A10 Networks announces enhanced version of Thunder Convergent Firewall Gi/SGi solution

A10 Networks has announced an enhanced version of it’s Thunder Convergent Firewall Gi/SGi solution. This enhancement has been made to offer support to service providers who are struggling with new security demands from mobile networks, 5G and IoT deployments.

The enhanced A10 Thunder® CFW addresses rising security concerns of service providers dealing with network and DDoS attacks that may arise from a variety of intrusion points by delivering comprehensive mobile core infrastructure protection.

The A10 Thunder CFW provides a consolidated and secure 5G Gi-LAN solution for an effective defence against attacks that may originate from within the network through weaponised IoT devices and smartphones, attacks from the internet on the Gi LAN as well as attacks from roaming partner networks.

The Thunder CFW includes support for GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) Firewall with granular Stream Control Transport Protocol (SCTP) inspection and filtering. Also, subscriber and application-aware traffic steering capabilities allow service providers to offer differentiated revenue-generating services for growing subscriber needs.

A10’s Thunder CFW also helps customers achieve superior levels of performance, scalability and visibility, along with exceptionally high firewall connection rates in a compact form factor.

Additionally, A10 security services such as, A10 Threat Intelligence Service and A10 URL Classification Service can be leverages on the Thunder CFW for regulatory compliance, web access control and service monetisation options.

The advent of all-IP-based mobile communication systems, such as LTE, opens more avenues for malicious intrusions. Threats such as DDoS floods, application-layer attacks and DNS exploits can arise from mobile and IoT devices infected with botnets, as well as from anywhere within the Internet or external packet data
network (PDN) gateways, threatening service availability.

Increasing DDoS attacks on the mobile core is requiring service providers to deploy a comprehensive security solution capable of detecting and mitigating large-scale DDoS attacks, including evolving multi-vector attacks, and stateful firewalls to inspect subscriber sessions.

A10 Thunder CFW, with integrated Gi/SGi firewall capabilities, delivers the performance that mobile carriers require to scale and protect their networks. With the ability to provide throughput up to 220 Gbps while supporting more than 6 million connections per second (CPS) and over 250 million concurrent sessions, Thunder CFW will meet both current and future traffic requirements of any service provider.

Strategically deployed at various locations on the mobile network infrastructure, Thunder CFW enables mobile carriers to efficiently safeguard their infrastructure, including the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) and PDN gateway in the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

Highlights of the Enhanced A10 Thunder CFW 5G Gi-LAN Solution

• Gi LAN Consolidation — A10 5G Gi-LAN solution consolidates L4–L7 functions including CGNAT, stateful firewall and application visibility for streamlined management, less operational overhead and reduced latency to integrate greater efficiencies on the Gi LAN.
• Application Visibility & Control — DPI-based application visibility with comprehensive subscriber awareness provides granular insights into network traffic. Understanding network and application traffic trends allows for effective planning, deeper business intelligence, enhanced Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) compliance and service monetisation.
• GTP Firewall –Defend mobile core against GTP-based attacks coming in from access networks and roaming partners to support uninterrupted operations. Supports integrated mobile network security features for GTP control plane, including protocol conformance, rate-limiting, scanning for malformed GTP packets.
• Intelligent Traffic Steering – A10’s subscriber-aware traffic steering solution enables service providers to enhance their business models for new revenue streams with differentiated service offerings, and can improve cost efficiencies with better utilisation of value added services (VAS) resources.
• Accelerates adoption of SDN/NFV– Right-size networks with on-demand capacity, and leverage consumption flexibility with a software subscription-based capacity pooling licensing model to reduce overprovisioning. Achieve scalability and performance needed across software and SDN environments to support emerging data center and cloud architectures.

The enhanced A10 Thunder CFW 5G Gi-LAN Solution is available now on A10 Thunder CFW.