Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (00:06):
Welcome everybody to MWC Barcelona 2025. My name is Aniel Jhingoerii and I want to thank you for joining us today for this fireside chat at the Radisys booth. We have a very interesting topic today we will talk about, and the title is a little bit cryptic "Unlocking the Future", but I promise you if you stated at the end it'll perfectly make sense, we will explain what it means and what the relevance of that is because we will talk about the partnership between Telefónica and Radisys and the introduction of Open Broadband and how open and disaggregated networks is being introduced at the journey. And most importantly, how this journey has laid the foundation for introducing new innovation and opening new opportunities for both companies. So we have an impressive panelist here today. Two of them, some industry experts. Let me introduce, we have Daniel Cortés. Daniel is the Fixed Access Network manager from Telefónica from the global CTIO team. Daniel, maybe first of all, a warm welcome to you and many thanks for joining us today.

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (01:23):
Thank you very much for the invitation.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (01:24):
And Daniel, maybe a couple of words about yourself and your background.

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (01:28):
Yeah, sure. I am fixed access network manager in Telefonica in the global networks and systems area. So we are responsible for defining the planning and technology in Telefonica for the whole group. This regarding or specifically more related to FTT H deployments and the network evolution for X-G-S-O-F-D point and all the ization of the network. I've been in Telefonica for 13 years already and expect to be a lot of more here. Thank you.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (02:00):
Thanks Daniel. And of course we have Rajesh Chundury who's a vice president, customer solutions at Radisys. Raj, thanks for joining and please share a little bit about yourself as well.

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (02:12):
Thank you Aniel Thank you very much. Hi, my name is Rajesh Chundury go by Raj and I've been with Radisys for about five years and I'm responsible for customer solutions and product management for parts of the broadband access portfolio. And prior to that I've spent 23 years with Ericsson. Today we're going to talk about our journey with Telefonica.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (02:32):
Thanks Raj. So yeah, let's get started. My first question is for you Daniel. So Telefonica has been an established global broadband player for many years and what role does the Telefonica Fix Network play in driving innovation?

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (02:50):
Well, first of all, Telefonica network has been started the deployment in 2018, so it's been almost already 20 years for the deployment of FTT eights networks. So as you can imagine, it is a very mature market. We have already passed more than 85 million home passed with fiber and we have connected more than 18 million customers. So as you can imagine, we have been doing this with a traditional architecture that we had in the past with our traditional partners. So it has been good and it has been fine for us and worked very well for us in the traditional ecosystem, in the traditional services of triple pulse services, internet voiceover, ip, IPTB. However, this ecosystem is a bit limited because we have hardware and software provided by the same partner. Every time we need to develop a new service, we have to rely on what they're delivering and we don't have the control of our technological roadmap, we don't have the control of what we want to deploy.

(03:51):
And right now we are entering in a new environment where all the services are demanded for our customers on real time, a lot of flexibility, new services all the time. So that's why we need to change our architecture to really take the most out of it. So we really need to change the architecture of the fixed access network so we can adapt for our customer needs and this is why we started the program, the open broadband program where we try or where we are already izing the network, disaggregating the software and the hardware of the lts and creating this new environment and this new architecture.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (04:31):
Perfect. So what specific objectives does Telefonica aim to achieve with the introduction of an open and desegregated network?

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (04:38):
The open BroadB consist of two parts. There's the ulti part where we are improving and enhancing our vendor map through this software desegregation because we can have new innovative partners and new innovative players so we can get new services and new applications on top of our fiber network. So on the one hand we enlarge our ecosystem so we don't have problems with business continuity and we have a more diverse supply chain, but also we improve it through this new series of innovative players. That's one part. On the other part, what we are changing as I was saying, is the architecture. The architecture, the fixed access, it is what we are already changing compared to what we have with the traditional vendors. We used to work in a closed environment where the OLT and the management systems were proprietary from our vendors and we needed to make proprietary interfaces and proprietary developments for our systems and for our services.

(05:44):
Whenever we need something with this new architecture, what we are going to make and what we are achieving is to introduce an abstraction layer for this lts network. So we can really have network programmability, we can really automate functions, we can really introduce new services on top of that as software modules instead of vendor proprietary solutions. So combining those two, what we really is our main or final target is to introduce innovation, to introduce these new partners so we can really deliver new services to our customers. For example, right now we are working in a couple of initiatives based on ai. One is regarding the anomaly detection for the network, which I've seen you already have it here or you're also working on that. And also with automatic traffic flow classification. So we are working on detecting the patterns of the service our customer has, for example a video call, video conference, gaming, whatever. So we can automatically prioritize, make low bandwidth for them and higher capability. So the final customer experience for these kind of services should be well almost perfect or perfect. So in the end, this is the main and final target to have this innovation for our customers and improve their customer experience.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (07:05):
Very nice, thanks. Thanks Danielle. So Raj, next question for you. Radis has been in the forefront of open broadband with its open and disaggregated network solutions from the very early days. Can you share a little bit about that journey?

