THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Orange one of the world's leading telecommunications operators, and EXFO the communications industry's test, monitoring and analytics experts, today announced that Orange has integrated EXFO's passive virtual probes (vProbes) into the Beijing Release of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP). This industry-first integration of a passive probing virtual network function (VNF) into the ONAP release delivers service assurance for SDN/NFV commercial deployments. It also provides monitoring and troubleshooting of the service quality experienced by end customers.

Overview:

• The Linux Foundation's ONAP project was established in March 2017 to address a rising need for a common platform for telecommunication, cable, and cloud operators—and their solution providers—to deliver differentiated network services on-demand, profitably and competitively, while leveraging existing investments (ONAP Beijing documentation)
• The Beijing Release aims to improve platform maturity and support use cases, making it easier for network operators to deploy ONAP.
• EXFO and Orange's collaboration will enable the ecosystem to roll out open infrastructures based on SDN/NFV with the capability to monitor and troubleshoot complex end-to-end issues. It will also define a reference design for virtualized service assurance over 4G/LTE networks.
• The unique on-demand monitoring function dynamically instantiates end-to-end troubleshooting resources based on multiple criteria like service degradation and customer complaints, or in association with the provisioning of a new service. It also opens the way to the elasticity of virtual network function's monitoring in order to cope with sporadic traffic increases or relocation of a network function. ONAP is seen as the global framework to orchestrate and automate the deployment and the lifecycle of the vProbes.

Quotes:
"As we transform our network, we are partnering with innovative and disruptive vendors to support our move to Open Source technologies like ONAP to guarantee our software independence and openness," said Eric Debeau, Head of Orange's Network Automation Platform Team. "Orange and EXFO have successfully removed a major barrier to ONAP deployment: the lack of monitoring solutions for dynamic, orchestrated virtual networks. EXFO's unique on-demand provisioning of virtual passive probes significantly reduces the resources required to check service availability and troubleshoot issues. The solution enables service assurance for network virtualization through adaptive, permanent or on-demand monitoring solutions."

"Expectations are high for commercial networks based on SDN/NFV to deliver better quality of service and availability. We are proud of our collaboration with Orange to make sure virtualization delivers on its promise of quality for the end customer while also accelerating operators' digital network transformations," said Abdelkrim Benamar, EXFO's Vice President, Service Assurance, Systems and Services. "We are also proud to have integrated our virtual passive probes in the ONAP in just two weeks, which demonstrates the maturity of our virtual network functions and the ONAP Beijing Release."

About Orange
Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with sales of 41 billion euros in 2017 and 149,000 employees worldwide at 30 June 2018, including 91,000 employees in France. The Group has a total customer base of 260 million customers worldwide at 30 June 2018, including 199 million mobile customers and 20 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 28 countries. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan "Essentials2020" which places customer experience at the heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks.Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).

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Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.

About EXFO
EXFO EXFO EXF develops smarter test, monitoring and analytics solutions for fixed and mobile network operators, webscale companies and equipment manufacturers in the global communications industry. Our customers count on us to deliver superior network performance, service reliability and subscriber insights. They count on our unique blend of equipment, software and services to accelerate digital transformations related to fiber, 4G/LTE and 5G deployments. They count on our expertise with automation, real-time troubleshooting and big data analytics, which are critical to their business performance. We've spent over 30 years earning this trust, and today more than 2,000 EXFO employees in over 25 countries work side by side with our customers in the lab, field, data center and beyond. For more information, visit EXFO.com and follow us on the EXFO Blog.

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SOURCE EXFO Inc.