MEF, formerly known as the Metro Ethernet Forum, has announced that it is extending its work to standardize SD-WAN managed services.
The industry consortium said it is defining SD-WAN service terminology, components, and implementations around its existing LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) Reference Architecture and Framework (MEF 55), which provides APIs for consistency of performance, policy and security of SD-WAN services orchestrated across multiple provider networks.
To ensure that LSO APIs can enable orchestration of SD-WAN managed services across multi-provider and multi-vendor implementations, the MEF community has formulated six major SD-WAN managed services use cases as part of its OpenCS (Open Connectivity Services) SD-WAN Project.
The OpenCS SD-WAN project also will deliver a set of LSO APIs to enable consistent SD-WAN assurance, application performance, and security policies, which include telemetry data feeding back into LSO analytic platforms for various AI automated use cases.
Companies leading the OpenCS SD-WAN project include Riverbed, VeloCloud Networks, while Amartus, Cox, Fujitsu Network Communications, GBI, Huawei, and Nokia/Nuage also contributed. Meanwhile, Silver Peak and Versa Networks have recently joined as MEF members to contribute to the SD-WAN work as well.
Further, MEF will promote its position on SD-WAN and how it aligns with other initiatives focused on orchestrated Layer 1-7 services enabled by LSO APIs through the recently created SD-WAN Market Education Project. MEF will provide educational materials such as white papers, webinars, workshops and use cases.