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[james dean] 25/1/2016 16:04

Networking firm BATM Advanced Communications (LON:BATM) is to buy Green Lab Hungary Engineering, a developer and distributor of analytical instruments, for US$3.8mln.

The consideration is payable in cash over a three year period, BATM told investors.

Headquartered in Budapest, Green Lab has become one of the leading distributors of analytical instruments for the environmental and industrial sectors. The company has exclusive relationships in Hungary with some of the most prominent operators in the industry.

Green Lab's unaudited revenues for 2015 amounted to US$3.3mln and it generated operating profit of US$0.62mln. It has been profitable for the past five years and the acquisition is expected to enhance BATM's earnings this year..

At the end of 31 December 2015, Green Lab's unaudited gross assets amounted to US$1.9mln.

Green Lab's operations are expected to be synergistic with BATM's Sterilisation Unit operations in Hungary and to provide an extensive network for the group's products.

BATM expects having Green Lab in the fold will increase activity in the group's ECO unit, which focuses on agri-business applications and operates out of Hungary.

The Green Lab distribution network will be complementary to BATM's analytical instruments distribution in Romania and should bolster the group's medical business.

Dr Judit Jeney, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Green Lab, will join the BATM management team.

Dr Zvi Marom, BATM's CEO, said the Green Lab team has a tremendous amount of expertise and the company enjoys an excellent reputation in the industry.

“We believe that Green Lab will contribute both to the distribution business of BATM group in the CIS countries and to our growing business in the ECO environment,” Marom said.

House broker finnCap said: "The deal adds revenues and profits as well as significant expertise and an excellent reputation.



"Green Lab will contribute both to BATM’s growing business in the ECO environment and to the distribution network in the Eastern European region."



The broker targets 20p a share, compared to a current price of 16.5p - up 2.33% on the day.


  



------------------------------------------------
Regards.

DYOR

[rob1ng] 25/1/2016 09:52

Obviously a good deal with the share price reaching new lows

[reeltime] 20/1/2016 22:30

Telco Systems: Moshe Shimon's 2016 Trends

Moshe Shimon 19 January 2016

SDN and NFV have been on the rise for some time – and this is set to continue into 2016, according to Telco Systems’ Moshe Shimon...
Which developing or emerging markets (regions/countries) do you cover?

We are active in countries in developing and emerging markets where competition is strong and influences the business strategies of service providers.
What are your main hardware and/or services focus areas?

Telco Systems is a leading provider of innovative SDN and NFV, multi-service Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and MPLS edge solutions.
What are the top market and customer trends that will drive change in your area during 2016, and why?

This past year, many service providers developed strategies for deploying SDN and NFV technologies and conducted proof-of-concept (PoC) evaluations. In 2016, SDN and NFV should become a reality on most service provider networks, including many in developing and emerging markets. Virtualising the customer premise equipment to provide on demand services to customers and greater flexibility in deploying new services are the main drivers for service providers to adopt these technologies. This will allow service providers to transform into managed service providers – not only providing connectivity to customers, but also providing virtualised IT management and security services.
What are the solutions that will make the greatest impact in your area during 2016, and why?

SDN and NFV technologies offers service providers numerous benefits, including openness, remote programmability, agility and other advantages of IT-like networks. However, the similarity to IT networks that makes SDN and NFV networks advantageous for service providers also exposes them to a full range of security vulnerabilities.

Security solutions will have an important impact on SDN and NFV deployments in 2016. By running a security solution as a virtualised network function deployed at the network edge, which is the closest location to all endpoints, security efforts can have complete visibility of the entire network and can be applied to the entire infrastructure.
What changes need to be made to speed up developments and what can hold them back?

Service providers expect open interoperability between competing technology vendors in multi-vendor environments. Vendors promoting SDN and NFV solutions in emerging and developing markets will need to use open standards to meet these expectations of service providers.
Which of the following do you think will be most important in emerging markets in 2016?

We expect to see the following trends across many emerging and developing markets:

NFV – after successful PoCs in the past year, 2016 will be the year in which service providers will evaluate actual business cases for real deployments of NFV. It will be the year for carriers to experience actual revenue benefits from adopting this technology.
Infrastructure Sharing - one of the main drivers for NFV revenue is the concept of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). With the help of NFV enabled networks, carriers will be able to move from being mere connectivity providers to being able to offer IaaS products to their customers, and improve their value proposition as a result.
IoT - Internet of Things (IoT) is still not as large scale as had been predicted by experts previously, but it is still growing. We expect that in 2016, the foundation for the coming years’ growth in IoT will be laid and the industry will take initial steps towards getting a billion machines connected to the network by 2020.
Operator Cloud - this will serve as the foundation for IaaS and managed services mainly for business services try-and-buy, pay-as-you-grow and usage based for vCPE and other business services.
Big Data - this will be a critical component for protecting SDN and NFV platforms. From a security perspective, Big Data will enable CSPs to get real-time, network-wide visibility into threats, and will also be able to mitigate these threats in real-time.