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (07:21):
Absolutely. Thank you Neil. As Daniel explained, there are some fundamental reasons for why a lot of the operators have decided to start this journey sometime around 2018 timeframe. Daniel, what do you say?

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (07:35):
Yeah, sure.

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (07:36):
Yeah, thank you. So in the last six years, six plus or eight years or so, what we have seen is a community effort driven by Telefonica at and t, Dutch Telecom and vendors like Radis and a few others come together in a body called ONF Open Networking Foundation and really started to work towards the disaggregation of the PON controller from the OLT, from the OLT into a separate entity. Fast forward now about four or five years, the controller has been built as an open source controller from developers from all the operators and the vendors and now we have what we call as a functional virtual OLT system with walta software. And when we brought that to Telefonica and to our parent company Geo, they were truly excited in being able to see that yes, we now have a software stack that is desegregated from the hardware stack and now the question is how do we operationalize this In the operationalization process, we learned very quickly that it is fundamentally important to make sure that a lot of this new technology works very similarly to the old technology with the existing technology that you currently have.

(08:51):
So we took the controller, made it more performant and made it more able to run in smaller resources, put it right back on the OLT so it looks fields and runs like a traditional OLT, right? So the journey has been, we started off with the disaggregation, it works very well, but to get performance and scale we have to put the controller back on the OLT and then there's a journey that's going to come after this as well, right? But this is the journey so far, Anir.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (09:22):
Perfect. Thanks Raj. Daniel, I'm sure many service providers around the globe are looking at Telefonica as the leader for introducing open broadband. Can you explain us a little bit about your experience and that journey?

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (09:38):
Yeah, sure. It has been a very long journey indeed. As RA said, we started in 2018 with our first certify of fault desegregation. At that time it was only focused on the LT and we started receiving answers from all the market. It was really hard to find a solution that fitted well into our requirements and into what we need for our services and the network we had to develop jointly together and with a lot of effort, especially with RAs, and I thank a lot therefore you have been doing throughout these years because from the very first solution is in the market, even to the first solution that we saw and tested with Rassis to what we have today has nothing to do in terms of scale performance capability. So it has been a very long journey to make this and to get this solution, let me say up and running, ready for getting into the field and into our operation.

(10:44):
That was the first step, but later we needed to introduce in our obese, as you know we are working hard to introduce this solution in Brazil. We started focusing on Brazil because had the perfect scenario or the perfect match to do this. First of all, because it is a huge country, we still have a lot of deployment of fiber to do so that means a lot of greenfield deployment for introducing a new solution. So in that sense, that helps a lot to introduce a new solution. However, we are in the middle or besides we're in the middle of a network and system transformation in Brazil, which is fine on one side because of course we are going to have a new architecture, a new solution, a new provider in the end. So it makes sense to introduce with the latest system and the future systems that we want to have in our network.

(11:38):
But this also has or introduces a challenge because whenever we started this process, all the systems that we are deploying now, they were in existent. So we needed to encompass the deployment and the of these systems with the functionality and with integration of the old team that at first caused us several, as we say, challenge also with the teams, different projects with different priorities, different people. So it's hard to coordinate all that whenever we are introducing a new solution because you needed to work on the legacy systems in the LE C network architecture plus all the new feature and functionality of the future for our software and systems. However, with a lot of work and again effort from well from agilely together with radis, we are already seeing the light of the tunnel. We are already at the end of this process, we expect to start our FOA, which is our field test for authorization in plant for commercial deployment that will be happening in June this year. So we are already there

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (12:47):
Hopefully earlier,

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (12:48):
Hopefully earlier. And hopefully if nothing wrong happens that I'm sure it won't, we will be starting our commercial fully massive deployment in the second half of this year. So as I was saying, we are already there. It has been a very long journey, but finally I think we are already there.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (13:08):
Thanks. Thanks. So this has been a very collaborative effort from all of us. Raj, a question for you. We've been partnering with Telefonica for what, almost over five years.

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (13:19):
Five years, yes indeed. Yeah.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (13:20):
And making great progress, especially in this open and desegregated networking space. What are some of the joint learnings?

