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Avaya Open Networking
Adapter
A new class of networking product that
leverages open source to deliver deployment
simplicity and operational agility.
Table of Contents
Enter the new Open
Networking Adapter................... 1
Avaya ONA: a closer look........ 3
Leveraging an Open
Framework.................................... 4
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term that’s getting a lot of
airtime these days, both inside and outside of the technology
industry. Placed in a business context, a wide variety of
conventional devices – such as medical terminals,
manufacturing equipment – will be networked in order to
deliver enhanced functionality or productivity. One of the
themes of IoT is that these devices can be monitored,
modified, and managed remotely. However, this vision can
darken when faced with practical considerations.
Use Case Examples.................... 5
Firstly, an enterprise may have thousands of these IoT-type devices and
The Promise of SDN.................. 7
provisioning them using conventional techniques could well be impractical, if
not impossible. Crucially, it would be a brave organization that was prepared to
introduce these devices to the corporate network without due consideration for
security or quality of service. Businesses that do plan to isolate IoT traffic across
a network will need an easy way set up and modify these network-wide
partitions. And lastly, many IoT end-points could be running older operating
systems that lack modern protection against viruses or malware: potentially
putting the entire network at risk.
Avaya Fabric Connect is a technology that enables the creation of virtual
networks, easily and in real-time. Further, utilizing Fabric Attach, a
complementary, standards-based technology, networking end-points can
attach automatically, configuring themselves to join their mission-specific
network. This functionality completely mitigates the burden of manual
provisioning. However, one problem remains: the typical IoT end-point does not
contain sufficient embedded networking intelligence, and therefore would not
be to benefit from Fabric Attach.
Enter the new Open Networking Adapter
The Avaya Open Networking Adapter (ONA) initiative delivers a family of small
form-factor devices that act as a bridge between any Ethernet-equipped device
and the Fabric Connect private cloud. Simply connect the business end-point
via an ONA and Fabric Attach functionality takes care of the rest; provisioning
is automated, and centrally defined service parameters are applied. In the
context of business end-points this will typically involve assignment to a
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Highlights
mission-specific stealth network, one that is isolated from other corporate
•Bridges Ethernet-equipped
devices to the Fabric Connect
private cloud.
limits the ability for end-points to interact with systems other than those
traffic and carries unique flow restrictions and quality of service attributes. This
specifically related to their defined role. Given these capabilities the
deployment potential for the Avaya ONA is very broad.
The ONA is a revolutionary new
•Seamlessly transforms
“illiterate” business end-points
into “smart” nodes.
concept, delivering a versatile,
field-deployable implementation
of Open vSwitch, facilitating
network connectivity and
•Creates deployment simplicity
and operational agility
automating provisioning. Open
vSwitch (OVS) is a virtual
networking platform that delivers
a software-definable solution for
•Delivers automated
provisioning and centralized
service definition.
traffic forwarding, isolation and
filtering, monitoring and traffic
mirroring, queuing and shaping,
•Leverages open source
feature-rich functionality
and evolution.
and automating control.
For those unfamiliar with the vSwitch and its role in server virtualization, the
vSwitch can be considered as the networking side of a Hypervisor
implementation: Virtual Machines are provided with virtualized access to CPU,
•Part of the Avaya SDN Fx
architecture that addresses
the end-to-end relationship
between applications,
business logic, and
networking services.
memory, disk, and also – via the vSwitch – to internal and external networks.
Open vSwitch is leveraged by many third party Hypervisor solutions, including
Xen, KVM, VirtualBox, with ports available for VMware ESX and Microsoft
Hyper-V, and it has also been integrated into OpenStack. Avaya and Wind River
have collaborated to contribute the Fabric Attach auto-attachment
functionality to the Open vSwitch community, thereby making this innovation
widely available.
By leveraging OVS in this innovative way – taking it out of the conventional Data
Center/Server role and utilizing it at the Edge to facilitate intelligent network
access – Avaya is redefining networking. Hundreds, thousands, of “network
illiterate” business end-points can be seamlessly transformed into “smart
nodes”, network entities in their own right. Enabled by Avaya ONA, these endpoints can now be monitored and managed; their networking capability
centrally administered and controlled.