Moshe Shimon is Vice President of Product Management and Marketing for Telco Systems.

[silver surfer] 20/1/2016 17:42

Thanks FSE, agree with you synopsis. I also expect the current market conditions are putting pressure on the downside without any upbeat news.

[fse] 20/1/2016 17:05

At the risk of annoying JD again here is my current take on whats going on or more noticeably whats not....

The share price has been walked down on very low volumes with a situation that no one wants to take a position until we know the company is back in profit and growing its revenue. BATM is not obligated to give an update and the last "positive" we got was from Zvi Marom in an interview back a few months ago where he appeared upbeat.
Prior to that we only have end of August 2015 comment that the company expect to meet year end expectations, whatever that meant.

We have not had any profits warning or even any cautionary comment.
My own guesstimate is that the medical arm will continue making a gradual but not stunning performance, it will continue to become a larger contributor to the mix.
The Telco arm has positioned themselves well from all accounts but from research I have done in the field I am concerned that uptake by providers is sluggish, there is still a lot of talk about Proof of Concept. I feel certain that Telco Systems had expected this phase to have moved on by now and start translating into first orders.

Bottom line is that its more delays. The share price is looking very attractive again as the price has been impacted by low/no volume trading environment. We are over 25% down from recent highs for no known reason......

[fse] 19/1/2016 18:10

What open solutions are all about and how NFV is where the ‘rubber meets the road’Posted by Talia Rimon on January 19, 2016
There is a lot of talk about “open solutions” and NFV in the telecom industry. TelecomTV televised an interview with Ariel Efrati, CEO of Telco Systems, to better understand these terms and where the market is heading.

The interview, entitled “Closing the loop with OSS & BSS Systems,” was conducted by Guy Daniels, the Editorial Director of TelecomTV during the GEN15 event in Dallas in November, 2015. This is what Efrati had to say.

Open Solutions

Open is an overused term. Everybody speaks about open, and to be honest, we spoke about open 10 years ago. People use it to refer to different terminology. I was sitting with an AT&T executive yesterday and I asked him “What is open for you?” I think his answer was correct. He said, “Open is not the word that we’re looking for. It’s not about open source. It’s about not being tied to one solution, to one approach.”

Telco Systems believes that being open is the ability to integrate and to coexist together. Now, there needs to be a standard. Think about it. When you roam today with your device, you don’t care whether you’re crossing an Orange network or an AT&T network. It’s transparent to you. That’s what you want in this field as well. You want to be able to move from one function to another.

NFV and Hybrid Solutions

NFV adds a lot of functions, but you want these functions to be available wherever you need them. Many of the large vendors want to give you an open feeling, but you will still be very much locked in. The reason is that this is their wishful thinking. I think that now, operators get that. They want to have the ability to find the best of breed without paying for the cost of integration. And this is the key element here, and this is how I coin “open”. Open is not free. Open is the ability to be free, and that is the difference.

NFV and Hybrid Solutions

Everybody speaks about a “pure” solution, a “greenfield221; solution. This is not a reality. You have to work on a hybrid approach, and a hybrid approach is where the rubber meets the road. You want to make sure that when you introduce new enhancements, new dynamic capabilities, new functions in places they never existed before, that they can coexist with the current systems.

For example, EdgeGenie Orchestrator is a network management layer that abstracts the layer and capabilities from other orchestrators or OSS and BSS. We add to that a lot of functionality. NETCONF (Network Configuration Protocol) has the capability to open up services. All our devices are supporting that already. But it may be preferable to use some others capabilities, such as OpenStack or maybe OpenDaylight among others.

Because EdgeGenie Orchestrator is quite dynamic, we have integrated new plugins, as well as other new advanced solutions such as OpenStack-based or OpenFlow-based solutions. And EdgeGenie Orchestrator actually encapsulates that. It’s indifferent. As a user, you don’t care whether you are using a more advanced layer or a more so-called legacy concept where you can measure up the services together.

