ONF releases SEBA reference design v2.0

MENLO PARK, Calif. -  Today the Open Networking Foundation announced the release of version 2 of the SEBA (SDN-Enabled Broadband Access) Reference Design (RD) specification. This RD was authored and is backed by multiple tier 1 operators, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, NTT and Türk Telekom, with contributions from ONF supply chain partners Ciena, Radisys and Netsia. 

ONF Reference Designs are blueprints championed by operators defining how to assemble various open multi-vendor solutions.  The SEBA RD defines how operators are choosing to architect and consume open broadband solutions, and this new version of SEBA RD adds substantially to this architectural definition, building on the production deployment experience that has been gained by both Deutsche Telekom and Türk Telekom.

“The software-defined approach of Deutsche Telekom’s Access 4.0 platform is based on ONF’s SEBA 2.0 architecture.  Access 4.0 represents a major milestone in the evolution of our broadband network leveraging a disaggregated architecture, open source and multi-vendor components that provides operational efficiencies while reducing hardware costs for delivery of FTTx services,” said Jochen Appel, VP, Tribe Leader Fixed & Mobile Data Platforms for Deutsche Telekom.

“We anticipate that the ONF SEBA platform, where operators and vendors contribute to development, will be one of the most important fixed access technologies of the future. We are pleased to announce that the detailed customer tests of our ONF-based SEBA product, which we produced last year with the support of NETSIA, have been successfully completed, and now we are in a phase of commercial deployments. Surely SEBA, which goes beyond being a concept technology, will have an important place in the sector by reducing investment costs in the near future.” Said Yusuf Kıraç, Chief Technology Officer for Türk Telekom.

The SEBA RD version 2.0 describes the SEBA exemplar platform, specifying a common architecture to meet the network and feature needs of multiple operator scenarios. The RD provides a high-level architecture with well-defined APIs, giving guidance on technology choices to implement software-defined, disaggregated broadband access solutions leveraging open hardware and modular software - including open source components. SEBA RD v2.0 builds upon the SEBA RD v1.0 (released to the public in March 2019), adding new features and functional enhancements. The major feature enhancements in SEBA RD version 2.0 include:

• Broadband Network Gateway (BNG)
• Per-OLT VOLTHA Stack Model for Scaling
• Detailed NBI APIs for POD, OLT, ONT, Service Management
• Device Management (DM) Specification

The new SEBA RD v2.0 enhances BNG functionality by defining three main interfaces between the control and user planes of the subscriber-facing function of BNG - the BNG Service Edge (BNG-SE). Moreover, three options are introduced to implement BNG Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS) in the SEBA reference platform.

SEBA RD v2.0 adds support for horizontal scaling of VOLTHA stacks, each stack consisting of OLT related components. Each stack uses the same common infrastructure of storage, message bus and SDN controller. Each instance of the stack supports the deployment of a single OLT, and as new OLTs are required, additional VOLTHA stacks are instantiated per OLT.

SEBA RD v2.0 offers an enhanced Northbound API (NBI), adding new services for POD, OLT, ONT, and Service Management. The SEBA RD defines more than 40 NBI API calls, with input/output parameters, on this standardized SEBA NBI.

Finally, SEBA RD v2.0 introduces the Device Management (DM) functionality supported by a lightweight DM interface openly defined by the ONF community. The SEBA high level architecture is also updated to include the new DM interface as well as the DM functionality in NEM, in order to have an end-to-end management solution for the OLTs and aggregation switches. 

Click here to download the SEBA Reference Design v2.0.