAG); support of control mode of In-band for the majority of the supported devices; expansions of functionality of QoS; mirroring of traffic (TAP).
• Management of lifecycle of services: the configurator of network services allows users to create templates of network services and to apply them to the appropriate rented resources. The component provides convenient creation of the complex services consisting of the network services and virtual network functions started in telecom DPC. In the context of a 5G, templates of network services can include target figures of merit of services, thus providing possibilities of Network Slicing on the basis of the latency/jitter parameters and creation of logical "layers" of network for services of different type (for example, IoT, the video transmission of the ultrahigh clearness (Ultra-High Definition Video) complemented / virtual reality (AR/VR) and so forth). The configurator of network services completely corresponds to reference architecture of ETSI NFV MANO; management of network infrastructure allows users to separate infrastructure into administrative domains (for example, by the geographical principle) which can be controlled administrators in regions; a self-service portal for clients.
• In release 2.0 the graphical interface is submitted. Scenarios of interaction of the administrator with the platform in terms of convenience of operation (UX) are revised. A broad set of functionality of the platform (such as infrastructure management, a configurator of services, monitoring, topology, dashborda) are arranged and presented in the form of the tabs, trees and links allowing the administrator to get quick access to any element of infrastructure or service. Such approach, at a full compliance to reference architecture of ETSI NFV MANO, gives an ability to manage services and logical abstractions.

Switches and the DEPO Computers servers passed test for compatibility with B4N Service Platform

At the beginning of a year Brain4Net also DEPO Computers announced strategic technology partnership which purpose is providing to telecom operators, service to providers and corporate customers highly productive SDN/NFV solutions of the Russian production.

Within cooperation full compatibility the B4N Service Platform component and the infrastructure solutions DEPO Computers will be provided. Use of open protocols and a wide choice of models of the ICT equipment of the Russian production allow to build the modern distributed network of data transmission (DNDT) from scratch. Besides, solutions of partners allow to provide step-by-step upgrade of the existing data networks.

The following models of the equipment DEPO Computers passed test for compatibility with B4N Service Platform:

• The DEPO Switch 6040 AX switch is the high-speed switch equipped with 4 RJ-45 ports 1Gb. High performance is provided thanks to the Intel processor Atom, 8 GB of memory and 2 disks SSD or HDD. As an additional option the set for installation in a rack is offered.
• The DEPO Switch 6141 AK switch – the high-speed switch 1U high is intended for rack-mounting. This model is equipped with 6 RJ-45 ports 1Gb. High performance is provided thanks to the Intel processor Atom, up to 16 GB of memory, 1 CF card up to 128 MB and 2 disks SSD or HDD.
• The DEPO Storm 3400 A1 server – the dual-processor server in body 1U is constructed on the domestic DEPO platform and allows to place the maximum quantity of processors/cores in a server rack. The architecture of the server is optimized for solving of tasks, the computing resources requiring the high density of placement. The server is equipped with two slots for installation of expansion cards with the external access and three slots located in the body. It predokstavlyat to customers unique opportunities on expansion of functionality of a serkver and simplifies his upgrade in use. Thanks to availability of two network interfaces of 10 GB / from SPF+ format the server is ready to connection "from a box" to high-speed data networks.

The equipment DEPO Computers completely discloses functionality of B4N Service Platform, the complete solution Brain4Net for upgrade of network infrastructure of telecom operators and the distributed corporate networks based on SDN and NFV technologies and allows to propose to customers the following complete solutions:

• Carrier Ethernet Transport is creation of the service-oriented infrastructure of Metro-networks ready to adapt quickly under customer requirements and different types of traffic (L2/L3 VPN, VoIP, IPTV, traffic of MBH, etc.)
• SD-WAN Transport is infrastructure managements of RSPD, the solution is suitable for the large geographically distributed enterprises with the extended network covering different regions of the country
• vCPE Starter Kit is the solution for quick start of different virtual services on the vCPE model.

At the same time, the DEPO Switch switches support installation of B4N SwitchOS for x86 of the virtual OpenFlow-switch implementing functions of high-speed traffic handling in virtual environments. Thanks to DPDK libraries and patent algorithms Brain4Net the complete solution allows to achieve the processing speed of traffic of an operator class.

In turn, the DEPO Storm 3400A1 server can be used for management of the distributed park of switches due to installation the B4N Service Platform component.

2016: B4N Service Platform

B4N Service Platform is a complex of technological solutions for upgrade of network infrastructure of telecom operators and the distributed corporate networks on the basis of technologies SDN and NFV.

As a part of the platform includes components of management and orchestration of multivendor network, organization of high-speed traffic handling and virtualization of network functions.

Components

• B4N SwitchOS – the OpenFlow-agent for bare-metal-switches or the virtual switchboard for work in the virtualized environment;
• B4N Controller is a high-performance cluster of SDN controllers with OpenFlow v1.3 support;
• B4N Orchestrator is the single interface for management of the platform. Orkestrator performs functions of integration with external systems (OSS/BSS, OpenStack, etc.)

Architecture of the B4N, (2015) platform

B4N Service Platform supports integration with external systems by means of Northbound API – REST, Java, Netconf.

In the platform the functionality of networks is implemented:

• support of VLAN and manipulations with VLAN tags;
• integration with IP/MPLS network;
• implementation of transport tunnels (P2P, P2M, M2M);
• support of Multicast is IGMP v2/v3;
• routing between hosts of SDN network via the external router;
• support of routing protocols;
• implementation of the NAT/PAT functions;
• support of standard protocols (NTP, SYSLOG, SNMP, etc.);

With assistance of the OpenFlow protocol of version 1.3 are provided:

• the automatic organization of topology, dynamic formation of flow-tables at its change;
• pro-active programming of tables of switches that reduces the volume of interaction between switches and the SDN controller;
• the flow card is a task of ways of traffic on different characteristics, the organization of reserve ways;
• abstraction – a possibility of creation of the uniform logical switch from several "physical";
• separation of network into circuits without use of the firewall.

With an output of level of management of the switch to the separate device (B4N Controller) the cost of a switching equipment falls. It is possible to use the bare-metal switches. For start of network functionality there is enough software updating of the controller, without configuration change or software updating of switches.

Notes