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 design this off-the-shelf solution, which can serve as a virtual broadband network gateway (vBNG), accelerating time to market while delivering excellent performance.

QCT has become familiar with several Intel workload-optimized technologies, such as SR-IOV and Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK), from its close partnership with Intel. Based on that knowledge, QCT designed QuantaGrid D52BQ-2U with an optimized configuration (see Table 1). Certified as an Intel Select Solutions for NFVI Forwarding Platform (NFVI FP), this solution features NUMA-balanced, NFV-ready, DPDK-enabled features and has been certified on Red Hat enterprise Linux and OpenStack Platforms.

Based on the testing scripts of Intel Selection Solutions for NFVI Forwarding Platform, QCT recorded approximately 172 Gbps of IPoE traffic throughput with no packet loss on QuantaGrid D52BQ-2U while the overall server power consumption was less than 438 W. Also, based on layer 3 forwarding, QuantaGrid D52BQ-2U reach 90% line rate with 256-byte packets. The above testing metrics confirmed the capability of QuantaGrid D52BQ-2U to handle vBNG workloads. Thus, QuantaGrid D52BQ-2U is a ready-to-go solution with the best-fit system and configuration for service providers planning to deploy NFV environments.