Rakuten and NEC develop 5G Standalone Core tech in Japan

Rakuten Mobile and NEC reached an agreement to jointly develop the containerized standalone (SA) 5G core network (5GC) to be utilized in Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized cloud native 5G network. Based on the agreement, the companies will collaborate to build a Japan-made, highly reliable 5GC, based on the 5GC software source code developed by NEC.  Subsequent to the launch of its non-standalone (NSA) 5G service in 2020, Rakuten Mobile aims to provide its SA 5G service in Japan in 2021.

The companies said their containerized 5GC will also play a key role in the global expansion of RCP, a platform aimed at offering solutions and services for the deployment of virtualized networks at speed and low cost by telecom companies and enterprises around the world, tailored for their unique needs. The 5GC will be offered as an application on the RCP Marketplace, allowing customers to quickly and easily “click, purchase and deploy” a fully virtualized SA 5G core network solution.

“We are very excited to collaborate with NEC on the development of our standalone 5G core network,” commented Tareq Amin, Representative Director, Executive Vice President and CTO of Rakuten Mobile. “Our partnership with NEC represents a joint collaboration to build an open, secure and highly scalable 4G and 5G cloud native converged core, that will also become a key feature of the highly competitive services we will offer to global customers through the Rakuten Communications Platform.”

“NEC is proud to be the 5GC development partner for Rakuten Mobile's advanced, fully virtualized, cloud-native network. Following the BSS/OSS for the 4G network and 5G radio equipment that we have already begun offering, we look forward to providing a high-quality, highly reliable 5GC and contributing to Rakuten Mobile's 5G services," said Atsuo Kawamura, Executive Vice President and President of the Network Services Business Unit, NEC.

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Bell Canada signs Ericsson for 5G RAN

Bell Canada has selected Ericsson 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) technology to support its nationwide 5G mobile and fixed wireless access deployment.

The Canadian government is planning to auction 3.5 GHz spectrum later this year.

Niklas Heuveldop, President and Head of Ericsson North America, says, "We are proud to have earned Bell’s trust to be selected as one of their key partners and significantly expand our existing relationship to accelerate the transformation of their network with 5G mobile and fixed wireless technology. With our industry-leading 5G product portfolio, Bell will be able to provide Canadian consumers, enterprises and the public sector with innovative experiences and services whether they are on the move or at home, regardless if they are in urban or rural areas.”

Stephen Howe, Chief Technology Officer, Bell Canada, says: “Ericsson plays an important role in enabling Bell’s award-winning LTE network and we’re pleased to grow our partnership into 5G mobile and fixed wireless technology. 5G’s high-capacity and near-instant connections will enable next-generation applications like mobile 4K video and immersive augmented reality, connected vehicles and industrial IoT automation on a massive scale, and our plan is to deliver the benefits of the 5G wireless revolution to cities and rural locations alike.”

With this deal, Ericsson now has 93 commercial 5G agreements or contracts with unique communications service providers globally, of which 50 are publicly announced 5G deals.

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TELUS selects Ericsson and Nokia for 5G

TELUS selected Ericsson and Nokia for its 5G network.

“TELUS has a successful track record of building globally leading networks with amazing speeds, robust quality and extensive coverage that are consistently recognized as the best in the world,” said Darren Entwistle, President and CEO, TELUS. “Our team is committed to rolling out superior network technology from urban to rural communities, fueling our economy and driving innovation as we power Canadians into the 5G era through an unparalleled network experience. Our 5G deployment will support economic growth and diversity that will be essential for the virtualization of health, education, teleworking, and stimulating the economic growth and recovery given the impact of COVID-19”.

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Telefónica Deutschland picks Ericsson 5G core

Telefónica Deutschland, which operates under the O2 brand in Germany, will implement a completely independent 5G core network with full cloud compatibility in its infrastructure by 2021, using Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core.

The companies said they will build the 5G core with the capacity to optimally ensure the growing transport and data transmission tasks in view of the massively increasing data streams of customers over the long term.

"With our cloud compatible 5G core network, we are entering a new technology era," says Mallik Rao, Chief Technology & Information Officer of Telefónica Deutschland. "Gigabit data rates, real-time communication and massive IoT - these visions are now becoming reality. We have a clear plan for the further development of our network infrastructure towards a standalone 5G network that can handle the massive data streams of the future and open up new digital business models for all our customers. In doing so, we are relying on the latest network technologies that the market has to offer."

Stefan Koetz, Head of Customer Unit Western Europe, Ericsson, says: "The partnership between Telefónica and Ericsson in the 5G core network underlines that all three German mobile network operators rely on us in different parts of their networks. With this, we are pleased to prove our ambition of technology leadership when it comes to equipping 5G networks.”

With the Telefónica Deutschland deal, Ericsson currently has 92 commercial 5G agreements or contracts with unique operators globally, including 40 live networks.

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EKINOPS cites 10G win with European Tier 1 operator

EKINOPS confirmed its first major 10Gbps access win in Europe with a seven-figure contract.

The project, delivered by a European Tier 1 service provider, relies on EKINOPS 10G routers to build an entire communication infrastructure for a major national security agency. The EKINOPS solutions, installed in various data centers across the country, will manage keys and security policies according to high availability mechanisms while offering protection against attacks.

