The global communication infrastructure has created a new market of digital services in which people and organizations can expose digital assets, which can be rapidly combined with partner assets to create new, more useful, and more interesting services. But, to capture the digital market opportunity, both telecom networks and support systems – OSS/BSS – need to gear up. The key to success in the digital market is the ability to adapt, and true business agility requires flexibility in terms of networks, services, and customers. The combination of SDN and NFV plays a key role in gearing up support systems for business agility. Apart from decoupling services from resources, together SDN and NFV enable life cycle management to be detached from physical constraints. Today, for example, it is possible to provision an SDN/NFV service instantaneously without the need to deploy new physical resources. This flexibility is the foundation of network agility. However, one of the most significant challenges for operators and service providers today is time to market (TTM). Traditionally, TTM has been about putting services into the hands of paying users as quickly as possible. Today, TTM is about reacting quickly to the rapidly changing needs of the modern user. Support systems – OSS/BSS – naturally play a key role in automating the different workflows, as ideas for new services move from concept to implementation and into operation. The concepts of SDN, NFV, the virtual data center and rapid adaption to changing consumer needs form the pillars upon which network, service and customer agility are built. This Ericsson Review article describes how support systems – OSS/BSS – need to be geared up for these disruptive technologies to increase the level of flexibility in networks.

1. The communications technology journal since 1924
Gearing up support systems for software
defined and virtualized networks
June 5, 2015
2015 • 5

2. CARLOS BRAVO, FRANCESCO CARUSO, CHRISTIAN OLROG, MALGORZATA SVENSSON, AND ANDRÁS VALKÓ
Gearing up support systems for software
defined and virtualized networks
The business environment of operators and service providers is going through a fundamental
transformation. By 2020, more than half1
of the envisioned 50 billion devices will already be
connected. And while the ever-expanding use of connectivity presents a major growth opportunity,
it also creates new and tougher demands on networks – and particularly on the processes for
managing users and devices.
The key to success in the digi-
tal market is the ability to adapt, and
true business agility (illustrated in
Figure 1) requires flexibility in all
three dimensions: networks, services,
andcustomers.
Networkagility
Cloud, SDN and NFV are key elements
ofnetworkagility:thecapabilitytoeffi-
ciently plan and build networks, adapt
them to changing requirements, and
providesuperiorservicequality.
Serviceagility
The keys to achieving service agility
are: the ability to create new services
rapidly, to launch and deliver superior-­
qualityserviceswithease,andtobeable
to­monetizethem.
Customeragility
The keys to achieving customer agility
are:theabilitytointeractwithconsum-
ersinawaythatisflexibleanddynamic,
the ability to expose new services, and
the means to proactively resolve prob-
lemsorreacttoissuesrapidly.
Networkagility
BothSDNandNFVplaykeyrolesingear-
ing up to the level of network agility
needed to explore the opportunities
and address the challenges presented
by the Networked Society and the digi-
taleconomy.
The concept of network virtualiza-
tion – providing physical network
resources as virtualized entities – has
alreadybeensuccessfullyappliedtotele-
com networks. Examples of this type
of network partitioning include VPNs
Gearingup
Businessagilityisonewaytorespondto
the trends of digitalization and pressed
profit margins. By being able to apply
technologies that increase the level of
flexibility in networks, operators and
serviceproviderscangearupfromdeliv-
eringnetworkinfrastructuretobecom-
ingprovidersofinnovationplatforms.
To do this, valuable assets (like net-
work infrastructure, the subscriber
base, user identities, security creden-
tials,locationandmobilityinformation,
service and product catalogs, charging
andbillingfunctions,connecteddevice
identities, and many more capabilities
that can be used to create digital ser-
vices)needtobeleveragedinnewways.
In the digital economy, only a few
players will own all the assets that are
needed to create attractive services.
Typically, assets from different players
will be combined dynamically in col-
laborativeorganizations.Operatorswill
blend their capabilities together with
partner assets to expose novel services.
