CyberElastic HTCA Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) Platform 

PROBLEM

NETWORKING AT THE EDGE ISN’T KEEPING UP WITH YOUR NETWORK GROWTH!

Virtualization, cloud computing and ubiquitous mobile devices are all contributing to the exponential increase in traffic volumes. Services are moving closer to the Edge, and the percentage of data center traffic going ‘east-west’ within and between data centers has risen to over 80% of the total. Network traffic generated by telemetry, usage monitoring and traffic analysis, as well as the hardware and operating expenses of installing physical TAPs, is driving the cost of Load Balancing, Packet Brokering and Telemetry collection through the roof. Furthermore, the increasing complexity of implementing security at the edge is becoming a limiting factor to protecting data, identity and network resources the core, as well as becoming a barrier to network adaptability, latency and scalability and driving up both OPEX and CAPEX.

SOLUTION

NOVIFLOW, LANNER, INTEL AND FORTINET LAUNCH AN HTCA MEC PLATFORM THAT CAN DYNAMICALLY  AND
ECONOMICALLY SCALE THE NETWORK EDGE INTO THE MULTI-TERABIT RANGE

Developed in collaboration with Barefoot Networks, an Intel company, NoviFlow, and Fortinet, the all-new Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) platform. integrates Intel Xeon Scalable processor-based compute nodes, Barefoot Tofino P4-programmable Ethernet switch silicon, Fortinet’s Fortigate VNF, and NoviFlow’s CyberMapper programmable networking software. By deploying network-based capabilities in edge infrastructure to secure applications and data, the next-gen MEC solution simplifies network architecture, accelerates application deployment, eliminates cabling complexity, and enables zero-touch provisioning of network edge infrastructure.

Optimized for simple, scalable, and secure services at the network edge, the Lanner HybridTCA™ Series is the white-box MEC hardware platform that aggregates up to (12) 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, (2) high-speed P4-programmable Barefoot Tofino switching ASICs, and massive storage with support for precision time protocol (PTP), as an all-in-one modular appliance.

NoviFlow’s Cybermapper Security Load Balancer delivers optimized load balancing, packet brokering and telemetry acquisition functions without requiring the use of physical taps to duplicate packets on the main network and transmit them to monitoring and analytics networks. CyberMapper empowers network providers to fully leverage the network/cloud edge as an intelligent resource that can pre-process traffic in order to both optimize information flows throughout the network, and make the best possible utilization of all network resources, thus reducing hardware costs, operating expenditures and even energy utilization.

Unlike conventional non-SDN network solutions, NoviFlow’s CyberMapper Security Load Balancer leverages the disaggregation of data and control planes to enable these to scale independently, making for greater overall solution modularity by enabling the redistribution and redeployment of network resources in real-time as networking demand fluctuates and change over time. Our solutions’ programable match-action technology further facilitate the transformation of networks from proprietary and virtualized infrastructure to programmable, cloud-enabled solutions deployed on white-box hardware that can economically meet the capacity needs of today’s networks, and that can be software upgraded to enhance or even change functions as needs evolve.

This adaptive modularity also drives new mechanisms for network optimization: thanks to CyberMapper, network security services that are usually delivered at the network’s edge (such as security assets, and specifically Fortinet’s Fortigate) can be pooled together and made accessible from anywhere in the entire network, reducing total service costs by sharing capacity over multiple locations, rather than over provisioning at each ingress/egress point.

Leveraging an SDN infrastructure with scalability, programmability and network telemetry, the MEC solution provides NEBS-ready high availability, terabit capacity networking with programmable telemetry in silicon, VNF load balancing, security mitigation and a visual operation management interface. Leveraging the white box hardware platform with SDN control and forwarding, this next-gen MEC solution eliminates purpose-built appliances by integrating multiple network functions into an easy to manage and deployable solution, enhance application performance and reduce processing costs at the edge.

Typical use cases for the joint NoviFlow-Lanner MEC solution include:

Virtual Load Balancer

Virtual Packet Broker

Virtual Firewall

Virtual BNG

Virtual Provider Edge

Virtual Carrier Grade NAT

Virtual Threat Intelligent Gateway

Segment Routing SRv6 Service Chaining

Segment Routing SRv6 GTP Gateway

SDN control