The MEF has published what it says is the industry's first standard defining SD-WAN service and its service attributes. The MEF 70 standard was officially approved by MEF members and ratified by the MEF Board of Directors at the organization’s recent Annual Members Meeting.
SD-WAN service standardization has been conducted within the context of the MEF 3.0 Global Services Framework. This is a broader initiative to define and certify a family of dynamic Carrier Ethernet, Optical Transport, IP, SD-WAN, and security services orchestrated across automated networks using Lifecycle Service Orchestration APIs.
SD-WAN standardization has included contributions from Nokia's Nuage Networks, Fujitsu Network Communications, Amdocs, Ceragon, Cisco, Colt, Futurewei, Silver Peak, TDS Telecom, Verizon, and other MEF member companies.
The standard describes requirements for an application-aware, over-the-top WAN connectivity service that uses policies to determine how application flows are directed over multiple underlay networks irrespective of the underlay technologies or service providers who deliver them. Elements defined include:
- Service attributes that describe the externally visible behavior of an SD-WAN service as experienced by the subscriber.
- Rules associated with how traffic is handled.
- Key technical concepts and definitions like an SD-WAN UNI, the SD-WAN Edge, SD-WAN Tunnel Virtual Connections, SD-WAN Virtual Connection End Points, and underlay connectivity services.
The standard is expected to help the industry develop and market the services better. It should pave the way for creation and implementation of certified MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services, which will give users confidence that a service meets a fundamental set of requirements.
MEF already has begun work on the next phase of SD-WAN standardization – MEF 70.1. This includes defining service attributes for application flow performance and business importance, SD-WAN service topology and connectivity and underlay connectivity service parameters.