OSS/BSS Infrastructure

OSS and BSS are quite flexible. The main issue is how you close the loop with the network itself to enable those functional capabilities and dynamic connectivity services. The dynamics customers are looking for is the ability to get into layer 7. When you look at layer 7, you see that this is the way that we’re providing the service.

For example, let’s look at what we’ve done in the ETSI Proof of Concept (PoC). This is a POC together with Orange, Cisco, Intel, and Netrounds, which demonstrates the ability to measure the real performance of an application, [i.e.] the ability to get into the packet itself and to know how it performs when it delivers the service at the end of the source. And that is very important. This is a capability you want to expose to the OSS and BSS. This enables the OSS and BSS to be very instrumental in creating dynamic services.

Closing the loop is about the ability to define something in the OSS and BSS, and the ability to deliver it and to measure it all through the network where the service is being provided, and not just defining a policy without the ability to enforce it. That is very important when you are looking at a service that needs to be provided to a customer, and this is closing the loop.

Relevant resources

Click here to watch the whole interview

[the crypt] 18/1/2016 12:00

still lingering on the bottom of the ocean of cheddar cheese, i see. Interesting would you not say, that a eggy smewll can emit the stench of BVC.

[fse] 16/1/2016 16:18

We are drifting sideways IMO due to the realization that it may all take longer to sell these solutions into the market.
From BATM Telco blog above this paragraph says it all

" SDN and NFV technologies will change the entire telecom industry in the coming years."

....... in the coming years !!!

I am not negative about the prospects so much rather that I feel the company was optimistic on the speed that this would be taken up..
Have posted an article from earlier in the year to gauge progress through realisation that these solution perhaps are the way forwards.
There is a lot of foot dragging from what I can see but we do appear "hobbling" in the right direction.

Will Investing in SDN & NFV Be Worth It?
Ray Le Maistre
SHADES OF RAY
RAY LE MAISTRE, Editor-in-chief
5/21/2015
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Will deploying software-defined networking (SDN) capabilities and implementing a network functions virtualization (NFV) strategy pay off for fixed-line, cable and mobile communications network operators?

This is the big telecom question of our time. For more than two years now we have been talking about the potential benefits that SDN and NFV could bring to traditional communications network operators as they look over the wall at the web/cloud/OTT services giants and fancy some of what they've got (lean physical infrastructure coupled with DevOps strategies and an endless will to try out new things, often with financial success).

But there is always one quote I used in an article in late 2012 that sticks in my mind. It was from Margaret Chiosi at AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T): "There's no point in moving to SDN if it's just as complex as what we have now." (See AT&T Has High Hopes for SDN.)

And of course there is no point in moving to SDN and virtualizing network functions if the cost of doing so is going to kill the operator (financially and operationally) before it even has the chance to gain any of the benefits. Embracing the New IP world has to be worth it.

That brings us to the publication of a study, released today by Bell Labs Consulting, the industrial research and advisory arm of Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), and global management consultancy Arthur D. Little (ADL). The headline takeaway of their report, called "Reshaping the Future with NFV and SDN," is that, collectively, the fixed and mobile operators they surveyed across 35 European countries could save a total of €39 billion (US$43.4 billion) per year as a result of deploying virtualized networks and becoming Cloud Carriers. (See Europe's Operators Could Save €39B From SDN & NFV Deployment.)

Or, to quote the report: "The efficiency impact of onboarding NFV and SDN for these operators could be worth 14 billion euros per year in the network domain alone, which will be augmented by a further 25 billion euros per year in non-network operating costs through greater automation and simplification of business processes."

Those are big numbers, even when spread across numerous operators in 35 countries.

The report is interesting. It even breaks down those potential savings into the various parts of the network where savings could be greatest (access and aggregation) and particular operating model potential savings (sales and marketing costs could be reduced significantly, according to the cost model used by Bell Labs and the consultancy). You can see the details yourself by downloading the report.

But…

How much would the operators need to spend -- in capex, training, hiring new people to facilitate changes, redundancy payments and so on -- to get to this cost-saving nirvana? Do the costs outweigh the savings? And after how many years might these projected savings be achieved?

Want to know more about telco transformation and the impact of SDN and NFV? This will be just one of the many topics covered at Light Reading's second Big Telecom Event on June 9-10 in Chicago. Get yourself registered today or get left behind!
I'm not saying that the study, report and methodology used is not worth the effort, or that migrating to SDN and NFV will not deliver cost savings of some sort (if it doesn't, then heaven help us all). But analysis that focuses only on potential cost savings doesn't provide the big picture and answer the big question -- will a transformation towards becoming a Cloud Carrier be worth it?

