Consolidated BNG

Over recent years, ‘cloud-native’ service providers have developed ways to build and run massive data centers with a high degree of automation, to reduce operational overheads and deliver levels of service agility beyond traditional carrier infrastructure. RtBrick’s open BNG brings these same benefits to carrier access networks, by disaggregating software from hardware and applying the same battle-hardened DevOps cloud automation tools that have been adopted by the world’s biggest cloud providers. All the benefits of RtBricks' open BNG software are now available as a Consolidated BNG, that provides full BNG functionality on a single compact hardware switch.

The RtBrick Consolidated BNG is delivered as a software container, running on the Open Network Linux (ONL) provided by the hardware SKU manufacturers, which handles peripherals such as LEDs, temperature sensors, and so on. There are no dependencies on either the kernel or the hardware platform components, so RtBrick’s containers can be run on the Linux version of your choice.

The RtBrick Consolidated BNG software can run on either an x86 server as a vBNG, or for most carrier-scale deployments, on low-cost but powerful bare-metal switches as an open BNG.

Benefits

RtBrick’s disaggregated BNG delivers some significant benefits compared to traditional monolithic systems:

· Greater agility – you can add new services in weeks rather than years

· Reduced risk – no more vendor lock-in and a simpler automated operating environment with Zero-Touch Provisioning

· Cloud cost-levels – leverage low-cost merchant silicon and automate your operations like a ‘cloud-native’

· Deploy in remote locations – economic for smaller concentrations of subscribers and runs on hardened switches

Agility

ZTP (Zero-Touch-Provisioning) ensures that each switch is booted, provisioned and operational without requiring manual intervention. This means that you can add capacity, or roll-out new service features, in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks. The software itself is developed using Agile methodologies so that features are rapidly prototyped and implemented, reducing the time-to-market for new services.

Reduced risk

RtBrick’s BNG software is compiled for your specific use-case, using only the features you need. With an order of magnitude fewer lines of code, and a single state database rather than hundreds, the whole system is less complex, less prone to bugs and has much faster restart times. It also allows you to pick and mix between the latest silicon and the best available software.

Cloud cost-levels

Now you can take advantage of the low cost-points of merchant silicon on your choice of bare-metal switches, significantly reducing your capex bill. And opex costs can be reduced by automating your operations, using ZTP and the same Web2.0 operational tools that the ‘cloud-natives’ use to run their infrastructure.

Deploy in remote locations

A consolidated BNG provides all the functionality of a Spine-Leaf BNG but on a single, lower-cost bare-metal switch, making it more economical where there are only low concentrations of subscribers. It also runs on smaller form-factor hardware, that is hardened for deployments in cabinets and cell-sets.

Consolidated BNG on a single switch

The RtBrick BNG software can also run in a Spine-Leaf architecture, enabling massive scale, or on an x86 server to create a vBNG (Virtual Broadband Network Gateway).

Management and Operations

Along with a traditional CLI, more ‘cloud-native’ means of interactions are also supported, such as RESTCONF. RtBrick’s Management System, RBMS, takes this a step further, by providing network level workflows such as Image Lifecycle Management, Network Upgrades and Event and Log Management. RBMS actions are available through REST APIs making them easy to integrate into existing OSS systems. RBMS provides a single point of interaction for operations staff – from provisioning and management to monitoring and debugging.

The result is a BNG that can be managed using the latest Web2.0 tools through a ‘single pane of glass’, with Zero-Touch-Provisioning.

Watch a demo of RtBrick open BNG software

Features

The features supported by RtBrick FullStack are expanding all the time, because it's much faster for us to add and test new features than it is using a traditional monolithic code base. Currently supported features include:

* may include some road-map features

Compatible Hardware

RtBrick's Full Stack routing software can operate on many bare metal switches, depending on your performance and port count requirements. You can find details of compatible hardware here.