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[ vBNG ]/software-defined BNG · v1.0 beta

A BRAS that runs on x86 and ships in a deb package.

IPoE + PPPoE dual-mode on commodity hardware. VPP / DPDK for wire-speed forwarding. ISC Kea + FreeRADIUS for subscriber lifecycle. FRRouting for BGP and OSPF. CGNAT with deterministic NAT logging that satisfies BTRC retention. Same toolchain you already trust on Linux routers — assembled, hardened, and operated by an ISP.

spec sheet · shortR650 / CX-6 · REF
Throughput
100 Gb/s
Sessions
100,000+
PPS
30 Mpps
Latency p99
< 80 µs
Power draw
< 350 W
Capex / unit
$5,800

* production benchmark · DHK-1 · 2026-04

[ 01 ]/Architecture · packet flow

From OLT port to upstream BGP — every hop, software.

Each component runs on the same x86 server (or splits across two for HA). All open-source. No proprietary anything.

NODE_01

OLT

GPON / EPON

Tags subscriber DHCP with Option-82 (S-VLAN : C-VLAN : port).

NODE_02

ISC Kea 3.0

DHCPv4 / v6

Hands the lease, calls FreeRADIUS to authorise the session.

NODE_03

FreeRADIUS

AAA

Auth, accounting, CoA. PostgreSQL backend, REST hook to ISPChamp.

NODE_04

VPP / DPDK

Data plane

Wire-speed packet forwarding. Linear scaling per CPU core.

NODE_05

FRRouting

Control plane

BGP / OSPF peering with upstreams and aggregation.

[ 02 ]/Capabilities

Built for performance — measured, not claimed.

VPP / DPDK data plane

Vector Packet Processing on DPDK delivers wire-speed forwarding on commodity NICs. Throughput scales with CPU cores — add cores, not chassis.

Commodity x86 hardware

Runs on any x86 server with DPDK-compatible NICs. Dell, HPE, Supermicro, whitebox — your call. No proprietary boards, no vendor lock-in.

CGNAT with BTRC logging

Inline NAT44 with deterministic mapping and BTRC-compliant session retention. Full audit trail satisfies regulator and lawful-intercept requests.

Real-time telemetry

Per-subscriber traffic counters, session monitoring, policy enforcement. Exposed as Prometheus metrics + Grafana dashboards out of the box.

[ 03 ]/Spec sheet · long

The canonical spec.

Every dependency, version-pinned. Every upstream listed. Drop this into your engineering review.

PROTOCOLS
IPoE + PPPoE (dual-mode coexistence)
DHCP
ISC Kea 3.0 LTS — DHCPv4, DHCPv6, PD
AAA
FreeRADIUS 3.2.7 + PostgreSQL backend
DATA PLANE
VPP (fd.io) on DPDK 22.x+
ROUTING
FRRouting — BGP, OSPF, BFD, ECMP
CGNAT
Inline NAT44, deterministic mapping
SUBSCRIBER ID
DHCP Option-82 (S-VLAN:C-VLAN:port)
QoS
Per-subscriber policing + shaping in VPP
RETENTION
BTRC-compliant CDR + NAT log retention
TELEMETRY
Prometheus / Grafana, native exporters
NIC SUPPORT
Mellanox CX-6, Intel E810, Broadcom P425
OS
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS / Debian 13
[ 04 ]/The diff

Hardware BRAS vs ISPChamp vBNG

Apples-to-apples for an FTTH operator running 100 Gbps of subscribers.

FeatureHardware BRASISPChamp vBNG
Capital cost$45,000 – $80,000$3,000 – $6,000
Throughput40 – 100 Gbps100 Gbps+ via VPP / DPDK
IPoE + PPPoEVendor-dependentDual-mode native
CGNATPaid license add-onIncluded
IPv6 dual-stackPartial supportFull DHCPv6 + PD
Vendor lock-inYesNo — commodity x86
ScalingBuy a new chassis (6w lead)Add another server (1d)
BTRC retention loggingExternal syslog boxBuilt-in compliant logging

[ 05 ] / Deploy

Stop quoting hardware vendors. Start a pilot.

We'll spec a server, deploy the vBNG against a slice of your subscribers, and run it side-by-side with your existing BRAS for 30 days. No contract until the numbers match.

next-step

Operator-to-operator pilot. Live on a slice of your network in one week.