Theresult:innovation,mashedservices,
andhighlysatisfiedusers.
BOX A Terms and abbreviations
API application programming interface
ETSI European Telecommunications
Standards Institute
NF network function
NFV Network Functions Virtualization
NFVI Network Function Virtual Infrastructure
OSS/BSS operations support systems/business
support systems
PNF physical network function
SDN software-defined networking
SE service enablement
SOA service-oriented architecture
TTM time to market
vApp virtual appliance
vDC virtual data center
VIM Virtual Infrastructure Management
VNF Virtual Network Function
Parallel to the connectivity
revolution, the digital economy
has triggered a transformation
in the way services are produced
and consumed. Enabled by
the global communication
infrastructure, a new market
of digital services is emerging.
In this market, people and
organizations can expose their
digital assets, which can be
rapidly combined with partner
assets to create new, more useful,
and more interesting services.
Communication networks have a key
responsibility: to provide the ­platform
that enables the digital market to con-
tinuetodevelop.This­responsibilitypres-
entsoperatorsandserviceproviderswith
a unique opportunity. However, this
opportunity is offset by the challenges
ofpricepressureaswellastheperceived
commoditizationofnetworks.
So, to capture the digital market
opportunity, both telecom networks
and support systems – OSS/BSS – need
togearup.
2
ERICSSON REVIEW • JUNE 5, 2015
The agile network

3. and VLANs. In 2012, a group of service
providers launched the NFV initiative.
Their aim was to apply best practices
from the IT industry – as it virtualized
data centers and server rooms – to the
telecom domain. In other words, how
cannetworkelementsbevirtualizedso
that the maximum benefit from com-
modity-computingtechnologiescanbe
achieved,whileimprovingserviceagil-
ity and service efficiency at the same
time?TheshortanswerisNFVandSDN.
NFV
Fromatechnicalpointofview,NFVpro-
motes the decoupling of network func-
tions (NFs) from hardware. By applying
virtualization technologies, the soft-
ware of network functions can be bro-
ken apart from hardware appliances.
In turn, this separation unleashes mas-
sive flexibility in terms of how NFs can
be dynamically deployed, elastically
resized, and offered on an on-demand
basis. Some of the potential benefits
of this flexibility are reduced cost and
lower power consumption, but gains
can also be made in terms of increased
speedandefficiencyinthedeployment
oftelecomnetworks.
SDN
SDN provides the ability to program-
maticallydefineandmanagenetworks,
whichenablesthecomplexityofunder-
lying implementation to be abstracted
from the applications that run on the
network and consume resources. From
a technical point of view, SDN enables
separation of the data plane from the
controlplane.
Service providers typically use SDN
totakeaholisticviewoftheirnetworks,
applying SDN concepts across network
layers and domains, which in turn
enablesend-to-endprogrammabilty.
SDNandNFVtogether
Originally, the aim of combining NFV
and SDN was to decouple services from
resources, but when these two tech-
nologies come together, they provide
the additional benefit of detaching life
cycle management from physical con-
straints.Today,itispossibletoprovision
an SDN/NFV service instantaneously
without the need to deploy new physi-
calresources.Thisflexibilityisthefoun-
dationofnetworkagility.
Serviceagility
At Ericsson, OSS/BSS are designed
according to a functional decomposi-
tion of network architecture domains
thatnativelyaccountforSDNandNFV.
Similar to network agility, SDN and
NFV play key roles in gearing up the
levelofserviceagility.
Figure 2 shows the OSS/BSS and ser-
vice enablement (SE) architecture for
SDN/NFV-enabled networks. The dia-
gram highlights the main functional
blocks: OSS/BSS and SE, network func-
tions, equipment (representing the col-
lection of physical resources), the cloud
systeminfrastructure,andtransport.
