By David Ayers, product marketing manager, Infoblox

While numerous experts around the world made dark predictions that internet infrastructure might not handle the increase in internet traffic from consumers stuck in their homes as quarantines were imposed amidst the pandemic, networks overall seem to have dealt with increased traffic loads. To benefit subscribers, many providers have raised bandwidth limits, are offering additional video content on top of existing service for free, and have announced further investment in their current network services. Several mobile providers have even announced that they have accelerated their 5G and Multi-Access Edge (MEC) planning and rollout plans.

Infoblox centralized IPAM and network automation can streamline existing 4G networks while providing foundational DDI automation for 5G and the edge. Infoblox solves the challenges providers face with the buildout of 5G, from critical automation for authoritative 5G DNS and 5G next-generation core, bridging the automation gap in the 5G Session Management Function (SMF) with IPAM network assignment, and reducing the cost, complexity, and effort of 5G new radio (NR) deployments. Infoblox plays a significant role in 4G LTE performance and mobile service selection, and continues to support service operators in their 5G and Edge rollout initiatives in several fundamental ways:

• Speed: Infoblox provides guaranteed performance for 5G and edge-based applications with cost-effective, ultra-low latency, streamlined, and automated DNS.
• Automation for 5G: As mobile providers evolve their networks from 4G to standalone 5G, the overwhelming scale of that evolution will drive a strong need for automation. Infoblox solves the challenges providers face with the buildout of 5G, from critical automation for authoritative 5G DNS and 5G next-generation core, bridging the automation gap in the 5G Session Management Function (SMF) with IPAM network assignment. It also reduces the cost, complexity, and effort of 5G new radio (NR) deployments through the integration of DHCP and DNS as a significant part of an automated bare-metal provisioning process for 5G NR deployment.
• Automation for MEC: Considering that there will be significantly more pods and dynamic virtual machines to manage, operators will face considerable challenges due to an explosion of MEC applications. Infoblox provides streamlined and automated DNS for MEC applications through Kubernetes integration and integration with CoreDNS and ExternalDNS—helping automate the error-prone and time-consuming manual tasks associated with deploying and managing DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (IPAM) required for continuous network availability and service uptime.
• Security: As service provider compute shifts from centralized to edge locations, Infoblox provides greater protection through DNS DDoS Mitigation to protect the critical DNS infrastructure that is the “heartbeat” of provider networks. Infoblox secures the DNS services running on the MEC instances and provides greater security by ensuring that subscriber data never leaves the provider network slice.

DNS plays a tremendous role in our digital future. It has been an essential network element for partners in enabling users to access internet-based services for years and will play a bigger role in coming times. The transition of communications service providers’ (CSPs’) services to a distributed cloud model are driving them to evaluate their DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (IPAM) strategies and product requirements. CSPs are entering the mass commercialization phase of distributed cloud technologies such as multi-access edge computing (MEC), 5G new radio (NR), and 5G next-generation core (NGC) networks. It is time to evaluate and ensure that enterprise DNS networks are ready to take on these fundamental changes without losing steam.

Author Bio:

David Ayers

Product Marketing Manager at Infoblox

David is a business technology and marketing specialist based in Virginia who has sold, built, and messaged mission-critical cloud and hosted solutions in an evolving industry. David has spent much of his career immersed in cloud and managed application hosting and possesses a unique blend of product management, product marketing, and sales experience. Before joining Infoblox, he led product marketing activities at Virtustream (a Dell Technologies business) for their healthcare and public sector clouds and their embedded governance, risk, and compliance capabilities. David has also served in Product Marketing and Product Management roles at Verizon, Terremark, and SunGard Availability Services. Earlier in his career, David also worked in pre-sales architecture roles for companies for Sun Microsystems, Digex, and Symantec Corporation.