AWS recently announced the new service AWS Telco Network Builder (TNB), which enables customers to deploy, run, and scale telco networks on AWS infrastructure. It is designed for communication service providers (CSPs) who want to use AWS for their 5G networks.
AWS TNB offers a simplified solution for creating and scaling a telco network in the cloud, eliminating the laborious task of deploying hundreds of network functions (NFs) and managing separate monitoring tools. It supports telecom industry standards such as ETSI NFV MANO, 3GPP, and TM Forum. In addition, it integrates with AWS services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon VPC and can be deployed on networks on-premises or in AWS regions.
Furthermore, some of the other characteristics of AWS TNB are automation of the network deployment process using templates that map to network services and a centralized dashboard to monitor and manage the network performance and resources.
Source: https://aws.amazon.com/tnb/
According to the documentation, customers have various options to create, access, and manage their AWS TNB resources, including:
- An AWS TNB Console - a web-based interface allowing users to manage their network using an intuitive graphical user interface.
- An AWS TNB API that provides a RESTful API enabling users to perform AWS TNB actions programmatically.
- The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), which offers a command-line interface for a broad range of AWS services, including AWS TNB.
- AWS SDKs providing language-specific APIs that simplify connecting to AWS TNB. The SDKs handle tasks like calculating signatures, request retries, and error handling.
Jeff Barr, a chief evangelist at AWS, states in an AWS news blog post on TNB:
Today, CSPs often deploy their code to virtual machines. However, as they look to the future, they are looking for additional flexibility and are increasingly making use of containers. AWS TNB is intended to be a part of this transition, and makes use of Kubernetes and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) for packaging and deployment.
In addition, Jan Hofmeyr, vice-president of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), pointed out the critical value of TNB for customers in an Amazon press release:
AWS Telco Network Builder removes the burden of translating a customer’s desired telco network into a cloud architecture, empowering them to easily modernize and quickly scale to meet demand while freeing time and capital to build new offerings, expand coverage, and refocus on invention.
Currently, AWS Telco Network Builder is available in the following AWS regions: US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Europe (Frankfurt), and Europe (Paris), with availability in additional AWS regions coming soon.
Lastly, AWS TNB pricing is determined by the number of Network Functions managed and the calls to the TNB APIs. However, the first 45,000 API requests per month per AWS region incur no charges. In addition, there are extra fees for any AWS resources generated during deployment. More details of TNB are available on the pricing page.
