Contributed by Wan Yunfei

Interoperability between devices of different manufacturers is a key factor that needs to be considered by customers during network planning and reconstruction. If devices of different vendors cannot interoperate with each other well, customers will incur unnecessary costs and the complexity of network management will increase. This will limit the reconstruction and smooth evolution of networks. The interoperability of vendor devices helps customers greatly simplify network planning, promotes the development of end-to-end services such as one which is related to gpupdate /force, and improves network maintenance efficiency. It also ensures that customers can quickly introduce advanced technologies for service innovation, improving the overall service competitiveness of customers and ensuring that the network value is maximized for end users.

Huawei enterprise campus switches and WLAN devices provide industry-leading network interoperability. The devices are able to interwork with those of other mainstream vendors in the industry in different scenarios to ensure networks run stably. This helps customers smoothly upgrade their networks and protects customer investment. Behind the countless successful projects lies the hard work Huawei has put into the interoperability of its devices.

Customer-centricity and Interoperability, Protecting Customer Investment

A particular Japanese internet service provider (ISP) mainly offers services such as voice, broadband, and cloud services. With the development of its services, the enterprise’s original network could not meet service development requirements and was in urgent need of an upgrade to its core switches to improve the capacity of its data centers. To ensure the long-term development of services, the enterprise decided to implement core upgrades on its data center network. New core switches must be able to interwork with the existing switches. After strict testing by the company’s IT department, Huawei S12700 series switches met the interoperation requirements. The switches could interoperate with protocols running on the live network switches and could form a new data center network with the live network switches. This greatly improved the core network performance to ensure that end users receive high-quality services and that the competitiveness of the company was improved significantly.

To better serve customers and to improve service quality, a century-old Italian electrical appliance retailer built a new WLAN network. Huawei was chosen as its Wi-Fi supplier to provide Wi-Fi services to its 120 stores. In addition, the Italian professional Wi-Fi data analysis platform FreeLuna was used as the marketing analysis platform. Huawei’s WLAN network successfully interconnected with the FreeLuna data analysis platform to provide information such as location based services (LBS) to form the basis of Big Data analysis. This helped the customer optimize their product portfolio and shelf distribution, supported applications such as advertisement push, and implemented online and offline omni-channel marketing.

Offering Openness and Interoperability, and Creating a Network Ecosystem—Mainstream Vendors Cooperate to Add Value to Customer Networks 

To better implement interoperation, Huawei established a joint lab that is aimed at achieving a better network ecosystem and helping customers reuse the network or implement capacity expansion and upgrade solutions. Huawei has achieved the following:

✦ Interoperability with Layer 2 and Layer 3 protocols on devices from mainstream vendors, such as Cisco, HPE and Juniper;

✦ Compatibility with eight certified servers such as Cisco ISE, HPE’s ClearPass, third-party FreeRADIUS, Srun, and IMC;

✦ Huawei’s devices can be managed by network management systems of third-parties such as SolarWinds, IBM, and IMC, and ForeScout;

✦ Interconnection with over 300 terminal models such as those from industry mainstream manufacturers of IP phones (Cisco, Avaya, and Polycom), and access points (APs);

✦ In addition, Huawei has built an ecosystem with over 50 mainstream vendors in various industries, such as Walkbase, Cloud4wi, Enjoyer, and Sense Technology. This helps customers add value to their network and innovate new services.

To date, there are over 11.5 million Huawei switches and WLAN products on live networks, serving 1/3 of the world’s population. 90% of these network devices are successfully interworking with devices of other vendors. To ensure the interoperability of Huawei devices, Huawei is the industry’s first vendor to work with the authoritative third-party organizations Tolly and Miercom to carry out interoperation tests.

Protecting customer investment and maximizing the value of customer networks, Huawei will continue to stride forward along the road to openness, interoperability, and ecosystem cooperation.

Switch interoperability: Link

WLAN interoperability: Link

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Source: Huawei Enterprise Blog
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