What is the function of the SD-WAN Orchestrator in MEF SD-WAN?

• A. Provides centralized policy management, topology awareness, path selection, provisioning (including zero-touch onboarding), telemetry collection, and end-to-end service orchestration.
• B. Manages only the local site QoS decisions.
• C. Performs only firewalling at the edge.
• D. Supplies only raw data without control capabilities.

Answer: (C)

The function of the SD-WAN Orchestrator in MEF SD-WAN is to act as the centralized control plane and service orchestration layer for the whole WAN. It manages policy across the network, maintains knowledge of the network topology, makes path selection decisions to meet application requirements, provisions devices (including zero-touch onboarding), collects telemetry for visibility and analytics, and coordinates end-to-end service orchestration. The edge devices handle the actual data plane and enforce local decisions (like QoS and security) under the orchestrator’s policies, but the orchestrator itself provides the global, cross-domain control and coordination needed for consistent, automated service delivery. This is broader than merely handling local QoS, performing firewalling at the edge, or delivering only raw data without control.