I'm not alone in looking at it this way: here is what my much more learned colleague Caroline Chappell, principal analyst, Cloud and NFV, at Heavy Reading , has to say.

NFV will potentially deliver massive savings if the industry manages to surmount the many obstacles to its implementation, including large interoperability and scoping issues associated with integrating the various components of the NFV architecture. But of course, operators will have to invest heavily to achieve NFV and it may be some time before they see large returns on that investment.
This is always the case with a disruptive technology -- the shift to IP networks illustrated this when operators leading the march had to backtrack on how quickly they would roll IP out due to the cost of transformation.

If there's one lesson to be learned from the move to IP, though, it's that technology disruption changes the competitive landscape. And that will happen again with NFV. We're already seeing new entrants, such as WiFi operators, moving straight to NFV and there are signs of a surge in NFV-based service creativity.

Savings or not, the most compelling reason for investing in NFV remains survival in an increasingly cloudified world.

Ah yes, survival of… the fittest? Leanest? Smartest? Most cloudified?

As ever, hindsight will deliver the closest we will ever get to an answer to the "will it be worth it" question -- and the answer will be different for every single operator in every region. Averages and analysis can be helpful and be a great catalyst for strategic thinking, but it only goes part of the way.

Hats off to Bell Labs and Arthur D. Little for providing a detailed and interesting catalyst for further discussion -- and there will be plenty of that on Light Reading and also face-to-face as we meet to do some networking of the human kind. The topic of virtualization strategies will be at the heart of many discussions and presentations at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event (BTE) (June 9-10 in Chicago), where we'll get the latest views of some of the protagonists who are at the very heart of such telco transformations -- the likes of Axel Clauberg from Deutsche Telekom, Bikash Koley of Google, Jared Wray and James Feger from CenturyLink, Nico Fischbach from Colt, Christos Kolias at Orange Silicon Valley, Randy Nicklas of Windstream and many more.

Big decisions are being made about the future of the communications industry right now. That requires a big-picture view of technology, people (skills, capabilities and requirements -- how many ops staff will be needed by 2030?) and financials.

Let's dig deeper during BTE and beyond.

— Ray Le Maistre, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

[fse] 16/1/2016 16:00

Three tips for making NFV a reality in 2016Posted by Gal Ofel on January 14, 2016
The outgoing 2015 was a year of transition for network-function virtualization (NFV) deployment. It was a year in which carriers were looking for a proof of concept and initial commercial deployment.

In 2016, this trend is expected to intensify further, and NFV will be deployed live and in projects such as vCPE and vEPC. Communication service providers (CSPs) must therefore address the challenges neglected so far. Some of these challenges include security, performance, return on investment (ROI), carrier-grade and interoperability with existing networks, Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS).

NFV security vulnerabilities

The way in which those challenges are addressed will affect CSPs’ ability to deliver high quality services and generate new revenues. So far, CSPs have preferred to ignore these challenges and have focused on feasibility, but the time has come to take a step forward to make NFV a success.

Here are some tips that can make the transition to NFV deployment easier:

1. Do not neglect NFV security vulnerabilities

The migration to software-defined networking (SDN) and NFV is a security-wise revolution. By doing so, you deploy software network functions to replace mature and security hardened hardware elements.

Software-based data planes are also far more exposed to denial of service attacks (DoS and DDoS). Moreover, by using open architecture of software-defined solutions, the control and management planes are remotely accessed.

The utilization of Open Source projects: (Open vSwitch), KVM and others. Each of these components has its own control and management interface as well as APIs toward the operating system and platform hosting it, opening the NFV infrastructure to additional attack vectors.

Moreover, each host runs a virtualized network that must be monitored and protected.

In order to succeed, carriers must bring network visibility, insights and network specific analytics into their security information and event management (SIEM) and security operations center (SOC). They should also adopt protection solutions designed for NFV platforms and deploy real-time on device analytics and active protection. In addition, they must monitor and control access within virtualized networks on each host, function-host and function-function interactions.

2. Focus on the business case

The success of NFV will eventually be determined by its business benefits. ROI will be based on carriers’ ability to sell entirely new services, or services that are currently very expensive.

To meet ROI targets, carriers will need to be certain about security, cost-performance, carrier-grade-ness and full interoperability. In addition, they need to make sure the standard commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms of Intel x86 are cost-effective providing the cost/performance, thereby making the newly launched services profitable.

The ability to fast deploy a new service and try to buy models will increase the profitability and sales cycles of value-added services.

3. Do not forget you’re a carrier

To allow carriers to make a profit from NFV-based services, the NFV platforms must natively integrate into the OSS and BSS methodologies.

