Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (00:08):
Hi, I am Tony Poulos and I'm at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Today I have with me a very special panel powered by Tech Mahindra, and we're going to be talking about transformation in transport networks, IP and optical convergence. In particular, I have with me today Gaurav Sehgal, who is the vice president and head of Europe for network services and 5G at Tech Mahindra. Welcome Gaurav. Next to him I have Alex Foster, who is the senior director of partner managed services at Cisco. Welcome, Alex. And last but certainly not least Nitish Nanda, who is the VP of core and transport at Tech Mahindra. Gentlemen, welcome. Let's get right into the subject because it's quite a heavy one to cover today. Firstly Nitish, I'm going to start with you. How important is transport modernization for transfer service providers and what are the key tenants to achieve it?

Nitish Nanda, Tech Mahindra (00:59):
Sure. I think that is one of, as we move to 5G now, and that is the buzzword which we see from a couple of years back. Now the discussion is moving more towards AI and six G, but 5G monetization is still important, right? And to have that monetization, you need to upgrade the network. On the network side, there is obligation needed with regards to the kind of bandwidth needed coming from your RAN and also at the core side, but the transport needs to handle this bandwidth also on the latency part. And then automation of all these network functions. So I think a lot of modernization is needed on transport to achieve this. And what makes it even a bit more complex is the fact that transport is not virtualized. Your RAN and core can get virtualized and it makes it easier, but transport is not virtualized. So I think what we are seeing, the IP optical convergence part, yeah, IP optical convergence part becomes important. The SDN part of it, where your data pane and your control pane is bifurcated, that becomes very important. And apart from that, as I mentioned, the bandwidth increase on the bandwidth side coming from ran, everything has to be 10 gig. Your core has to be more than like a hundred gig, 400 gig. So all of those modernization aspects and tenants become very, very important.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:18):
Alex, would you agree with that from a Cisco point of view?

Alex Foster, Cisco (02:21):
Absolutely. I mean, I think transport is the foundation that the B2B services are built on that ultimately drive modernization for the provider. And I think if you look at it, there's really three themes that I see in provider modernization of the transport layer. One is around agility. How do I get more dynamic provisioning capabilities, more ability to drive rich services efficiently. The second one around sustainability, certainly as you look at converging these two platforms into Ron, you get the ability to take out a duplicative layer, which has huge benefits in terms of power efficiency, space consumed, et cetera. And then the third is really efficiency for how I deliver services. So there are tremendous opportunities I see operators advantage of to be able to compress the provisioning cycle to be able to tie in the provisioning of the IP layer at the same time to have a common platform. And then of course, the efficiencies around supply chain sparing a single layer that they can drive with routed optical networking convergence. So a lot of opportunity there for the operators that I see them seizing.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (03:20):
Well, in what ways this partnership between Tech Mahinda and Cisco assisting service providers in modernizing and simplifying their transport networks? How are you going about that?

Gaurav Sehgal, Tech Mahindra (03:31):
Yeah, thank you so much. So basically what we are doing here is that Cisco is building great stacks, great technologies, but at the end you want a partner who understands the complete plan, design, implementation and managed services. Part of that, what customers today need is a very fully automated, a fully modular solution, and hence, which has to work and the up times needs to be met, hence a partnership is becoming very, very important. More importantly, we have built a automation stack called NetOps ai, which kind integrates downstream with all the different components of Cisco technology, be it ip, be transport optical as well. And that becoming is more like a single pane of glass, right from day zero, day one and day two. It's a complete lifecycle management of the complete modernized transport networks is what we are helping our customers to go after.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (04:17):
Now, I'm also interested in what's happening in the Brownfield area because given that Brownfield have a multi-vendor transport ecosystem, and it's usually very diverse as well, how do you see the adoption of transport SDN in those environments?

Gaurav Sehgal, Tech Mahindra (04:33):
I think pretty much because what's really happening is that all the Brownfield operators may have, let's say a third party components. And we as TE chem really bring a lot of value in third party integrations. So adaptor being built for a customized, let's say third party Juniper, Huawei, Sienna, and Cisco as well. So customer sees TE Chem as an agnostic si, which works with different OEMs like Cisco as well as a partner and brings a complete integrated solution stack for them. So I think this is very, very relevant and in more so in brownfield opportunities where you need to have it has to be run across IP and optical.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (05:07):
It's very challenging. Isn't it also for you Cisco, I'd imagine, because you're up across it as well with your equipment partnering with others within the Brownfield environment?

