Service Design and Orchestration

Analysys Mason's Service Design and Orchestration research programme offers CSPs and vendors analysis, market insight and advice on the new-age software systems that will enable a seamless top-down approach to create, design, orchestrate and provision digital networks and services in NFV- and SDN-based networks. The research focuses on the evolution of traditional fulfilment systems and processes towards highly agile, automated, self-service-based and intent-driven service design and orchestration systems that use real-time dynamic inventory, service catalogues and topology; network and infrastructure planning/optimisation systems for virtual networks; and model-based configuration systems that use highly abstracted network APIs to activate services.

This programme will also tackle the new demands on service design and orchestration placed by the imminent introduction and explosion of new digital services such as networks-as-a-service, smart home, connected and autonomous cars, network slicing, and other NFV/SDN and 5G/IoT enabled services. The research will also cover topics around self-organising networks (SONs) and the associated demands with the emergence of virtual RAN and cloud RAN technologies.

Key themes

• Design-time considerations for service creation and design of customer-facing services to enable service agility. This includes the emergence of model-based configuration and activation systems providing abstraction to mask network diversity and complexity; the evolution of inventory systems to provide real-time inventory to support agile service creation, using model-driven catalogue techniques, and real-time topology for real time automated assurance.
• New approaches to planning and optimisation to support agile and DevOps approaches and exploit the capabilities of the virtualised network and cloud-based data centres. This includes the resurgence of SONs in the context of heterogenous networks, cloud RAN, 5G and MEC.
• Network onboarding solutions to ensure that the service intent is translated into network services that will be fulfilled through one or more network orchestrators. This includes model-based VNF onboarding processes and solutions.