Figure 2 OSS/BSS architecture for
SDN/NFV-enablednetworks
An NF can be supported by native
(non-virtualized, physical NF) or by
virtual (a virtualized application or a
virtualized NF) resources. From a man-
agementpointofview,NFsaregoverned
acrosstwoorthogonalplanes:
thenetworkfunctiondomain
managementplane–illustratedasNF
domainmanagementinFigure 2;and
thesupportingresourcesmanagement
plane–illustratedasvAppmanagement,
inFigure 2.
TheNFdomain-managementplanesup-
ports operational needs of NFs, such as
fault management, performance man-
agement and specific configuration for
NFs; while vApp management handles
resources required by a network func-
tionthroughoutitslifecycle.
The cloud-system-infrastructure func-
tion aggregates and manages virtual
resources (see Box B) across different
instances and technologies, offered by
cloud system infrastructures (in ETSI
terminologyNFVI+VIM).
Cloud deployments often span sev-
eral different physical sites joined
through a connectivity fabric, which
mayhaveaseparatemanagementfunc-
tion.Thisfabric,illustratedbytransport
inFigure 2,canbeorchestratedtogether
with the resource infrastructure using
SDN,effectivelyimplementingavDC(or
a virtual resource slice) that provides a
networkservice–seeBox C.
The functions in the OSS/BSS and SE
planeare:
experienceandassurance–offering
serviceassurance;
customerandpartnerinteraction–
enablingbothpartiestointeractwith
supportsystemsthroughmultiple
communicationchannels;
ordermanagement;
revenuemanagement–providing
Customer/partner management
and interaction
MAKE IT
EASY
MAKE IT
BETTER
MAKE IT
ACTIONABLE
MAKE IT
ACCESSIBLE
MAKE IT
PAY
MAKE IT
HAPPEN
MAKE IT
REAL
MAKE IT
WORK
Experience-to-
resolution
Service-to-
cash
Lead-to-
service
Idea-to-
implementation
Data-to-experience
Customer agility
Service agility
Network agility
Network and cloud management
Plan-to-
provision
FIGURE 1 Business agility
A virtual
resource is an
abstraction
of a physical
resource –
compute,
storage, or
network.
Virtual
resources
can be shared
among
multiple
consumers in
such a way that
they appear to
be dedicated.
BOX B
Virtual
resource
3
ERICSSON REVIEW • JUNE 5, 2015

4. withotherassetsintoproductofferings.
Thesesupportsystemsalsohandleprod-
uct life cycle management, the capa-
bility to charge for products, and the
process for exposing products to users
andpartners.
However, one of the most significant
challengesforoperatorsandservicepro-
viders today is time to market (TTM).
One way to shorten the time from con-
cept to delivery is to have a good under-
standing of business processes, so that
thelevelofautomationinprocessescan
be raised. By having well-documented
businessprocesses,preconfiguredsolu-
tionsandsuitescanbedelivered,which
inturnenablesadditionalbusinesspro-
cess innovation and increased speed
when introducing new offerings, all
while maintaining flexibility and the
abilitytointegrate.
As SDN and NFV facilitate new ser-
vices, these technologies have greatest
impact on the business processes that
liebetweentheformationofanideaand
its implementation – such as planning,
designanddeployment.
Figure 3illustratessomeoftheactiv-
ities included in the ideas-to-imple-
mentation process. It shows a possible
scenarioforcreatingaproductoffering
from the services and resources man-
agedbyseveralfunctionaldomains.
WithinOSS/BSS,thekeylogicalfunc-
tion of the idea-to-implementation
process is the business logic creation
environment, which is illustrated in
Figure 3. Resource and service specifi-
cations as well as product offerings are
created in this environment, which all
resultinaproductcatalogentry.
The idea-to-implementation process
can be broken down into a number of
specificationphases:networkfunction,
resource,andservicespecification.
Networkfunctionspecification
Domainmanagementusestheinforma-
tion provided in the NF specification to
buildtheresourcesneededtoconstruct
the desired services. In some cases, this
is a ready-to-use specification provided
bytheNFvendor.
