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Huawei Launches Industry's First Virtual Family Solution Pushing Residential Services into the SDN Era

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, announced the release of the industry's first software defined networking (SDN)- and network functions virtualization (NFV)-based virtual family solution (vFamily), launching the residential services of telecom operators into the era of SDN. Based on the Huawei software-defined broadband network gateway (BNG) platform, this innovative solution enables telecom operators to provide residents with virtual residential gateway (vRGW) and virtual set top box (vSTB) services over the broadband network. This reduces the cost of providing family video services, simplifies terminal maintenance and management, improves family service experience, enhances telecom operators' innovation in service development, and shortens the time to market (TTM) of new services.

With the innovation in Internet technologies and the popularity of home intelligent terminals, Internet over-the-top (OTT) services are having a negative impact on telecom operators' revenues from traditional services. Voice, SMS, and even IPTV services are at risk of being replaced by OTT services. To invigorate services and retain continuous revenue growth during broadband construction, telecom operators must learn from OTT enterprises in terms of customer experience innovation and rapid response to market demands. The Huawei vFamily solution is tailored for home services to help telecom operators achieve this goal.

The traditional IPTV solution is excessively customized, from terminal and middleware to the head end service system. The end-to-end (E2E) industry chain is closed, lacks innovation, and requires high costs. The Huawei vFamily solution is based on an open architecture and helps telecom operators eliminate the following bottlenecks in the service development process:

Terminal innovation bottleneck: Telecom operators fully share the open and innovative industry chain of intelligent terminals using open standards and replace complex customized terminals with streamlined common intelligent terminals using open Web-based technologies, improving customer experience and reducing terminal costs.

Service innovation bottleneck: The SDN- and NFV-based open architecture allows software upgrades on a common hardware platform, breaking through the shackles of the traditional closed IPTV industry chain. This helps telecom operators quickly introduce new third-party services and explore a new business mode for cooperating and sharing profits with OTT enterprises.

The Huawei vFamily solution consists of an innovative virtual service control and aggregation platform and a high-performance BNG router that supports separate service and forwarding. The solution is used to provide vRGW and vSTB services using SDN and NFV technologies. Huawei continuously pours investment and innovation into the vFamily solution. In 2012, Huawei was the first company to put the vRGW service into commercial use. In 2013, Huawei further launched a comprehensive solution that supports the vSTB service, of which the services were demonstrated at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress, receiving wide acclaim from major European telecom operators.

Christian Chua, Director of the R&D Department of Huawei's Fixed Business Department, said, "In the coming ten years, the telecom industry will experience a new round of IT-based transformations. As this happens, ICT convergence and innovation will expand into various fields of the telecom industry. Huawei will continue to uphold an innovative and open business philosophy, and continuously contribute to the technological transformation and business success of telecom operators."

Huawei proactively participates in SDN standardization work and promotes exploration and innovation in SDN E2E applications on telecom networks with telecom operators, equipment suppliers, and research institutes.