Providing vCPE, MEC, vEPC, vSwitch, vRouter, vNAT and other virtualized services must meet existing carrier-grade requirements. These requirements include:

Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and MEF compliance, enabling carriers to terminate CE 2.0 and MEF services on any computer host on the network or data-center
Ensuring the service level by testing and monitoring any physical element, virtual function and virtual network anywhere and from anywhere
Providing security and resiliency
ROI is based on the ability to quickly deploy and provide service level agreement and maintain services at low cost.

For this, NFV solutions must seamlessly support existing architectures such as CE 2.0 and MEF. SDN needs to be manageable and flexible to meet changing needs, such as Netcon and OpenFlow support. It also has to be ready for integration with existing OSS and BSS.

Carriers are currently providing high quality services at a guaranteed service level agreement. The new service must also retain the same standard to fully exploit the benefit of NFV deployment.

Tagged BSS CE 2.0 DDoS DoS MEF NFV security vulnerabilities OpenStack OSS OVS SIEM

How Virtualizing security can protect SDN and NFV networks from cyber attacksPosted by Gal Ofel on January 13, 2016
Telecommunications operators and similar communications service providers are excited about the opportunities that Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) promise to provide.

SDN and NFV technologies and their ability to improve network versatility, reduce operational costs and create new business opportunities are attracting significant interest from service providers of all sizes and in all regions around the world. Although the operational use of SDN and NFV is still in early stages, most service providers are currently formulating their strategies for deploying these technologies and many are conducting proof-of-concepts (PoC) evaluations in their test environments.

1: The Transition to New Open Networks and the Security Vulnerabilities

Traditional telecoms networks are closed infrastructures protected by readily-available and mature security solutions. Today, the control plane is separated from the data plane on nearly all telecoms networks. This separation helps protect the network from cyber-attacks and other security vulnerabilities and allows security solutions to work effectively.

The migration to SDN and NFV technologies offers service providers numerous benefits, including openness, remote programmability, agility and other advantages of IT-like networks. However, the similarity to IT networks that makes SDN and NFV networks advantageous for service providers also exposes them to a full range of cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities. Unlike traditional network infrastructure, which is hardware-based and has hardened security policies, SDN and NFV networks are open and software-based, which is the source of most of the security vulnerabilities.

SDN and NFV networks Security

The SDN and NFV infrastructure planes must be protected from advanced persistent threats (APTs) and cyber-attacks, such as flooding and denial of service (DoS) and threats to hypervisor/vSwitch appliances on the control plane as well as malware, remote access threats and specific attacks on the virtual machines (VMs) on the application plane.

SDN and NFV infrastructures will also allow enterprise customers to self-provision new services, which will give external access to the control plane for the first time. This exposes service providers and their network infrastructure to additional security vulnerabilities that did not exist before.

The open architecture of software defined networks enables this remote access. For this, service providers are using Open Source platforms and software like OpenStack, OVS (Open vSwitch), KVM and others, instead the proprietary technologies used on existing networks, which are inherently more secure due to their obscurity. In an SDN and NFV network, each host runs a virtualized network, which must be individually monitored and protected.

2: Virtualizing Security for SDN and NFV Protection

On open networks, including those enabled by SDN and NFV technologies, these and other cyber-security threats can easily bypass existing security solutions that commonly use log file data from security appliances on the core network to analyze security events. APTs can hide undetected in a network and on endpoints for months, stealthily capturing and reporting on data passing through the network, which leaves the network open to penetration by undetected attackers.

Making the network smarter by using virtualization through open source capabilities may make service provider networks more vulnerable. However, it is this feature of virtualization that can deliver the necessary security to protect against the inherent vulnerabilities of SDN and NFV networks.

By running a security solution as a virtualized network function deployed at the network edge, which is the closest location to all endpoints, security efforts can have complete visibility of the entire network and can be applied to the entire infrastructure. Remediation too becomes faster, since the network is centrally monitored and any malfunctioning component can easily be isolated before the attack spreads across the infrastructure.

SDN and NFV technologies will change the entire telecom industry in the coming years. As these technologies are deployed on service provider networks, they will deliver on the promise of cost savings and new business opportunities.

Operators and service providers who are accustomed to a closed and protected environment must now consider how to protect the open SDN and NFV infrastructure that punches holes in the traditional separation between the control plane and the data plane. The solution lies in applying security solutions as a virtualized network functions to overcome these vulnerabilities and ensure that the promises of SDN and NFV securely fulfilled.

