25 April 2017, Shenzhen, China – ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, today announced the release of its carrier-class virtual broadband remote access server (vBRAS) white paper at the 2017 China software-defined networking/network function virtualisation (SDN/NFV) summit, which sets the standard for vBRAS application and accelerates the large-scale commercial deployment of vBRAS.

BRAS is the terminal node of user access and the service provision point in a metro area network (MAN). The traditional BRAS tightly couples control plane and forwarding plane, which influence each other’s performance, and leads to uneven use of resources. It also meets slow service launching, long deployment term, complicated operations and maintenance (O&M) and management when new services are deployed. To solve these problems, ZTE introduces carrier-class vBRAS to an operator’s network. As the first key device in IP WAN virtualisation, vBRAS implements separated control and forwarding as well as decoupled software and hardware by SDN and NFV technology, in order to realise control plane cloudification, flexible new service deployment, centralised control of configuration and O&M; and therefore solve the defects of the traditional BRAS. It can also assist the operators to effectively reduce OPEX and CAPEX. The white paper illustrates vBRAS’s architecture and features, shows its capability to meet carrier-class demands, thoroughly analyses the benefits it brings to operators, and further looks into the prospect of future MAN center office re-architected as datacenter (CORD) evolution.

Mr. Tao Wenqiang, ZTE’s BN High-end IP Product Planning Chief Engineer said: “ZTE has been focusing on the features of operators’ network and services. It introduces vBRAS to meet the carrier-class operators’ high volume session, bandwidth, reliability, and efficiency demands. ZTE has completed multiple vBRAS piloting projects in existing networks as well as OPEN-O integration in 2016, which provides perfect verification for the operators in commercial network piloting, SDN/NFV development, and future network operation experience accumulation. In the future, ZTE will continue to support operators’ network transformation to push vBRAS’s piloting in the existing network to commercial practice.”

ZTE pays close attention to network development trends. It has conducted cooperation with 180 mainstream operators and partners in SDN/NFV around the world. Its research and practice results have been included in its new whitepaper and released it to the industry. This will assist operators in network cloudification and intelligent transformation.