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (13:30):
I think Daniel highlighted them very well. The joint learnings were okay, you've got a functional stack. How do you now bring, operationalize this? As Daniel mentioned,

(13:45):
There are lots of Telefonica specific feature functionality that had to be implemented for example, how do you now bring that and how do you make sure that this new box that is based on merchant silicon hardware and open source software or open interfaces, all of this goodness is great, but how do you now bring it in to a network that is already providing services, operating millions of subscribers and introduce it without any disruption? So that required, as Daniel again said, two key things. One was the interoperability of our OT with the existing network elements within the Telefonica network. And number two, interoperability of our OTs with the existing O Ts that Telefonica has deployed across the country in Brazil, for example, right? So that was a key task that took us a while, but we got it done very quickly thanks to the software architecture.

(14:45):
The second big one was integration with the O-S-S-B-S-S stack Vivo Brazil Telefonica. They have an existing stack and they're now going to a new brand new Voices stack as well. We were asked to introduce for some aspects with the Old Voices stack and with some aspect into the new Voices stack, and that was the second learning that we did that once you get past the interoperability and the integration with SBSS, it is now a matter of deploying it and scaling it. And we have already run a friendly user trial today and it has been fantastic when it comes to the performance on par with the existing network elements.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (15:29):
So Raj, I'm staying with you for a while now. So we spoke about the background, the journey, what about the future of the open broadband ecosystem?

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (15:41):
Good question, Anil. Now you're asking me looking at the crystal ball here, but I'm sure I'm going to get some help from Daniel here and looking ahead together. I think the ability to offer a common set of services to all customers, I respect where they are, whether they are residential customers, business customers, common set of services, ubiquitously or a multi axis architecture wherein you use fiber for access or fixed wireless for access or you use fiber for backhaul or fixed wireless for backhaul, meaning these technologies will be used to help and support each other, have a multi access network or a common set of services, and these services can then be quickly or new services can be brought in quickly and delivered on demand for example. To me, those are some of the key objectives of what the operators want to achieve and what I see coming next,

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (16:43):
Daniel, my last question is for you. So how do you envision telefonica's network transformation in the coming years, especially when it comes to management and control and how does the open architecture fit into this vision?

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (16:59):
We are already working for Streams for the future network that should be coming in the next years. First of all, it's the pump technology, the pump technology as we consider as business as usual, we are right now deploying multi technology Ts, which has the ability of delivering PON and XG spon services over the same fiber. What we are already working is in the first prototype labs prototype samples in our lab for 50 PON technology. So if you ask me about the coming years, what I am expecting to achieve is 50 point deployments coexisting with deep O and xgs point over the same line with customers with the three technologies on top of that, that part it's the upon technology. Another part it's the vendor map. Through the open program program, as we have commented, you are already entering, finalizing the certifications, some obligations and so on.

(18:06):
So if we think about the coming years, what we expect is that you will be a fully integrated supplier or partner in the whole ecosystem of the group. So we shouldn't be talking about a new deployment, new greenfield or new partner. It should be a partner in the whole ecosystem of Telefonica in the coming years, fully integrated with our services, our network, and also delivering new capabilities for the network and for our customers. The other part, as RAs mentioned, and we are very focused on that, is the SDN controller and the evolution of how we control and abstract the network. Right now we still work with managing systems for the lts. However, what we expect and what we are working for is to have an SD N controller that it's able to abstract all network capabilities regardless the technology, if it's G point Xs or 50 point regardless, the kind of access, regardless the supplier, regardless the hardware that we will have there.

(19:13):
So in the end we will have an abstraction layer. So on top our systems will be an open interface and only single one interface. So whenever we develop a new service, a new integration with whoever or which new piece of software that we want to introduce in a new module always is going to be a single development, a single integration, and it will help also to enlarge our ecosystem with new partners for these specific software parts or software modules. And why all these three for the latest fourth, which is in the end the key of everything which is our customers. So we have to deliver use cases, we have to deliver new services to our customers because right now there are many new features on real time, on demand, low latency, high capacity that we are going to deploy and deliver to our customers. And as we were saying before, also new services based on ai. So this new ecosystem and this whole technology vendors and software defined network should be pointing to that. So in summary or the final stage, the final idea, it's all those four parts working together in a multi-vendor ecosystem with open interfaces where whenever we develop something from one supplier could work in the whole footprint and whichever the technologies below. So in the end it's like the final abstracted network in well for the service, for our customers and for delivery of new services.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (20:51):
Very cool. It looks like we are not done yet. We are just getting started.

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (20:56):
I think so

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (20:57):
Thanks Daniel. Are you guys okay to take some questions from the audience? Sure, yeah.

