In pandemic times, there has been increased demand to support home workers, difficulties procuring network equipment due to semiconductor supply chain shortages, and concerns about adequate on-site staffing to test and deploy new equipment. Making the best possible use of assets by running the network “hotter” is a growing solution for alleviating these issues and helping increase profitability by curtailing CapEx spending.
Segment routing with a WAN SDN controller helps operators dynamically optimize resource utilization and reduce network CapEx by tapping into wasted capacity that’s often hidden because of over-provisioning to meet peak demand. Together, segment routing and software-defined networking (SDN) automate service path placement that meets bandwidth-on-demand requirements in several ways.
Leveraging real-time visibility into networkwide utilization
Automating path computation to avoid congestion
Automating the provisioning and optimization of traffic-engineered/Label-Switched Paths (LSPs) based on utilization levels
These processes unlock available capacity in the network by using advanced algorithms for path placement and continuous optimization. Combining them with analytics to drive software-defined control enables the network to automatically avoid congestion.