Resourcespecifications
The virtual infrastructure resources
neededbytheNFsthatthecloudsystem
infrastructure will expose need to be
specified.Theseresourcesaredescribed
thecapabilitiestochargeandinvoicefor
anytypeofproductorserviceusage;
resourcemanagement–providinga
unifiedresourceinventoryforboth
virtualandphysicalresources;
serviceinventory;
customer/partnermanagement;
enterprisecatalog–consistingof
products,servicesandresources;and
serviceenablement–providingservice
exposurecapabilitiestopartnersfor
serviceinnovation.
The OSS/BSS and SE plane in SDN/NFV-
enabled networks provides capabilities
to introduce new virtual NFs or vApps
progressively. In other words, new vir-
tualNFsorvAppscanbeinstantiatedin
adedicatedslice(seeBox C)calledtrial.
At the same time, an instance of the
same NF can be executing in another
slice – called production. The redirec-
tionofusersfromtheoldtothenewNF/
applicationcanbecarriedoutgradually,
with minimum impact, and managed
programmaticallyinawaythatistrans-
parenttousersoftheservice.
Rapidbusinessinnovation
Support systems – OSS/BSS – provide
the necessary functions to encapsulate
SDN/NFV services and combine them
OSS/BSSandSE
Network
function
Cloud system
infrastructure
Transport
Equipment
Experience
assurance
Enterprise
catalog
Customer
partner
interaction
Customer
partner
management
Order
management
NF domain
management
Non-
virtualized
application
System
infra-
structure
Transport
SDN-CSDN-CSDN-C
Virtualized
application
Transport
domain
management
vApp
management
Cloud SI
management
Revenue
management
Resource
management
Service
inventory
Service
enablement
FIGURE 2 OSS/BSS architecture for SDN/NFV-enabled networks
A vDC is an instance of a data center operated on a per-tenant basis, with flexible
network topology and basic services – compute, network, and storage – as well
as more complex ones such as firewalling and load balancing. A vDC may span
multiple physical data centers or be constrained to a subset of the infrastructure
within a single DC.
A virtual resource slice, referred to as a slice, is an isolated view of the virtual
resources – a vDC in other words.
A network service (NS) is composed of VNFs, PNFs, virtual links and VNF
forwarding graphs that support the communication service.
BOX C Virtual data centers (vDCs), slices and network services
4
ERICSSON REVIEW • JUNE 5, 2015
The agile network

5. usingvDCandvApptemplates,andmay
beprovidedbythevendor.
Servicespecification
Describes how transport service con-
nectivitycouldalsobeexposedandbun-
dled together with the target services
definedbythemarket’sneedsintoprod-
uct offerings. These product offerings
maybetargetedtoanysegment,suchas
media providers or health care provid-
ers. The service specification includes
characteristics that define specifics of
the service in relation to requirements
ofthetargetsegment.
The catalog-driven approach facil-
itates onboarding of new services,
throughsimplemodelingbasedonprin-
ciples like modularity for defining ser-
vicesandreusabilitytoconstructricher
and aggregated services and product
offerings. It is one of the main pillars
oftheideas-to-implementationprocess,
complemented by ease of integration
through standard interfaces and pre-
integration and automation of the end-
to-endprocesses.
Instantlyavailableservices
Virtualizationofnetworkfunctionsand
the decoupling of software from hard-
wareenablefullautomationofthelead-
to-service process (shown in Figure 4)
acrossfunctionaldomains.Automating
this process includes instantiation of
the entire software stack of NFs that
are encapsulated in a service, reducing
time from order to service activation,
and improving resource utilization –
as resources become allocated shortly
beforeuse.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA)
and innovative micro-services provide
programmable interfaces designed
according to well-established industry
standards and make major contribu-
tions to orchestration and automation.
They are some of the key architecture
principles, which together with a com-
moninformationmodelexposeservices
usingAPIs,enablingeaseofintegration
– as described in a previous Ericsson
Review article2
. These key principles
allow the instantiation of NFs and the
resources needed. They facilitate the
creation of product offerings from ser-
vicesandresourcesdefinedindifferent
domains–OSS/BSS,transport,cloudsys-
teminfrastructure,andIT.