Audience Member 1 (21:04):
Hey Daniel, I have a question. Telefonica being like a leader on the transformation and the disaggregated and open architecture, how you see these architecture in a couple of years and how you see these adoption with the other service providers taking Telefonica as an example?

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (21:26):
Thank you. Good question. In fact, all the things that we are proposing and that we are working of course requires a lot of effort from us, from our partners, from everyone, but our identities a jointly vision for the whole industry and for the whole ISPs and for the whole networks. In the end, we have other initiatives like open gateway that we are working with other, with our service providers, and this is what we also expect with this because we need open interfaces. We cannot define open interfaces only by ourselves. We need the industry, the other operators and the other suppliers and partners to work with us on that. We need new services. Again, we cannot develop new services only on our own. We also need the help from you and from the whole industry. So in the end, it is a joint effort that I take advantage of your question to request the whole industry that we work together on that front and we can develop these new cases and help the ecosystem to grow in that sense.

Audience Member 2 (22:29):
There's a question for Raj. So Raj, you alluded to open interfaces, which have helped integration upwards with oss, BSS as well as with os. Could you throw some light on how it has really helped in interop with os? How many OS have you been able to interrupt with? How has that journey been?

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (22:49):
Thank you. Thank you for the question. That's a very, very important question. Daniel mentioned, and I'll pass Mike back to him as well, ensuring that there's no vendor lock-in, if I may, the ability for the operators to be able to use what they already have in the network in the ecosystem when they introduce a new network element is key. As you've outlined for Telefonica alone, I think we have done close to 15 plus different SKUs of O Ts that they have developed and designed for their own network across Brazil and as a vendor in this space, we have now interpreted with about a hundred different o ts and SKUs, our variance of O ts across the board. So this is a very big aspect of how these solutions that we have developed, software driven, disaggregated merchant, silicon based solutions can actually unlock the value of the existing infrastructure that the operators have. Daniel, would you like to add anything else here?

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (23:56):
Yes, because we already had interpretability with our entities and lts because we are or we have been developing our own CCPs and S from many years. At the very beginning it wasn't like that. And although we were working in a traditional environment and a traditional architecture, we managed, we were able to open this OMCI interface so we could really interpret the lts from our traditional partners with our own CCPs and anti devices. The main difference from the operator from our point of view is that whenever we needed to do that and when we started that process, it took months if not more than a year to get that interoperability with these 20 and cps. When we introduced this new software architecture and this new environment, it took weeks or a couple of months, but the timescale was reduced a lot. So of course you can get interoperability with both architectures, but the difference on the timing and how we got it, it's a big difference as you can see.

Rajesh Chundury, Radisys (25:01):
But I thought maybe we can just spend a couple of minutes on what we see when it comes to this new interest in ai. For example, Daniel touched upon it already and something I want to talk about here today is that generative AI has been a key part of being able to bring these technologies much closer for operationalization, as Daniel and I talked about earlier, right? It is very easy to get the functional stuff stack working. It's difficult, but it can be done. Question then is how do you operationalize it? How do you scale it, how do you deploy it? How do you make hundreds if not thousands of the engineers, network engineers and technicians come use these systems and learn the systems? Generative AI has been a key aspect and today we are demonstrating here at MWC, the ability to use gen AI to be able to learn how to use the system in a very transactional, conversational manner, right? I think that's going to be a key. And as Daniel pointed out, the ability to look at network data and predict what is coming and being able to then suggest or recommend what the operators can do now in order to avoid a network outage is the next aspect of the AI and ML track that we expect to bring here soon as well. Daniel, anything else you want to add on this one?

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (26:27):
Yeah, we are always thinking on news cases or if you make pain points of our network and we know that we need to improve, for example, in the detection of anomalies or failures in, for example, our AL plant, because in the active elements of LT T, it's active, you have alarms, you have something to work with. But for example, external plant, it's passive. You need something that helps you there and for example, that's one of the use cases that we believe ai, it's going to help us the same as I was saying before, as the traffic classification on real time. So later you can provide real or on demand, real time bandwidth, latency and so on. For our customers, there are many things that we can think as operators that we need and we want for our customers, but again, we need the help and the support of the industry of our partners to really develop those use cases and to really put it on top of our architecture and solutions so we can really take advantage of the fiber network that we are deploying and with the help of you and the rest of the industry, really take advantage of that and really exploit our capabilities in the network.

Aniel Jhingoeri, Radisys (27:44):
Perfect. Thanks a lot everybody, and I love the end statement. You gave some actions back to us and the industry and the ecosystem, so call to action. Thanks David. Thanks everybody for joining today.

Daniel Cortés Olmeda, Telefónica (27:55):
Thank you very much.