The execution of the Avaya ONA concept is both strikingly simple yet
immensely powerful; its simplicity and its openness allows customers to harness
the power of open source and Avaya-specific innovations. The Avaya ONA is a
key component of Avaya’s SDN Fx™ architecture, integrating third party devices
with the SDN-programmable “Enabled Edge”.
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De-Mystifying Open
vSwitch:
Avaya ONA: a closer look
• Server virtualization changed the
access layer from having to be
connected to a physical Switch; the
Virtual Switch – vSwitch – was born.
standalone Open vSwitch implementation that enables the auto-attachment –
• vSwitch is a software layer that resides
in the Server hosting Virtual Machines
(VMs).
deployable, and added a management capability to make it efficient and useful.
• VMs have logical or virtual Ethernet
ports; these connect to the vSwitch.
• Open vSwitch created by at Nicira
(later acquired by VMware).
• OVS intended to meet the needs of the
open source community, since there
was no feature-rich vSwitch offering for
Linux-based Hypervisors
• OVS quickly become the de facto
vSwitch for XEN environments
A closer look reveals that, at its core, the Avaya ONA is a ruggedized,
leveraging Fabric Attach – of non-networking devices to Avaya Fabric Connect.
It is Fabric Attach that empowers ease of deployment. Avaya has taken a fully
standard OVS implementation, packaged it appropriately to make it fieldONA is, essentially, OVS-in-a-box, enabling simple, scalable, and cost-effective
service agility for legacy business end-points.
The hardware of the Avaya ONA is based on a
commercial-off-the-shelf processor,
delivering performance sufficient to forward
traffic at line rate and with minimal latency.
The CPU, memory, and other components are
housed in a ruggedized aluminum casing that
delivers heat dissipation and mitigates the
need for an internal fan. This provides the
ONA with an industrial design, suited to the
harsh environments where they are likely to
be deployed. The hardware is specifically
• Now playing a large part in other open
source projects, like OpenStack.
designed to be easy to deploy by non-IT staff. Labeling clearly identifies user-
• OVS supports VLANs, LACP, port
mirroring, NetFlow, sFlow, etc.
system status. Included in the management strategy is an ability to easily
• From a control and management
perspective, OVS can leverage
OpenFlow and OVSDB.
• OVS is often incorporated into SDN
strategies:
– Critical to many SDN deployments in Data Centers; tying together VMs within a Hypervisor
– Entry point for VMs sending traffic to the network
– Ingress point into overlay networks running on top of physical networks
– Considered the core element of many DC SDN deployments.
– OVS can also be used to direct traffic between network functions for service chaining.
and network-side ports, and visual indicators simplify the display of power and
identify, register, and deploy ONAs by leveraging device-specific QR codes.
Practical considerations include the provision of multiple options for securing
the ONA together to its partner end-point, including a Kensington lock option.
Deployments are further simplified by removing any user interface or
configuration requirement; upon power-up the ONA communicates with a
central controller, load any custom configuration, and seamless connect the
business end-points to its services. This has the added benefit of enhancing the
security of deployments: making the ONA more tamper-proof helps prevent
them from being hijacked for use as launch points in a network attack.
Avaya intends to develop a range of Adapters with physical characteristics that
match mainstream business requirements across a broad range of typical
deployment scenarios. Considerations include:
•The ratio of user-side and network-side ports; this will range from 1:1 in
support of the simplest of end-point device connectivity requirements, to
many: many that would deliver both network link resiliency and multiple endpoint connectivity.
•The physical media of Ethernet interfaces; RJ45 copper would provide for
effective connectivity to most end-points and networks, but there may also
be deployment scenarios that require the flexibility of supporting long-reach
Source: SDxCentral
fiber connectivity.
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•The provision of power, both for the Adapter itself and potentially providing
power to end-points; different implementations could see ONAs supported by
Power-over-Ethernet delivered by the network-side port, or alternatively
ONAs could provide power to end-points.
The ONA is designed to address enterprise deployments that require seamless
connectivity between business end-points and Fabric Connect-based services;
segmentation of traffic and granular control of flows deliver previously unheard
of functionality. Equally, service provider solutions such as distributed video
surveillance and cloud-hosted CPE can be addressed by leveraging the agility
and flexibility delivered by OVS.
