End-to-End Service Orchestration From Access to Backbone

The rise of new types of business models with service providers, content providers, and virtual network operators entering in competition with traditional telco operators is reducing revenue margins, making cost-effective provisioning mechanism a necessity. Costly massive over-provisioning needs thus to be replaced by more intelligent dynamic resource allocation. In addition, it is increasingly recognized that many upcoming 5G applications and services will require assured end-to-end quality of service. Operators have thus started to look at network function virtualization and software-defined networks (SDNs) as means to address the challenges of cost-effective and highly dynamic end-to-end provisioning. In this paper we present a test case of an SDN-driven end-to-end service orchestration using a transport API called the control orchestration protocol. Our testbed, interconnecting a core network (within the Telefonica premises in Madrid) and an access network (within the Trinity College of Dublin facilities), demonstrates the possibility to operate sub-second end-to-end capacity reservation, showcasing SDN provisioning across multi-domain networks.