FIGURE 3 Idea to implementation
Business
logic
creation
environment
OSS/BSS
Network
function
Cloud system
infrastructure
Transport ITAccess
Resource
spec
Read
resource
spec
Service
spec
Read
service
spec
Define
service
spec
........
.......
.......
........
.......
.......
Assurance
logic
spec
Charging
logic
spec
Add
assurance
logic
Customer
segment
spec
Add
customer
segment
Product
offering
Publish
product
offering
Service
enablement
Domain
management
Customer
management
Cloud SI
domain
management
Resource
inventory
Service
inventory
Service
catalog
Product
catalog
Add
charging
logic
Orchestration
creation environment
Orchestration
execution
OSS/BSS
Network
function
Cloud system
infrastructure
Transport ITAccess
........
.......
.......
Handle
customer
order
Handle
customer
request
Handle
service
order
Activate
resources
Service
enablement
Domain
management
Domain
management
Service
catalog
Product
catalog
Resource
order
Cloud SI
domain
management
Customer
interaction
Customer
order
Product
order
Service
order
FIGURE 4 Lead to service
5
ERICSSON REVIEW • JUNE 5, 2015

6. Customeragility
Similar to network and service agility,
SDN and NFV play key roles in gearing
upthelevelofcustomeragility.
In the digital economy, the role of
partnerships and ecosystems is more
significant than traditional econo-
mies. Digitalized businesses collab-
orate more, and combine their assets
together with partner assets to provide
customerswiththebestservices.Inthis
environment, new ways that enable
mashedofferings,serviceexposure,and
blendedservicesareneeded.
Service enablement, as shown in
Figure 2,includesthefunctionsneeded
to enable operators and service provid-
erstomonetizetheirassetsandconnect
toothers.
Service exposure, one of the core
functions within SE, provides access to
networkcapabilitiesexposedbytheser-
vicedevelopmentenvironmentthrough
programmable interfaces. Exposure
enables developers – either at the oper-
ator, a partner or a 3PP – to design and
composeinnovativeservices.
Support systems – OSS/BSS – provide
the capabilities to manage partners
and developers, to handle all commu-
nication channels, and to organize the
administrationofproductsandservices.
TechnologieslikeSDNandOpenStack
providedeveloperswithprogrammable
interfaces, which can be used together
with OSS/BSS capabilities so that new
services can be deployed and executed
inisolatedvirtualenvironments.
In addition to exposing network pro-
grammability through OpenStack and
OpenDaylight APIs, developers have
accesstootherservicesandcapabilities
like user identification, charging and
network policies, and configuration
informationtoprogramNFs.
Newbusinessopportunities
The virtualization of NFs enables oper-
ators and service providers to develop
new services for traditional segments,
as well as providing the possibility to
enter new markets. For example, virtu-
alization enables bundles that include
connectivity services to be mashed
with value-add services and exposed in
a one-stop-shop fashion, which can be
created and offered to various indus-
tryverticals.
Traditionally, a connectivity services
offeringforindustryverticalstendspro-
vide network connectivity optimized
for the specific vertical. In a virtual-
izedenvironment,optimizationissim-
plified, as NFs can be instantiated for
a particular vertical, as illustrated in
Figure 5.
This illustration shows how NFs and
supportsystemsinteract.NFsenablethe
connectivity to connect everything in
the network together – such as mobile
phones and other handheld devices, as
well as cars, and health care and trans-
portation equipment. And the support
systems – OSS/BSS – manage the NFs
andtranslatetheircapabilitiesintotan-
gibleservicesthatcanbeofferedtoany
industry vertical through operator and
serviceprovidercapabilities.
