Radisys and EZchip have extended their partnership to target service-provider video, aiming to help communications service providers (CSPs) scale new services in a software-defined networking (SDN) environment.

The companies announced today that Radisys will integrate its FlowEngine video compression and distribution software with NPS, EZchip's next-generation network processor. This will allow CSPs to provision millions of video feeds instead of tens of thousands in the current environment, the companies claim.

While SDN enables the separation of the control plane and data plane, Radisys says service providers need a fully integrated system with vendor support in order to scale in a streaming environment. The joint platform will make this scalability possible in a small footprint, the companies say.

There’s another joint offering from the two companies that is available today, with EZchip’s NP-5 processor integrated into Radisys’ TDE systems. Radisys’ FlowEngine software can also be used on white boxes from ODMs that use EZchip’s network processors.

“We’ve been a partner with EZchip for some time,” says Joseph Sulistyo, director of FlowEngine product marketing. “This is not a two to three-year business; this is a long term business. With the carrier cycle for big mobile operators being longer, it requires multiple testing that is more than a typical enterprise.”

An undisclosed Tier 1 North American mobile operator is kicking the tires on the companies' white box offering as an SDN data plane.

“So, this mobile operator has been working with us for quite some time,” Sulistyo says. “This is more than just a PoC [proof of concept.] We’re going into production in a few months.”