MEF has published the industry’s first standard (MEF 70) defining SD-WAN service and its service attributes. SD-WAN service standardization is part of the initiative to define, deliver and certify a family of Carrier Ethernet, Optical Transport, IP, SD-WAN, and security services across automated networks using orchestration APIs.

This SD-WAN standardization effort has included inputs and contributions from numerous companies, such as Silver Peak, Cisco, Nuage Networks, Nokia, TDS Telecom, Verizon and other MEF members.

The standard describes the requirements for application-aware, over-the-top WAN connectivity that uses policies to determine how application flows are handled over multiple underlay networks.

MEF 70 defines:

• Service attributes describing the visible behavior of the SD-WAN service
• Rules associated with how traffic is handled
• Concepts and definitions for items, such as SD-WAN UNI, SD-WAN Edge, Tunnel Virtual Connections, Connection Endpoints and Underlay Connectivity Services.

The standard offers numerous benefits and will help accelerate market growth and improve customer understanding and experience using these hybrid network solutions.