NTT Docomo Cites Progress in Multivendor NFV Trials

NTT DOCOMO has now tested NFV implementations from six leading vendors: Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, and Nokia Networks.

The carrier said its PoC trials focused on LTE virtualized Evolved Packet Core (EPC).  Its testing successfully verified the interoperability of each vendor's EPC software with a different vendor's equipment, such as scalable data processing capability for congested data traffic and immediate network recovery in the event of hardware failure. This opens the door for communication software designed originally for dedicated hardware to run on multipurpose hardware. In the future, such technologies will allow mobile operators to combine network hardware and software components of any vendor for deployment of network systems.

"Thanks to collaborative efforts in the mobile network industry, NFV is soundly moving toward practical realization, rather than just ending up as a pie-in-the-sky dream," said Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NTT DOCOMO. "I am delighted that we have confirmed the feasibility of NFV through multi-vendor initiatives with many of the top ICT players."

https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2014/1014_00.html