Turkcell picks TIP for distributed backbone router

Turkcell, a fixed and mobile services provider in Turkey, has deployed a Disaggregated Distributed Backbone Router (DDBR) Internet Gateway solution in its production network, the first such deployment in TIP.

The DDBR solution, consisting of Drivenets Network Operating System (DNOS) software with UfiSpace and Edgecore Networks hardware, has given Turkcell the capability to scale the solution's capacity up to 192 Tbps in its Gebze datacenter.

DDBR is an operator driven initiative developed by TIP’s Open Optical and Transport (OOPT) Project Group that defines the requirements of an open and disaggregated solution for core routing applications such as Provider Backbone and Peering. With its unique architecture, DDBR allows operators the flexibility to select their desired whitebox hardware and software combinations that best fits their requirements. The ability to “right-size” initial DDBR deployments also allows for operators to optimize their costs with a Pay-As-You-Grow model, whilst also providing a path to scale the capacity of the solution seamlessly.

Gediz Sezgin, CTO of Turkcell said: “The deployment of the TIP DDBR solution is the first of its kind in the world and will deliver cost-effective and reliable connectivity for all our customers by its unique distributed model. We would like to thank TIP, Drivenets, Edgecore Networks and UfiSpace who contributed to this success.“

Hanson Tuang, Connectivity and Ecosystems Manager, Meta said: “The ability to finely tune deployments without sacrificing the ability to scale is important for CSPs. DDBR is a significant step in the transformation of core routing solutions from monolithic to distributed architectures and gives CSPs a greater level of control on optimizing their costs.”

Ido Susan, CEO and Co-Founder, Drivenets said:” DriveNets is proud to take part in the introduction of DDBR based routing solutions to the Turkcell production network. The TIP definitions of DDBR standardized, disaggregated networking into an easily consumable infrastructure which can be purposed to serve multiple routing and other network function use cases as the Turkcell network further evolves”

Vincent Ho, CEO of UfiSpace said: “Turkcell is pushing the boundaries of innovation with their digitization efforts and it is important that they have a supportive and flexible network infrastructure to enable the development of new 5G services, we are both humbled and excited that Turkcell has completed their validation of UfiSpace’s open core routers integrated with DriveNets DNOS and we are confident that our solution will be able to allow Turkcell to implement a more resilient core backbone network.”

DriveNets is a fast-growing software company that builds networks like clouds. It offers communications service providers and cloud providers a radical new way to build networks, detaching network growth from network cost and increasing network profitability.

Founded by Ido Susan and Hillel Kobrinsky, two successful telco entrepreneurs, DriveNets Network Cloud is the leading open disaggregated networking solution based on cloud-native software running over standard white boxes.

UfiSpace is a provider for end-to-end 5G networking solutions for telecommunication companies, cloud service providers and data centers. Through passion, dedication, and engineering excellence, our innovative 5G technologies has led to worldwide deployments of our disaggregated cell site gateway routers (DCSG) and the world's first Distributed Disaggregated Chassis (DDC) routing system for a disaggregated IP/MPLS backbone.

Turkcell is a digital operator headquartered in Turkey, serving its customers with its unique portfolio of digital services along with voice, messaging, data and IPTV services on its mobile and fixed networks. Turkcell Group companies operate in 4 countries – Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, and Northern Cyprus.

Turkcell launched LTE services in its home country on April 1st, 2016, employing LTE-Advanced and 3 carrier aggregation technologies in 81 cities. Turkcell offers up to 10 Gbps fiber internet speed with its FTTH services.

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations that are driving infrastructure solutions to advance global connectivity.

Half of the world’s population is still not connected to the internet, and for those who are, connectivity is often insufficient. This limits access to the multitude of consumer and commercial benefits provided by the internet, thereby impacting GDP growth globally. However, a lack of flexibility in the current solutions – exacerbated by a limited choice in technology providers – makes it challenging for operators to efficiently build and upgrade networks.

Founded in 2016, TIP is a community of diverse members that includes hundreds of companies – from service providers and technology partners to systems integrators and other connectivity stakeholders. We are working together to develop, test and deploy open, disaggregated, and standards-based solutions that deliver the high-quality connectivity that the world needs – now and in the decades to come.