QCT Premier Intel Select Solutions

Along with the transition of communication service providers (CSP) from proprietary single-function appliances to network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined network (SDN), platform integration and acceleration have become increasingly critical. QCT created a new server architecture and adopted the Intel® Select Solutions configuration to enhance the original NFVI solution design. The new solution focusses on enhanced packet processing use cases including 4G or 5G core User Plane Functions (UPF), and broadband use cases, such as virtual Broadband Network Gateway (vBNG) which have a great demand for high performance and throughput.

QCT designed the QuantaGrid D53XQ-2U with a workload-optimized configuration (see Table 1) based on close partnership with Intel and a deep understanding of Intel developed technologies such as SR-IOV and Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK). Verified as an Intel® Select Solution for NFVI Forwarding Platform (NFVI FP) v2, this solution features NUMA-balanced, NFV-ready, DPDK-enabled features, and the Hardware has been certified on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenStack Platforms to enable the Control Plane and User Plane Separation (CUPS) that aids in fully utilizing the CPUs.

Based on the testing scripts of Intel® Select Solutions for NFVI Forwarding Platform v2, QCT tested the number of vBNG Instances up to 16, and the test recorded approximately 385Gbps of IPoE and PPPoE traffic throughput with no packet loss on QuantaGrid D53XQ-2U, while the overall server power consumption was less than 325 W. Moreover, based on DPDK L3 forwarding, QuantaGrid D53XQ-2U reach 90% line rate with 256-byte packets. The above testing metrics confirmed the capability of QuantaGrid D53XQ-2U to efficiently handle vBNG workloads. Thus, QuantaGrid D53XQ-2U is a ready-to-go solution with the best-fit system and configuration for service providers planning to deploy NFV environments.