“This project demonstrates that our solutions can successfully answer the demanding challenges of major national government agencies,” said Philippe Moulin, Chief Operating Officer of Access Products and Services at Ekinops. “The key here is our capacity to deliver a high-throughput, completely integrated multi-function access solution. We are proud to have gained the level of trust required by the service provider and the end-user for this very high-profile project.”

In combination with EKINOPS 10G routers and VPN gateways, EKINOPS will supply its customer with a selection of existing solutions designed for small and medium size enterprise branches, all running on the same middleware: OneOS6. Ekinops’ portfolio of software products, running on OneOS6, combines routing, firewall, high-end VPN functionalities, SD-WAN, SBC, WAN Optimization, together with other VNFs, that can be enabled when needed. This comprehensive offering enables customers to replace managing multiple vendors’ operating systems with a single harmonized management solution, realizing cost-savings and simplifying management of resources.

“The 10Gb/s access market is a segment with few actors and a high price tag. We have identified this segment as an opportunity for EKINOPS to gain market share with Tier 1 service providers as it requires transport and access know-how. Our offering is differentiated with a high performance-over-price ratio which explains why our new 10G routers and Ethernet Access Devices (EAD) are already a success with significant volumes shipped,” added Didier Brédy, CEO, Ekinops.

Ekinops confirms major OTN switch customer

Wednesday, May 13, 2020  Ekinops, France, OTN  

EKINOPS announced its first OTN switch customer, finalizing a deal with a major provider of telecommunication and digital solutions in EMEA. The customer was not disclosed.

Specifically, the EKINOPS Transport Switch (ETS) is being used to upgrade an existing optical transport network from 10G to 100G using a two-phase approach by first optimizing and simplifying the operations of existing 10G services before migrating the network to 100G. EKINOPS said its customer’s existing fiber optic network is used to transport sub-1Gbps to 10Gbps services between Europe and Asia primarily connecting global financial centers.  Extending from the Chinese border to Russia and Europe and using diverse routes across its service territory, the network provides highly reliable and resilient connectivity between the two continents.  High demand across this network has made the providers current operational model, largely dependent on manual reconfiguration of circuits and fiber connections, obsolete and has resulted in large amounts of stranded capacity. During the first phase of the project, the service provider will create a mesh architecture that will interconnect all of its 10G interfaces to support traffic without any physical change in the core network.  Phase two will entail deploying the 100G interfaces already available on the same line cards giving the service provider the control to upgrade on an as-needed basis and avoid having to make a full capital commitment upfront.

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Zenlayer deploys ADVA FSP 3000

Zenlayer is deploying ADVA's FSP 3000 to provide dynamic, highly available services to some of the world’s biggest gaming, cloud computing and social media companies.

Zenlayer's new network will carry multiple services, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel and SONET/SDH. For maximum efficiency and elasticity, it also features ADVA’s QuadFlex line cards and OpenFabric cross-connect technology.

“This deployment will benefit a great number of enterprises operating in Taiwan and Singapore. With the ability to flexibly and efficiently transport multi-traffic services at speeds up to 200Gbit/s, Zenlayer’s telecom, cloud service and gaming customers can enhance the experience of their end users and gain a vital competitive edge,” commented Erik Lindberg, VP, sales, APAC, ADVA. “Zenlayer has a clear vision of what its customers expect and a bold strategy for delivering it. By harnessing our technology and the expertise of our engineers, Zenlayer has created a network ready to adapt to evolving demands and able to expand further in years to come.”

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Rancher releases cloud-native container storage solution

Rancher Labs, which offers a widely used Kubernetes management platform, announced the general availability (GA) of Longhorn, an enterprise-grade, cloud-native container storage solution.

The company says Longhorn directly answers the need for an enterprise-grade, vendor-neutral persistent storage solution that supports the easy development of stateful applications within Kubernetes.

the resources required to manage data and operate environments, enabling teams to focus on shipping code faster, and delivering better applications.

Longhorn is 100% open source, distributed block storage built using microservices. Since the product was released in Beta in 2019, thousands of users have battle-hardened Longhorn by stress-testing the product as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Sandbox project.

The GA version of Longhorn delivers a rich set of enterprise storage features, including:

• Thin-provisioning, snapshots, backup, and restore
• Non-disruptive volume expansion
• Cross-cluster disaster recovery volume with defined RTO and RPO
• Live upgrade of Longhorn software without impacting running volumes
• Full-featured Kubernetes CLI integration and standalone UI
• Users can leverage Longhorn to create distributed block storage mirrored across local disks. Longhorn also serves as a bridge to integrate enterprise-grade storage with Kubernetes by enabling users to deploy Longhorn on existing NFS, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel storage arrays and on cloud storage systems like AWS EBS, all the while adding useful features such as application-aware snapshots, backups, and remote replication.

“As enterprises deploy more production applications in containers, the need for persistent container storage continues to grow rapidly,” said Sheng Liang, CEO at Rancher Labs. “Longhorn fills the need for a 100% open source and easy-to-deploy enterprise-grade Kubernetes storage solution.”

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