Nokia Ships Commercial NFV, Debuts Cloud Network Director

Nokia Networks announced commercial shipment of its Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) for a telco cloud based on the ETSI NFV architecture. The first network implementation is scheduled to go live with a major operator by the end of 2014.

Nokia said the solution will be used for end-to-end VoLTE services.

The company is also debuting Cloud Network Director, an orchestration tool that will automatically deploy, configure, optimize and repair a set of virtualized network functions to simplify the deployment of services like VoLTE.

Nokia said its Cloud Network Director will meet the needs of the recently published ETSI NFV Management and Orchestration specification and is the key component of fully automated network lifecycle management.  It will comply with the ETSI NFV Orchestrator and have open interfaces for integration with Virtualized Network Function (VNF) managers from Nokia (called Cloud Application Manager) and other vendors. It will also be integrated with existing operations and business support systems. This multi-vendor capability ensures telco clouds can be implemented flexibly to match mobile broadband operators’ needs and integrate with existing systems.

“The prime motivations for operators to move to the telco cloud are business agility and network flexibility. We are making 2014 the year in which these benefits become reality for operators,” said Michael Clever, senior vice president of Core at Nokia Networks.

Nokia Networks is also announcing a telco cloud partner certification program to strengthen its wide-ranging telco cloud partner ecosystem. The program enables third-party software to be certified with Nokia Networks’ telco cloud solutions to deliver extra value by working with the company’s virtual network functions. This approach ensures operators get comprehensive solutions, in line with ETSI NFV, to meet the highest quality and security standards.

http://nsn.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nokia-networks-shipping-industry-s-first-commercial-nfv-solution-networksperform