Broadband Forum initiates Broadband Network Gateway Disaggregation project for flexible network scalability

New project addresses traffic management challenges created by rise in customer bandwidth demand driven by video consumption

Warsaw, Poland, 25 March 2019: A new project designed to facilitate Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) scalability by creating a more agile architecture has been launched by Broadband Forum.

The Broadband Forum’s BNG Disaggregation project addresses the increased bandwidth demands being placed on BNGs – a result of the exponential growth in broadband demand and acceleration in video consumption across devices, as well as the incorporation of additional bandwidth-hungry functionalities. BNG Disaggregation also simplifies network operation, as without it operators are forced to deploy and manage multiple BNGs across numerous locations closer to the network edge to address load spreading.

These factors have created challenges in control plane and user plane scaling, as well as geographical-related issues such as fragmented IP pool management, under-utilized control plane and complex operation and management for software upgrades and service provisioning.

To solve these challenges, BNG Disaggregation will define the architecture and requirements for a disaggregated BNG control plane and user plane which separates the control plane and data plane. This will bring benefits such as centralized locations for configuration and IP address management, leading to faster delivery of new services. The work will also ensure the control plane and user plane can be easily scaled according to customer demand.

"As demand for both broadband and bandwidth-hungry video applications grows, the disaggregation of the BNG for scalablity is critical to mitigate issues created by distributed BNG deployments," says Kevin Foster, Chairman of Broadband Forum. "Over the years, BNGs have also had to evolve to support new functionalities such as management of multiple types of accesses, transport encapsulations and customers. This work will ensure flexible scalability through a simplified and agile architecture."