The Taub Faculty of Computer Science Events and Talks

Wireless networks are the most important assets in our industry, yet the problem is that we are building new networks the same way we built our previous networks. Capacity is planned in advance per service; to handle peek traffic and to add new capacity takes time and investment of dedicated equipment. We have no elasticity as demand grows, on average the service is grossly underutilized though also over utilized at specific times of day or geographic locations, and we can't share capacity across service domains. Engineering and maintaining this network complexity is time consuming, costly, and typically reactionary. To add to these complexities, throw in the need to manage Wi-Fi networks and the growth of adding metro/small cells and you start to realize that delivering a compelling customer and network experience is in fact impossible with the way we build today's networks. Add to that, the pressure for profitability and we have the most challenging situation the Telecommunication industry has been faced with in a long time.

In this talk an innovative re-thinking of the network will be introduced, mobile as well as fixed, that will be characterized, among others, by the removal of the walls between network services and network infrastructure, by a significant OPEX reduction, and by network elasticity and scalability for answering unexpected demands. Moreover, we will show why most of the Communication Service Providers worldwide, and Sprint in particular, have decide to build their own Carrier Cloud Infrastructure and how they are changing the way they operate and manage their own networks.

The near future of a virtualized communication will be comprised of combining networks and smart distributed cloud infrastructure (Carrier Cloud Foundation) with many applications that will be delivered, as services, on such foundations. Networks are to become software-driven and network elements are planning to be transformed so that they can take advantage of cloud infrastructure that is part of both foundations and applications. The networks of tomorrow that realizes these capabilities will be flexible enough to manage capacity in real-time based on a variety of factors such as cost, customer priority and application characteristics in order to maximize customer lifetime value and satisfaction. Building such a solution provides our industry with smarter networks as well as the entire Networks/IT support systems (e.g., OSS, BSS) that can be truly leveraged as a platform for create real differentiation.

Bio: As the CTO for Virtual Telecommunications David Amzallag is responsible for the design, development, business transformation and the delivery of the entire Alcatel-Lucent's vision for Cloud Solutions and Virtual Telecommunication. Prior to Alcatel-Lucent, David served as the Chief Technology Officer and an Executive Vice President at Amdocs. In this role he was responsible, among others, for planning and developing Amdocs' technology vision as well as Amdocs' future strategy, architecture and roadmap of the entire product portfolio. Prior to Amdocs David served as the Chief Scientist of 21st Century Network (21CN) of BT, where he was responsible for designing, planning, and optimizing solutions in BT networks, architectures and infrastructures in more than 100 countries and 250 networks worldwide. David has over 18 years of experience in leading, developing, and transforming technological strategies, technological innovation, and advanced solutions in academia, start-up companies, and corporations worldwide in different technical domains. David holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Technion, Israel), specializing in coping with computationally-hard optimization problems. David has published papers and book chapters, and presented in many academic and commercial conferences.