Link:

[fse] 07/1/2016 21:35

Worth taking a look around Netrounds site who have been a part of the open edge alliance with Telco systems for almost a year now. Net rounds are offering products and solutions with NFV technology on their website.
It looks like it is all very close to happening but any sales will not really be seen for a while yet as far as the bottom line goes.



Edit added: Other open edge alliance members of note are

[james dean] 06/1/2016 14:48

BATM Advanced Communications Limited (LSE: BVC), a leading provider of real-time technologies for networking solutions and medical laboratory systems, announces that the Nomination Committee has proposed that Moti Nagar, who has been the Group's Chief Financial Officer since 1 January 2015, be appointed to the Board as an executive director.

Mr. Nagar's nomination has been approved by the Board and, in accordance with the Group's articles of association, is subject to shareholder approval at a General Meeting expected to be convened around the summer of 2016.

Ofer Bar-Ner, the previous Chief Financial Officer, has stepped down from the Board of Directors with immediate effect. Mr. Bar-Ner is continuing in his role as Chief Operating Officer of the Medical Distribution and Sterilization division and, as such, will remain part of the senior management team of the Group.

[reeltime] 01/1/2016 14:41

Telecommunications industry trends that will shape 2016
21 Dec 2015.

2015 was an exciting year in telecommunications industry. We saw the continued growth of Unified Communications and the proliferation of new network architectures and platforms. Over the past year terms like Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Software-Defined Networking (SDN), 5G and Cloud networking were exemplified as important industry trends and we will see these ramping-up in 2016.

SDN Strategies Ramp-Up

Although we continue to see NFV outpace the notion of SDN, in 2016 SDN strategies will become increasingly prevalent.

In the past, network infrastructures have been static and the idea of migrating to an all software-defined network, although full of promise, has been a scary proposition to many organizations, often viewed as “too much to handle.”

However, we’ve seen an influx of SDN solutions that don’t require the re-architecting of a network by replacing every router with a white box switch. Essentially, instead of creating an entirely new network architecture, companies are delivering SDN solutions to drive network value, while customers develop their strategy and migrate to a core SDN-infrastructure. These solutions enable new business models, such as Network-as-a-Service, where service providers are able to put a layer of automation on top of their network infrastructure, allowing them to configure the network how they want to use it, when they want to use it, and dynamically partitions it to provide enterprises with benefits such as data center interconnectivity. Service providers will continue to use these solutions to deliver new business offers to enterprises, and for that reason we will see SDN solutions ramp-up in 2016.

The Cloud Moves Closer

As NFV and the ever-growing transition to the Cloud continues to gain popularity in 2016 the next logical evolution of the Cloud infrastructure is the expansion of the service provider’s virtual edge all the way to the enterprise premise.

Traditionally, when a service provider sold network functions to an enterprise, such as a Session Border Controller (SBC), they supplied them with customer premise equipment (CPE) and required someone to go on-site, turn-up and deploy the application. In an industry where cutting IT costs and improving processes is widespread, the ability to streamline the aforementioned process has become increasingly important.

Now that the industry has finally reached a point where a large set of applications that were previously tied to proprietary hardware can now be run on generic commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computing hardware, service providers have new business opportunities. With this transition, service providers can now bring their “virtual” Cloud infrastructure to the enterprise premise. Now, CPE is becoming virtualized and applications are being managed by the service provider from its core Cloud infrastructure. With this shift, an enterprise has an extension of its service provider’s Cloud at the edge of its premise where applications are being hosted and managed. This provides the enterprise with the opportunity to trial new services quickly with no CPE investment and the ability to scale on demand.

5G Creates Hype, but VoLTE, VoWiFi and LTE-A Deliver Now

Over this past year, 5G has received more media coverage and industry buzz than any other technology. Experts explain that it will deliver faster mobile data rates, broader wireless coverage, more efficient signaling and lower latency. However, the consensus is that 5G will reach mainstream adoption closer to 2020. Instead of waiting till then, in 2016 we expect to see the mainstream adoption of initiatives such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).

If we look at VoLTE, the business case for operators is simple. It reduces cost for operators by enabling voice, video, and data to run over a common IP infrastructure and provides them with the ability to re-farm 3G spectrum for LTE expansion. This, in turn, benefits today’s mobile worker by improving the overall quality of experience, delivering high-definition voice and providing the ability to run voice, video and data applications concurrently on the same handset. VoWiFi, similarly, delivers operators with increased coverage and capacity, optimized network access and the ability to extend services easily to Wi-Fi. This technology provides today’s mobile worker with simple, secure unrestricted connectivity and mobility between Wi-Fi and cellular IP networks, even outside of LTE coverage. Moreover, LTE-A is already providing increased performance, scalability and service availability and is expected to only increase in 2016. Once operators in the region are able to address interconnect issues and finalize infrastructure details, we expect to see these complimentary technologies blossom in 2016.

