MEF has created a technical specification that defines SD-WAN services and their various attributes. MEF is making the draft technical specification available to its members. And the organization expects to ratify and publicly release its MEF 3.0 SD-WAN Service Attributes and Service Definition standard in the first quarter of 2019.

MEF has been working on SD-WAN standardization since at least 2017 to ensure consistency of SD-WAN policy and security orchestrated across multiple provider networks.

SD-WAN service standardization will enable stakeholders to use the same terminology when buying, selling, assessing, deploying, and delivering SD-WAN services. MEF’s SD-WAN service definition specification describes requirements for an over-the-top WAN connectivity service that uses policies to determine how application flows are forwarded over multiple underlay networks irrespective of the underlying technologies.

“MEF’s SD-WAN service standardization will undoubtedly accelerate sales of SD-WAN products and services like MEF accomplished with Carrier Ethernet service standardization,” said Nan Chen, President of MEF, in a statement.

The SD-WAN specification work is part of MEF’s initiative to standardize a complete family of dynamic Carrier Ethernet, SD-WAN, IP, optical transport, security, and other virtualized services that will be orchestrated over programmable networks using Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs.

A number of service providers and technology vendors have contributed to or supported the MEF SD-WAN service specification effort. Service providers that have been involved include AT&T, CenturyLink, Colt Technology Services, Comcast Business, Fujitsu Network Communications, Orange Business Services, PCCW Global, Telia, TELUS, Verizon, and Zayo. Vendors involved with MEF’s SD-WAN work include Amdocs, Cisco, Ericsson, Fortinet, Huawei, NEC/Netcracker, Nokia/Nuage Networks, Riverbed, Silver Peak, and VMware.