Alex Foster, Cisco (05:15):
Absolutely. And so we've built in capabilities in the crosswalks automation platform that are able to handle third party optical layers. We also have very robust capabilities at the assurance layer that are supporting multiple vendors. And then of course we have our NSO platform. That's the automation layer for the ip. And I think this is really where a lot of the value in the partnership with Tech Mahindra is. There's a number of different components that ultimately have to come together to be able to deliver those B2B services on top. And when you also look at the assurance layer, there's some very unique things that can be done tying in assurance across the stack and making a more compelling proposition for the SP to their enterprise customers to give that end-to-end visibility. So lots of opportunities for Tech Mahindra in this space to be able to help us tie all that together and add the NetOps AI platform capabilities on top of it.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (06:03):
Well, while I've got you on that subject, how prepared is Cisco in the IP optical convergence market, and what are the new innovations as part of those solutions? Because you must be coming up with stuff constantly to keep up, and how has the partnership in Cisco and Tech Mahindra expected to benefit those customers?

Alex Foster, Cisco (06:19):
Absolutely. So I think we're incredibly prepared. This is a market transition. We've been driving from the beginning. We spent over 6 billion in acquisitions in this space. We're currently the leading provider of coherent ports, so we have a market share leadership, and then I think some of the investments we've made in other areas like Exceed Dion and Skylight to be able to drive assurance on top of this are very powerful for our customers. And then of course, most importantly, one of the key benefits here is really building on top of the foundation we built with iOS XR is our IP routing platform. So you really as an operator and as an ecosystem partner for Tech Mahindra gaining all the technology advantages from that IP routing layer and now able to apply that to the optical layer in a very seamless way. So lots of innovation in this space. We recently launched our ability to also have a simplified module for dark fiber for enterprise customers, many of which will I think ultimately consume tech Mahindra managed services to be able to have a very simple way to provide Ron over dark fiber without the need for a lot of the intermediate components that have historically been in those networks.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (07:23):
It sounds like almost the perfect marriage already, but let me come back to you for a moment. nid, what are the key challenges and considerations in transitioning to the transport SDN for the service providers with those Brownfield networks and how can they effectively manage the coexistence of legacy and SDN enabled infrastructure?

Nitish Nanda, Tech Mahindra (07:43):
I think that is a very relevant question. More so because a lot of it is legacy technology. So the service providers are used to having their IP and optical networks completely separate, and both of them are being managed completely separately. All the work being done, there is two different, very different teams. Investment are completely different. That is how the thought process is for CSPs. So for them to first accept that now with SDN and for example, with the product, the Cisco on product, which is there, it is market leading, there is a possibility to bring these two domains together. I think that mindset change itself, we have seen it is taking a bit of time, they're opening up to it, and just as a couple of our customers move into this direction, we see this moving very fast in the industry.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (08:39):
That's quite a challenge indeed, I would think, and convincing them, and also look co, I'm going to come back to you for a moment. Can you provide insights into the specific benefits and use cases of IP converged solutions in those brownfield networks and how Tech Mahinda and Cisco's partnership facilitates the adoption and integration of those solutions?

Gaurav Sehgal, Tech Mahindra (08:59):
I think most importantly, for example, IP and Optical always have two different departments, so from people, processes and stacks. Now what's going to happen is that once you converge both these things together, you have convergence of people, culture, behavior and the future technology adoption.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (09:14):
Does that become the biggest challenge?

Gaurav Sehgal, Tech Mahindra (09:16):
Biggest challenge, because it's all about people, right? At the end. If you have great skill sets, how do you manage them? How do you run the governance around that? That becomes a real key for any success. That is one. Second is the moment you put an IEP or an optical de card in an IP router of Cisco, you save 40% power savings because you're one single form factor doing both IP and convergence, it's a clear direct opex benefit for any operator. So people, culture, technology is something which is very, very relevant. Now, challenges, obviously the change mindset, number one. Number two, adaptation is not easy, and the IOT is between Multi-vendor is obviously complex, but if you do it right with the right adaptation, right skill sets, I personally believe we have seen a lot of success. We have customers who have developed even open daylight based microwave SDNs. They are customers who are deploying the multi-vendor M DSOs for the transport layer. I see a very significant advantage of having IP optical converged in the near term.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (10:11):
Alex, come back to you. Hearing all that, what's the value that Tech Mahindra brings to the partnership to you?

Alex Foster, Cisco (10:17):
Yeah, well, there's certainly a cultural transformation element, as GRA alluded to, so certainly that's an area that they're very well equipped to drive in these operators. There's also a significant amount of managed services being provided to the operator to help them with the technology transition, and most importantly, integrating the service delivery in terms of the automation, the systems and platforms, which I think is always one of the things that's the long pole in the tent for operators to get the value and the agility that they're looking for out of this. Really being able to compress that time and be able to unlock the ability to more dynamically provision new services in a much more agile way.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (10:51):
Well, gentlemen, I'd like to thank you very much because you've opened my eyes up to something I didn't realize was such an issue in terms of the departments getting back together or working together, but it's something we've had to live with in the telecoms industry for many, many years. Thank you Nitish. Thank you, Alex, and thank you Gaurav for being with me today. Thank you so much.

Gaurav Sehgal, Tech Mahindra (11:07):
Thank you.

Alex Foster, Cisco (11:08):
Thank you.

Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (11:08):
Thank you all.