Ra’anana Israel – DriveNets – a leader in cloud-native networking solutions – is currently transporting more than 52% of the core network traffic on AT&T’s North American network, according to a blog posted on AT&T’s website January 26, 2023. The deployment of DriveNets Network Cloud has provided the software-based core routing solution for AT&T’s network since 2020.

AT&T says that more than half of its production traffic is now migrated to its next-gen core routers, which use a distributed disaggregated chassis (DDC) design powered by DriveNets’ Network Cloud DNOS software. The company says it is now exploring a path to scale the system to 500Tbps and then expand to 900Tbps.

In the blog post, AT&T says it has been on a network transformation journey moving the control of the network from hardware to software and looking beyond the conventional way of using proprietary, “locked” equipment from a single vendor to a more open, white box-based system. DriveNets Network Cloud is part of AT&T’s disaggregated network program which enabled AT&T to be more efficient with their 5G and Fiber rollouts, while minimising their cost and increasing network traffic loads. The company cites that their next-gen network exceeded their expectations.

“Being entrusted with AT&T’s core network traffic – and delivering on our performance, reliability and service availability commitments to AT&T– demonstrates our solution’s strengths in meeting the needs of the most demanding service providers in the world,” said Ido Susan, DriveNets founder and CEO. “We look forward to continuing our work with AT&T as they continue to scale their next-gen networks.”

The adoption of cloud-native disaggregated networks among service providers is growing as they get more experienced with the new networking model. According to leading system integrator KGPCo, such networks can actually be simpler, faster and more cost-effective to deploy and operate than traditional networks.

“KGPCo is a leading Systems Integrator to service providers. Our partnership with DriveNets, deploying its Network Cloud solution on service providers’ networks, resulted in large operational improvements, including 50% reduction in planning time, 40% improvement in order-to-service time, 30% reduction in installation time and 40% in integration time, and 30% lower scaling costs,” said Paul Schultz, KGPCo Vice President, Solutions Architecture. “KGPCo’s deployment of DriveNets solution at AT&T shows that the technology can not only scale, but also deliver outstanding results.”

DriveNets Network Cloud offers extreme capacity and scale for networking service providers and cloud hyperscalers. It supports core, aggregation, edge, and peering network services, and runs over scalable physical clusters ranging from 4Tbps (single box) to 800Tbps over a cluster of white boxes acting as a single router entity. This model is designed to offer both network scaling flexibility, like cloud architectures, as well as the ability to add new service offerings and scale them efficiently across the entire network.