Operationalsimplicityandefficiency
Software-defined networking usually
refers to the unbundling or separation
of the control plane and the forward-
ingplaneofnetworkelements.Itcanbe
solvedinmanyways,andOpenFlowisa
commonlyusedprotocol.Traditionally,
management functions have typically
interacted with interfaces exposed by
the control plane but with SDN, the
separated forwarding plane becomes a
managedentityinitself.
The separation SDN provides results
in fewer control planes; this in turn
makes it easier to align the different
types and versions of control planes
andraisesthebarfortheleastcommon
denominator of functionality. Taken to
the extreme, this concept results in a
single SDN controller being sufficient,
and so provides the benefits associated
withreducednetworkcomplexity.
FIGURE 5 Providing new services with NFV
Instance 4
Instance 3
Instance 2
OSS/BSS
Network functions
Health care
provider
Media
provider
Media
provider
Any industry
verticle
EPC-4 HSS-4
IMS-3EPC-3
RAN
HSS-3
IMS-2EPC-2 HSS-2
Instance 1
EPC-1 HSS-1
The agile network
6
ERICSSON REVIEW • JUNE 5, 2015
The agile network

7. unified model promoting reuse, auto-
mation,speedandcorrectness.
The concepts of the virtual data cen-
ter (vDC) and the virtual resource slice
enable services to be deployed in paral-
lel,andincontrolledisolation.Thistype
of parallel deployment adds flexibility
– because it, for example, enables oper-
atorsandserviceproviderstorundiffer-
entversionsofmulti-tenantappliances,
whichcanbedimensionedondemand,
andenablesservicestobepersonalized.
Theabilitytoimprovespeedandcor-
rectness is a key ingredient of innova-
tion. By containing risk and ensuring
failures are detected early (failing fast),
operatorsandserviceproviderscantest
more concepts, and do this not just for
services and applications, but also for
differentmarketsegments.
The concept of time to market is
changing.Traditionally,TTMwasabout
getting a version of a service into the
hands of paying customers as quickly
While SDN is not a prerequisite for
efficient reconfiguration of network
resources, it does provide a solid foun-
dationfornetworkagility.Forexample,
separation has already led to improve-
mentsandnewforwardingservicepar-
adigmslikeservicechaining3,4
.
Operational efficiency – not just for
the single service but the entire deliv-
ery operation – is greatly enhanced by
implementing an SDN fabric that sup-
ports dynamic, automated and model-
driven reconfiguration. Furthermore,
whenapplicationsareaddedtotheSDN
controller dynamically, the possibil-
ity to perform dynamic protocol ana-
lytics increases, which in turn eases
troubleshooting.
InanNFVcontext,bothSDNcontrol-
lers and forwarding elements can be
deployed as Virtual Network Functions
(VNFs). Typically, hypervisors already
include a software-defined forwarding
functionthatisSDNcapable,whichcan
work in conjunction with physical for-
wardingelements.
InnovationinSDNnetworks
One of the primary reasons to shift to
SDNisthepotentialincreaseinflexibil-
ityandagility.However,itdoesnotnec-
essarily follow that the introduction of
a given technology automatically leads
to improved agility and more stream-
lined operations. Typically, the adop-
tion of a new technical model follows a
hype curve – adoption takes place once
business value has been identified, and
proper abstractions are in place to sim-
plifytheapplicationofthetechnology.
InapreviousEricssonReviewarticle,
the concept of Service Provider SDN4
was coined. This concept takes a holis-
ticviewofSDN,extendingitbeyondthe
data center to include abstractions that
enable services to be built that leverage
allthefunctionsoftheentirenetwork.
ShiftingtoSDN/NFV
By nature, SDN and NFV are disruptive
technologies, and as such, tend to fos-
ter rapid innovation. They bring about
changes that fundamentally alter the
traditional way networks have been
managedanddeveloped.
As enablers of automation, NFV
and SDN make full use of one of the
key architectural OSS/BSS principles –
a ­catalog-driven approach based on a
as possible. Today, TTM is about how
quickly the changing needs of modern
consumers can be detected, and how
quicklytheycanbereactedto.