In the end telecommunications industry rarely lacks change. However, one prediction we can all agree on is that both service providers and enterprises will continue to look for ways to simplify their network while increasing performance and reducing cost in 2016.

[reeltime] 01/1/2016 14:38

A new article by Gal Ofel, the Head of Software Solution Product Line Management at Telco Systems.......

Virtualizing Security to Protect SDN and NFV Networks from Inherent Vulnerabilities.

Telecommunications operators and similar communications service providers are excited about the opportunities that Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) promise to provide. SDN and NFV technologies and their ability to improve network versatility, reduce operational costs and create new business opportunities are attracting significant interest from service providers of all sizes and in all regions around the world. Although the operational use of SDN and NFV is still in early stages, most service providers are currently formulating their strategies for deploying these technologies and many are conducting proof-of-concepts (PoC) evaluations in their test environments.

#1:THE TRANSITION TO NEW OPEN NETWORKS AND THE SECURITY VULNERABILITIES

Traditional telecoms networks are closed infrastructures protected by readily-available and mature security solutions. Today, the control plane is separated from the data plane on nearly all telecoms networks. This separation helps protect the network from cyber-attacks and other security vulnerabilities and allows security solutions to work effectively.

The migration to SDN and NFV technologies offers service providers numerous benefits, including openness, remote programmability, agility and other advantages of IT-like networks. However, the similarity to IT networks that makes SDN and NFV networks advantageous for service providers also exposes them to a full range of cyber-attacks and security vulnerabilities. Unlike traditional network infrastructure, which is hardware-based and has hardened security policies, SDN and NFV networks are open and software-based, which is the source of most of the security vulnerabilities.

The SDN and NFV infrastructure planes must be protected from advanced persistent threats (APTs) and cyber-attacks, such as flooding and denial of service (DoS) and threats to hypervisor/vSwitch appliances on the control plane as well as malware, remote access threats and specific attacks on the virtual machines (VMs) on the application plane.

SDN and NFV infrastructures will also allow enterprise customers to self-provision new services, which will give external access to the control plane for the first time. This exposes service providers and their network infrastructure to additional security vulnerabilities that did not exist before.

The open architecture of software defined networks enables this remote access. For this, service providers are using Open Source platforms and software like OpenStack, OVS (Open vSwitch), KVM and others, instead the proprietary technologies used on existing networks, which are inherently more secure due to their obscurity. In an SDN and NFV network, each host runs a virtualized network, which must be individually monitored and protected.

#2: VIRTUALIZING SECURITY FOR SDN AND NFV PROTECTION

On open networks, including those enabled by SDN and NFV technologies, these and other cyber-security threats can easily bypass existing security solutions that commonly use log file data from security appliances on the core network to analyze security events. APTs can hide undetected in a network and on endpoints for months, stealthily capturing and reporting on data passing through the network, which leaves the network open to penetration by undetected attackers.

Making the network smarter by using virtualization through open source capabilities may make service provider networks more vulnerable. However, it is this feature of virtualization that can deliver the necessary security to protect against the inherent vulnerabilities of SDN and NFV networks. By running a security solution as a virtualized network function deployed at the network edge, which is the closest location to all endpoints, security efforts can have complete visibility of the entire network and can be applied to the entire infrastructure. Remediation too becomes faster, since the network is centrally monitored and any malfunctioning component can easily be isolated before the attack spreads across the infrastructure.

SDN and NFV technologies will change the entire telecom industry in the coming years. As these technologies are deployed on service provider networks, they will deliver on the promise of cost savings and new business opportunities. Operators and service providers who are accustomed to a closed and protected environment must now consider how to protect the open SDN and NFV infrastructure that punches holes in the traditional separation between the control plane and the data plane. The solution lies in applying security solutions as a virtualized network functions to overcome these vulnerabilities and ensure that the promises of SDN and NFV securely fulfilled.

About The Author:
Gal Ofel is the Head of Software Solution Product Line Management at Telco Systems. Gal is responsible for the company’s SDN and Distributed NFV software products and ecosystem.