The openness and off-the-shelf nature of both the hardware and software
makes Avaya ONA a very versatile networking component. Given that ONA is
based on the Open vSwitch platform, any and all evolutions in OVS functionality
and be equally applied through the environment, be that for a Hypervisor in the
Data Center or a business end-point attaching via ONA.
Leveraging an Open Framework
In line with the broader Avaya SDN Fx™ architecture, the Avaya Open
Networking Adapter is conceived to be open and intended to allow customers
to unleash the power of the open community. The goal is to provide an ability to
quickly benefit from SDN where these deployments make business sense. The
ONA delivers this capability, being able to rely on the equally open Avaya Fabric
Connect automated core to support critical business applications. SDN Fx
increases reliability and flexibility of the existing environment and reduces the
operational burden; delivering the added benefit of releasing IT staff from
mundane operational duties to concentrate on value-add.
Avaya’s SDN Fx architecture is based on an open foundation and there has been
a conscious decision to base our SDN products on the Open vSwitch, the Open
Daylight SDN Controller, and OpenStack. Avaya has membership of and actively
contributes to these industry-wide groups.
Business can benefit from this openness. Development in the open
communities, by third party developers, and directly by Avaya, provides a rich
and timely source of innovation. Enterprises can build custom solutions to meet
very specific business needs, without having to worry about vendor lock-in.
Avaya provides an innovative and reliable foundation upon which business can
operate hybrid environments that support both legacy and SDN applications.
Application and the Enabled Edge
While technically SDN has been described as a separation of control and data
plane, some would have us believe that SDN is only relevant to automation of
the Data Center. Guided by consultations with strategic partners, Avaya has
developed the view that SDN’s key value proposition is the ability to quickly and
effectively integrate at the “Edge”. The “Edge”, in this context, is not necessarily
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limited to traditional network access, but as any point where the users and their
applications interact with service infrastructure. Ranging for a Hypervisor in the
Data Center through to an IP Phone on the desk, and now via the Avaya ONA to
anything in between, the Edge defines where user and applications interact
with the infrastructure. It is at the programmable edge that the real power of
SDN is revealed, and Avaya’s SDN Fx™ architecture integrates infrastructure
and business processes in a new, far more agile way.
Use Case Examples
The following use case examples have been developed by Avaya in conjunction
with lead customers. They demonstrate the power of a holistic SDN strategy
and shows how Avaya’s SDN Fx architecture makes, what would otherwise be
very challenging, if not impossible to execute, are made eminently deliverable
by virtue of the Avaya Open Networking Adapter.
Secure IoT Device Mobility
Problem: Environments such as hospitals, manufacturing floors, and casinos
are experiencing a proliferation of devices requiring network connectivity,
many of which require at least some degree of mobility. These end-point
devices may themselves necessitate and include security considerations, such
as authentication and encryption. However, in the context of certain
environments, the broader network needs to be protected from potential
threats emanating from these end-points; a compromised IoT device should not
be the launch point for a network- wide assault.
Solution: End-point devices are associated with an Open Networking Adapter
that provides dynamic, automated connectivity. The ONA-based solution
delivers the required mobility, and based on the device identity, allows security
services to be customized. This also allows the network presence of individual
devices to be tracked, and for all services and security policies to follow the
device if and as it moves within prescribed tolerances. If the ONA becomes
non-compliant with policy, the device can be reset or even disabled, isolating it
from the environment and thus neutralizing the risk of a threat originating from
misuse or misappropriation. The burden of complex installation and
configuration is removed: being plug-and-play, ONAs enable users to connect
end-points on an as-required basis; automated provisioning streamlines
dynamic service connectivity and activation.
Establishing a seamless solution for effective business IoT mobility can improve
customer satisfaction by delivering real-time service agility, while at the same
time it can reduce operational cost. Releasing IT staff from mundane
configuration has the associated benefit of allowing them to concentrate on
strategic tasks.
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Internet-Connected Branch
Problem: The traditional Branch Office is undergoing something of a quiet
revolution, driven by less permanently based staff, as people increasingly opt
for mobile connectivity and remote access. Businesses are looking to right-size
their real estate footprint. Often matched with a parallel transition of CRM
applications into the Cloud, MPLS connectivity, expensive in comparison with
generic high-speed Broadband, becomes increasingly more difficult to justify.
