Orange OBS has unveiled Network on demand, a service entity offering businesses on-demand bandwidth for Ethernet intersite links across France. The pitch is simple: adjust the bandwidth between private datacenters without requiring on-site changes, then return to nominal capacity on demand.
The mechanism is built around a configurable control interface, plus NFV orchestration in Oranges network coreso the bandwidth changes are intended to be operational quickly.
Network on demand: bandwidth changes between private sites, on minutes timing
Network on demand is designed to let customers adapt the bandwidth of Ethernet links between their private datacenters, whether those datacenters sit inside the enterprise, run in a colocation center such as Equinix, or are hosted by an infrastructure cloud provider such as AWS. Orange positions the offering as unique in France.
Orange says customers can access technical parameters through a user-friendly configuration interface. That includes available bandwidth per site, reserved bit rates, and link capacity for the already built connection. When customers decide to increase bandwidth, the service is intended to become operational in a few minutes.
Pricing behavior is also part of the control model. Customers can increase bandwidth while checking up to what level the price remains unchanged, or approve a higher bit rate in exchange for an increase in price. Orange further states that customers can revert to the nominal bit rate whenever they want, after about one hour if desired.
How Orange says it works: NFV orchestration and a microservices core
Orange links the ability to dynamically adjust bandwidth to NFV orchestration tools integrated in its network core. In particular, Orange relies on the Ciena Blue Planet architecture based on microservices.
Oranges own director of Orange Connectivity & Workspace Services within OBS, Franck Morales, said Orange had attempted developing comparable services using a pure chain of IT commands, but found that approach too complex.
Morales also provided an implementation constraint for the underlying physical build: when OBS delivers a 300 Mbit/s link, Orange says it builds it on a medium that supports up to 1 Gbit/s.
Tested use cases: backup links, production-line bursts, and occasional video
Orange says Network on demand was developed with OBS customers and tested by a bank to optimize operations of its backup connectivity for outages. In the described pattern, the backup link is normally unused and kept at minimal bandwidth, then pushed to its maximum physical capacity if an issue occurs on the primary link.
Beyond resilience scenarios, Orange describes operational bursts. The flexibility could be used to update the robots on a production line at an industrial site when that precise moment requires large bandwidth. Orange also points to occasional video transmission as another example, such as when a VIP visits a site.
Where it sits vs Flexible SD-WAN: SD-WAN level 2 vs routing at level 3
Orange frames Network on demand as complementary to its Flexible SD-WAN offering. Orange says Network on demand works at SD-WAN level 2, while Flexible SD-WAN optimizes routing at level 3.
On the technical stance, Orange describes Network on demand as guaranteeing bandwidth without modifications on site. For Flexible SD-WAN, Orange describes intelligent routing that uses fixed and mobile networks to ensure application performance, with QoS predetermined by the customer.
Flexible SD-WAN also has deployment dependencies: Orange says it requires a device on site or the presence of modules using Universal CPE.