[cumnor] 01/1/2016 11:25

Thanks FSE, Reeltime, JD etc for yer'e posts and info on BVC. I like the medical side-a bread and butter business which should grow steadily and which actually seems to be gaining traction. I don't understand telco at all but (a totally uninformed opinon) it strikes me as cutting edge in terms of innovation/technologies, any of which if they were to be adapted as part of a big carrier like Verizon or manufacturer like Cisco could really transform BVC's fortunes. To me it doesn't seem to have made that connection/large sale yet despite it's IP ? being as good as anything on the market. I wonder if this is where new blood-someone young with real ambition and insight to take what BATM have-and it does seem to be cutting edge-could make that transformational leap or pitch with the big boys to adapt Telco's technology. They seem to be gettng the right reviews from the techie guys for a while but making the big deal seems to just beyond their grasp. Hopefully this will change imminently but I wonder if new thinking is required within parts of a BOD that maybe getting a bit comfortable or stale. Zvi himself strikes me as a perfectly capable man. I hold a rake of BVC-probably 16-17p-for years and it is one of those ones I will hang on to come hell or high water. Happy new year to ye all. imo

[rawdeal1] 31/12/2015 12:43

Ah ... obviously got that completely wrong - results from last year posted in March. but would have thought they would have given us a heads-up.

[rawdeal1] 31/12/2015 12:33

All very strange .... when are the numbers coming out.
Do they have an obligation to publish before close of play today .... ?
Happy New Year

[fse] 30/12/2015 16:37

Maybe the above post with my comments FWIW will explain better why I am fence sitting at the moment to increase holdings. If my previous comments appear "repetitive" thats because whilst I like what BATM / Telco systems are doing and the field they are now focussing on ..... my concern is the time frame that Telco Systems are in with respect to actual contractual sales ......
SDN /NFV is on the path to adoption but we are not seeing actual contract wins with meaningful revenue simply because we are not quite there yet.
I do not feel that this is either being explained by the company or more so that the markets had "assumed" this was all more immediate than it is.

This is hardly bad news but it does explain to a degree the reluctance of investors to take an immediate stake in BATM Telco on the Telco side as the route to sales and resulting revenue is still a couple of years out before meaningful revenue is booked.
If you look at SDN/NFV from BATM Telco viewpoint the escalating interest, POC's and their having the right kit...... all of this must be encouraging to them.

The medical side has been growing at what appears to be a sustainable rate with interesting new partnerships evolving. This is allowing the company as a whole to stay in the Telco development and advance their offerings to the point of larger scale uptake.

Hope this is helpful and again its my view based on research I have done.
A Happy New Year to all........

[fse] 30/12/2015 15:45

These POC's (proof of concept) are gaining in momentum with several players in the field as networks are scrambling to adopt these solutions ....
On the positive side NFN (network Function vitalization) and SDN (software defined networks) have gone from the theoretical phase to designing and recently marketing what is now appearing to be a new set of standards.

Copied some chat on here linked below but summarized what this means to us as shareholders in BATM /Telco systems



The problem with all of this for us as shareholders with BATM and Telco Systems is not now whether or not these standards would be adopted by the industry but rather the speed of uptake.
The recent view is that we can expect more POC's in 2016 with a much more measurable uptake in 2017.

Added Link: This is perhaps a better snapshot of where we are at and a little more explanation.



This is why I feel Telco systems arm of BATM will not hit immediate shorter term expectations but are nevertheless looking well placed looking forward.

Thanks RT for posting the links to Netrounds POC which does appear to place them in this stage of the development from the labs to actually marketing these solutions/

Edit added: Link to Telco systems product referred to in Netrounds presentation

[james dean] 29/12/2015 22:51

Thanks reeltime.

H N Y

Regards. DYOR

[reeltime] 29/12/2015 22:36

OPNFV Summit PoC: Orchestrated Assurance Enabled by NFV
Marcus Friman, VP of Product Management from Netrounds, in collaboration with ETSI, Cisco, Intel, and Telco Systems, demos a Proof of Concept…

[fse] 29/12/2015 22:10

JD no need to shout ! I am truly not interested in keeping this dialogue going.
Happy to read your posted articles and have thanked you for such ....
Maybe you can just keep any comments you have about me to yourself ?

[james dean] 29/12/2015 21:42

It's an opinion - not being caustic at all.

Not cut and pasting either.

You seem to be minding and not taking fair comments.

Nothing wrong in my brain department either.

[fse] 29/12/2015 21:08

Then you don't have to read it then and you can disengage brain and go back to cut and pasting.

I have no interest in pointless bicker so why don't you just mind your own business and keep you caustic rhetoric to yourself.