Solution: Predicated on the fact that virtually all Branch Office traffic flows to
and between remote application systems – either in the corporate Data Center,
or to Cloud-hosted platforms – the SDN Fx™ solution for the InternetConnected Branch moves the connectivity traditionally delivered by a WAN
Router to the Cloud.
In its place all that’s deployed is an Open Networking Adapter, leveraging
Ethernet-based high-speed Broadband, and executing centrally-administered
service connectivity and privacy policy. Thus, the Branch Office now look more
like a hot spot on the corporate Wi-Fi network, connected to the greater
network via an intelligent ONA and a high-speed pipe. Users are given policybased access to corporate services and resources. This SDN Fx solution has the
benefit of addressing both capital and operational costs. Equipment
procurement and deployment costs can be minimized, and the monthly
operational costs associated with traditional connectivity options are greatly
reduced.
Flexible Remote Worker
Problem: With an increasing number of staff working outside of the traditional
office environment, there’s a corresponding increase in the need for managing
access and monitoring service quality. Additionally, there are scenarios – for
example, Contact Center Agents – where staff may need to transition between
virtual workgroups even during the course of a single day; these changes need
to be seamlessly enacted and governed by centralized policy.
Solution: This solution enables end-point user devices such as IP Handsets,
consoles, and computers, connected to their respective services via an Open
Networking Adaptor, centrally controlled and dynamically re-provisioned in
accordance with business-driven policy.
Service operators can remotely manage users and their devices, monitor policy
compliance, and manage application and resource access. This solution also
features the ability to pro-actively monitor and report on service quality,
helping to provide the highest possible service level for both staff and
customers. For example, Contact Center Agents can be dynamically moved
between different client accounts without complex re-configuration or
extended downtime, all based upon the actions of a centralized controller
enacting business policy. If an individual Agent’s connection falls below predefined quality or performance thresholds, proactive reporting tools flag this in
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real-time, and policy-based dynamic re-provisioning takes the appropriate
action, making the necessary service and infrastructure changes. This solution
can massively increase flexibility, and reduce operational cost and complexity.
The Promise of SDN
SDN suggests significant business benefits but it requires holistic thinking and
an approach beyond pure infrastructure. The real promise of SDN is not
infrastructure automation, but as a fundamentally different means of
supporting users and business processes by allowing a closer integration
between applications and the network. The SDN open community has led the
way and continues to innovate rapidly. The reality is that most businesses will
need to maintain legacy applications, want enhanced reliability and efficiency
in existing environments, and at the same time seek tactical opportunities to
benefit from SDN.
Avaya’s SDN Fx™ architecture has been designed to support these needs. It
combines the benefits of the standards-based Fabric Connect network
virtualization technology, removes traditional network complexity, and
automates, secures and virtualizes the core. The Fabric Attach capability
automates end-point connectivity at the edge, easing and accelerating
deployments even further. These capabilities increase reliability, shorten timeto-service and lower operational cost, freeing key staff to work on adding
initiatives that more directly benefit the business. SDN Fx’s “Enabled Edge”,
enables effective, relevant, and open SDN deployments. It allows customers to
benefit from the best of both worlds: the power of the open community and, in
Avaya, the support and consistency of an industry leader and innovator.
The Avaya Open Networking Adapter is a new class of networking product that
leverages open source to deliver deployment simplicity and operational agility.
Utilizing ONA, businesses can seamlessly transform conventional end-points
into intelligent network nodes; monitored and managed, their networking
capability administered and controlled centrally. This transition can empower
enhanced functionality and productivity.
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About Avaya
Avaya is a leading, global provider of customer and team engagement solutions and
services available in a variety of flexible on-premise and cloud deployment options.
Avaya’s fabric-based networking solutions help simplify and accelerate the deployment
of business critical applications and services. For more information, please visit
www.avaya.com.
© 2015 Avaya Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Avaya and the Avaya logo are trademarks of Avaya Inc. and are registered in the
United States and other countries. All other trademarks identified by ®, TM, or SM
are registered marks, trademarks, and service marks, respectively, of Avaya Inc.
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