MRV collaborates with ONF and ETSI to advance SDN and NFV standards

CHATSWORTH, USA: MRV Communications Inc., a leading provider of innovative packet and optical solutions, announced it has joined the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and is participating in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's (ETSI) Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) Industry Specification Group.

MRV will bring over 25 years' expertise in packet and optical networking to the standards bodies. Together they will focus on leveraging software and virtualization to architect innovative, next-generation networks.

The company's participation reflects its strategic roadmap towards network virtualization and software-driven services that will help carriers, data centers and content delivery providers achieve a more intelligent network, reduce OPEX and deliver high-value, revenue-generating services easier and faster.

"MRV is a trusted partner in the access and metro networks, and through long-standing customer relationships, we have gained a deep understanding of what it takes to create better, more open networks," said Edna Ganon, director of technology, MRV Communications.

"With virtualization of the metro network providing the next step for optimum network usage and dynamic behavior, collaboration within the industry is key to delivering exactly what the market needs. We look forward to working with our colleagues in the ONF and ETSI communities on bringing interoperability and standardization to the next generation of software-based networks."

Many networks today are not optimized to support the rise in demand for cloud and mobility services, or the bandwidth-rich content that comes with them. Networks must evolve in order to keep up with exponential traffic growth and new traffic patterns. Much of this evolution will occur at the access and metro levels, where most of the transactions take place and individual services are created.

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and NFV approaches will help in this process as they look to streamline network operations so advanced services are easier to manage and providers can more easily meet high service levels.

The NFV initiative-lead by ETSI-is focused on using virtualization to decrease the amount of proprietary hardware needed to launch and operate services. SDN is an approach lead by ONF in which network control is decoupled from hardware and moved to a software-based controller.