The OSS and BSS naturally play a key
role in enabling the operation of this
new paradigm. Automating the dif-
ferent flows required, from the idea of
the new service to the implementation
and operation of it, ensures operators
andserviceprovidersareinfullcontrol
of their network and services, and are
empowered to act on insights and how
theyareused.
TheconceptsofSDN,NFVandthevir-
tual data center, as well as rapid adap-
tiontochangingconsumerneeds,form
thepillarsuponwhichnetwork,service
andcustomeragilityarebuilt.
FIGURE 6 Software-defined networking
Operator A Operator B
OSS/BSS
SDN app
SDN app
specific
API
Root SDN
controller
Child SDN
controller
Forwarding
element
Router
OSPF
(for example)
BGP
(for example)
Data plane
SDN controller
management i/f
Transport
management i/f
Transport
management
i/f
Settlement
Element
management i/f
Peer
routing
domain
Peer
OSS/BSS
7
ERICSSON REVIEW • JUNE 5, 2015

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Carlos Bravo
is portfolio sales support
director and principal architect
in cloud and SDN at Business
Unit Support Solutions at
Ericsson. He has over 15 years’
experience with operation and maintenance
systems and processes and systems
integration. He joined Ericsson in 2000 and
has worked in all stages of product life cycle
in Ericsson, from design to delivery and
execution. He holds an M.Sc. in telematics
engineering from the Higher Technical
School of Engineering (ETSI), Seville, Spain.
András Valkó
is responsible for architecture
and technology within Ericsson
OSS Portolio and Solutions. He
has nearly 20 years’ experience
in the telecom industry, mostly
within the area of network management and
OSS, with a focus on service assurance,
analytics, performance management,
automation, and self-organizing networks.
He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and
has a technical research background.
Before his current assignment, he was head
of Customer Experience Management and
Analytics, and previously led the Ericsson
Research unit for network management and
OSS/BSS.
Malgorzata Svensson
is an expert and OSS/BSS
chief architect at Business Unit
Support Solutions at Ericsson.
She has over 15 years’
experience with operation and
business support systems. She joined
Ericsson in 1996 and has been involved in
research and development in areas ranging
from revenue management, IMS, analytics,
cloud and SDN.
1. Ericsson, June 2015, Mobility Report,
available at: http://www.ericsson.com/
mobility-report
2. Ericsson, 2014, Ericsson Review,
Architecture evolution for automation and
network programmability, available at:
http://www.ericsson.com/news/141128-
er-architecture-evolution_244099435_c
3. ETSI, 2014, Group Specification,
Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV);
Architectural Framework, available at:
http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gs/
NFV/001_099/002/01.02.01_60/gs_
NFV002v010201p.pdf
4. Ericsson, 2014, Ericsson Review,
Software-defined networking: the
service provider perspective, available
at: http://www.ericsson.com/
news/130221-software-defined-
networking-the-service-provider-
perspective_244129229_c
References
Francesco Caruso
is an expert in cloud
architecture and management
at Group Function Technology.
He joined Ericsson in 2012 from
Telcordia Technologies, where
he was director of the Enterprise Integration
Group. He championed the internal cloud
program to transition OSS to the cloud
environment and to extend OSS into the
cloud-management domain. He has more
than 20 years’ expertise in the telecom OSS
domain and holds an M.Sc. in computer
science from the University of Pisa, Italy.
Christian Olrog
is an expert in cloud service
delivery architecture and chief
architect at Business Unit
Support Solutions at Ericsson.
He joined the department of
New and Special Business Operations at
Ericsson in 1999 and has been involved in
research and development in areas ranging
from wireless LAN standardization and IP
security to embedded devices and
enterprise applications. He holds an M.Sc. in
physics from KTH Royal Institute of
Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the
colleagues who have contributed to
this article: Lars Angelin, Henrik Basilier
Jan Friman Ignacio Más, and John Quilty.