Brocade vEPC
The First Full-Function, Cloud-based Virtual Evolved Packet Core

Features:

Innovative Architecture

Brocade has transformed the old, physical node-based, vertical architecture into a service-based, horizontal architecture consisting of independent interface, service logic, database, and management modules. This holistic approach to functional virtualization optimizes performance and efficiency—compared to the traditional approach of replicating existing physical nodes as a software asset—and is the fundamental difference between Brocade vEPC and other virtualized products. By leveraging this innovative architecture, Brocade vEPC provides a robust, high-performance, scalable, and fault-tolerant solution capable of supporting diverse use cases (see Figure 1).

Optimized for Processing Transactions and Sessions

The Brocade vEPC framework provides control plane and user plane separation, with each plane functioning and scaling independently and elastically according to the respective load factor. With this framework, Brocade vEPC is optimized for processing control plane transactions and user plane session data.

On-Demand, Granular Scalability

Brocade vEPC components are fully distributed and tiered by function, such as signaling, interface, service logic, and data management. This servicebased modular design—combined with the vEPC’s stateless nature and “share nothing” design—allows unlimited scalability in each tier. It also offers separation of concerns, resulting in high cohesion and low coupling. Each service can scale out and scale in according to the required capacity demand for that specific service. This on-demand, granular scalability eliminates the need for long-range advance budget planning and expensive overprovisioning.

An Open, Highly Flexible Solution

Brocade vEPC leverages proven industry tools, software, and best practices to provide an open and highly flexible solution. Using off-the-shelf hardware and standard operating systems (Linux), Brocade vEPC is designed for maximum interoperability, allowing seamless integration with third-party tools for extended functionality.

Higher Service Velocity

As an open solution, Brocade vEPC can provide higher service velocity than traditional physical node-based architectures, which are far more rigid and complex. Its service-based, modular design, combined with open API support, enables organizations to quickly create and implement new features for maximum business agility. Organizations can add infrastructure to support new users or new services in just days instead of months. The fully virtualized deployment allows organizations to grow their mobile networks at market speed.

Support for Various Deployment Options

The hardware-centric approach of traditional EPC infrastructure has forced service providers to create expensive, large-capacity nodes that are costprohibitive to deploy in a distributed manner. Brocade vEPC decouples network function from hardware to provide a service-based, modular design that includes control plane and user plane separation. This approach allows for a distributed deployment that is aligned with security, backhaul, and an organization’s business model.

Built-in Load Balancing

Brocade vEPC provides a configuration tool to set the criteria and threshold for instantiating more VMs to run vEPC modules. These criteria include CPU usage, memory usage, the number of queues in the system, and the number of incoming requests. The Brocade vEPC uses intelligent logic in configuring the threshold to prevent the “ping pong” effect of instantiating and removing VMs. Once Brocade vEPC detects that the value(s) for the criteria has passed the threshold, it instantiates particular VMs to support the demand. The added VMs participate in the corresponding cluster without requiring any additional configuration. Internal load balancing within the clusters helps ensure that each VM is optimally loaded based on the capacity it can support.

Streamlined Management and Orchestration

Brocade vEPC provides all aspects of fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security information to an external orchestrator and/or NMS using various APIs, including REST, SNMP, XML, and CLI. It also can work with multiple industry-leading orchestrators across a range of fields and environments.

Maximum Reliability

Each component of Brocade vEPC is designed for high availability and has no single point of failure. A well-distributed deployment of multiple instances of Virtual Network Function Component (VNFC) VMs at each tier allows clusters to detect a failure and route subsequent requests to available instances. Brocade vEPC can detect and address a failure at the process, network interface, VM, and server level. Each VNFC VM is modeled to support 99.999 percent availability.

High Performance

Brocade vEPC is a software-based, fully virtualized packet core and is not bound to any proprietary hardware. Its capacity and performance depend mainly on the number of cores. It supports linear scalability to meet any capacity and performance requirement, allowing service providers to deploy Brocade vEPC in various use cases (see Table 1).

	21 cores*	36 cores*	54 cores*
Control Plane Performance
Simultaneous Attached Users (SAUs)	1 million	2 million	3 million
Number of bearers	1.2 million	2.4 million	3.6 million
Attaches per second	3,500	7,000	10,500
Data Plane Performance
Throughput† (Gbps)	10	20	30

Notes:
* Physical cores.
† Throughput measured with IMIX traffic

Brocade Global Services

Brocade Global Services has the expertise to help organizations build scalable, efficient cloud infrastructures. Leveraging 20 years of expertise in storage, networking, and virtualization, Brocade Global Services delivers worldclass professional services, technical support, and education services, enabling organizations to maximize their Brocade investments, accelerate new technology deployments, and optimize the performance of networking infrastructures.

Affordable Acquisition Options

Brocade Capital Solutions helps organizations easily address their IT requirements by offering flexible network acquisition and support alternatives. Organizations can select from purchase, lease, Brocade Network Subscription, and Brocade Subscription Plus options to align network acquisition with their unique capital requirements and risk profiles.

Maximizing Investments

To help optimize technology investments, Brocade and its partners offer complete solutions that include professional services, technical support, and education.

Deployment:

Figure 1: Brocade vEPC Logical Architecture

Specifications:

Documentation:

Download the Brocade vEPC Datasheet(PDF).