CableLabs SNAPS: What it is, What it Aims to Do

What is SNAPS?

SNAPS is the acronym for CableLabs’ SDN/ NFV Application and Development Platform and OpenStack project. It is being developed to accelerate the adoption of network virtualization.

Intraway and Casa Systems’ collaborative PoC facilitates multi-level orchestration of virtual Converged Cable Access Platform (vCCAP) and Remote PHY over a virtual network infrastructure. Learn more here.

Why Is Network Virtualization Important?

According to CableLabs, network virtualization provides the ability to simulate a hardware platform with software. In software development, network virtualization gives developers the opportunity to test new applications in a virtual environment prior to their release, in order to ensure that the application runs as it should. It also allows for developers to create new automation capabilities to meet the growing demands of consumers for self-service offerings tailored to meet their personal needs.

Some of the benefits of SNAPS include:

• Increasing access to a reliable and cost-effective platform via the public OpenStack project.
• Transparent APIs for various infrastructure.
• The ability for members to run their entire Virtualized Infrastructure Manager on the platform.
• Eliminating the need for a physical converged cable access platform, offering a virtualized one instead, increasing cost and power savings.
• Providing shorter development times and faster field tests and live deployments for engineers.
• Reducing traffic on the core network.

SNAPS-OO

The goals of the SNAPS project were moved further forward with the announcement of SNAPS-OO in 2017. The OO stands for Object Oriented. For this portion of the project, CableLabs collaborated with Linux’s Open Platform for NVF project so that service providers and network vendors could work together to discover new capabilities and increase the adoption of Network Function Virtualization. SNAPS-OO provides further benefits, such as ease of use for new developers, example applications and test suites, access to secured clouds, and quick identification of component failures.

Latest Developments

On August 1, Intraway — along with Casa Systems — announced that they have been working to validate the efforts of SNAPS and OpenStack and advance the cause through multi-level orchestration of a virtual converged cable access platform (vCCAP) and remote PHY over a virtual network infrastructure. This collaboration addresses a big challenge for cable operators: infrastructure elasticity.

As published on Fiercetelecom.com, “while virtual CCAP and remote PHY aren’t new concepts, Casa and Intraway’s proof-of-concept (POC) demo is notable because it uses CableLabs’ SNAPS (SDN/NFV Application Development Platform and Stack Project) to further cable’s virtualization efforts.”

According to Intraway’s CTO, Steve Marsh, the interface between Symphonica Orchestrator and Casa’s AxyomTM vCCAP will simplify decentralized platform installation and setup, and complex fulfillment flows needed to deploy and configure vCCAPs and RPDs to allow for one-time automation that can be run anywhere.

In addition to NFV, the multi-level orchestration of a virtual network infrastructure provided by Intraway also supports Distributed Access Architectures (DAAs). Symphonica Orchestrator has been deployed by several providers in Latin America, with GPON, business, wireless and LTE use cases.

The demonstration, which debuted at CableLabs’ summer conference on August 6, was developed over the past two months at CableLabs’ Kyrio labs.

CableLabs has provided two new iterations of its SNAPS project: SNAPS-BOOT, which prepares servers for OpenStack with a single command; and SNAPS OpenStack, which will bring up OpenStack on running servers.

CableLabs states that the future endeavors of the SNAPS project include making servers more robust and stable, and ultimately to shape the world of serverless computing to serve the cable industry.

Intraway and Casa Systems’ collaborative PoC facilitates multi-level orchestration of virtual Converged Cable Access Platform (vCCAP) and Remote PHY over a virtual network infrastructure. Learn more here.