Monday, May 30, 2022

Nokia launches cloud-native IMS Voice Core

 Nokia introduced a cloud-native IMS Voice Core product architected as a single Cloud Native Network Function (CNF). Dedicated network elements, such as the Session Border Controller (SBC), Call Session Control Function (CSCF), Telephony Application Server (TAS) and Media Resource function (MRF), are encapsulated as microservices into the CNF.

Nokia says its modular and cloud-native architecture greatly simplifies the deployment and operability of the IMS Voice Core while improving energy efficiency by 10%-20% compared to other IMS voice cores. The new software architecture improves common resource utilization and internal messaging performance, requiring less infrastructure for the IMS voice service.

Nokia Cloud Native Communication Suite is optimized for Fixed, 4G, 5G and WiFi deployments.

Fran Heeran, SVP & Head of Core Networks, Cloud and Network Services at Nokia, said: “As 5G pivots to advanced services, and 4G fulfills its all-IP vision by shifting fully to Voice over LTE, the Cloud Native Communication Suite is Nokia’s answer to our CSP customer needs to enhance their network agility, optimize their cost structure, and simplify deployment and operation. With Nokia CNCS, our customers get an off-the-shelf IMS Voice Core with a set of standard-based functions that are implemented to act as a single product.”

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2022/05/30/nokia-launches-cloud-native-ims-voice-core-product-to-simplify-network-operations-for-communication-service-providers/

DT tests multivendor 5G voice over new radio (VoNR) call 

Deutsche Telekom and partners completed the first 5G Voice over New Radio (VoNR) call in an end to end multi-vendor environment. The partners were able to verify the capability over a 5G Standalone (SA) network with voice and 5G data sessions in parallel. This network setup integrated a 5G Core from Ericsson and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) from Nokia. The calls were completed on commercial terminals from Samsung and Xiaomi and a Mobile Test...


Construction begins on Farice cable from Iceland to Ireland

Construction is underway for Farice's new IRIS Subsea Telecoms Cable System from Iceland to Galway, Ireland.

Earlier this month, SubCom’s cable installation vessel the CS Durable landed the cable successfully at Thorlakshofn beach in Iceland.  Subcom said deployment is expected to advance at approximately 20-200 km per day with a target burial depth of 1.5m beneath the seabed in water depth of up to 1,500m. Work on the terrestrial section of underground duct and a termination station in Galway, Ireland and Thorlakshofn, Iceland has taken place and the sites are ready to connect the submarine cable system. The final splice and completion of marine work ia anticipated in mid-August 2022.

The IRIS system will be the third submarine fibre optic cable system connecting Iceland with Europe. 

https://www.subcom.com/documents/2022/Farice_IRIS_Marine_Installation_SubCom_23MAY2022.pdf

IRIS subsea cable to link Iceland to Ireland with up to 108 Tbps capacity

IRIS, a new six-fiber pair undersea cable system, will connect Iceland and Ireland with up to 108 Tbps of system capacity.Farice, the international connectivity provider fully owned by the Icelandic Government, has selected Subcom as the primary contractor.Currently, there are two other submarine cable systems that connect Iceland to Europe – FARICE-1 (2003) and DANICE (2009). IRIS will be approximately 1,700 km in length and connect south west...

DigitalBridge forms ÍslandsTurnar - mobile towers for Iceland

DigitalBridge Group announced the formation of an independent mobile tower company in Iceland through the merger of the telecom tower portfolios of Sýn and Nova, two leading Icelandic mobile network operators.The new company, called ÍslandsTurnar, is backed by funds affiliated with DigitalBridge Investment Management. Both Sýn and Nova will be long-term customers of ÍslandsTurnar.ÍslandsTurnar is the first independent tower company of scale in Iceland...


Taiwan Mobile awards 5G coverage expansion deal to Nokia

Taiwan Mobile (TWM) awarded a 5G expansion deal to Nokia for its latest energy-efficient AirScale portfolio.

Nokia will provide equipment from its AirScale portfolio, including base stations and massive MIMO antennas to boost network performance and capacity. The deal also covers the introduction of 4G/5G dynamic spectrum sharing to maximize the advantages of TWM’s spectrum assets, which include 700MHz and 2100MHz bands. Nokia will help the operator modernize its LTE infrastructure, as well as consolidate the network management and optimization under a centralized tool for a superior 4G/5G RAN network performance. 

Nokia has partnered with TWM for more than 20 years and has previously provided 2G, 3G, and 4G.

TWM currently has over one million 5G subscribers.

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “This new extended coverage deal is a testament to the great progress we’ve made in the deployment of 5G services in Taiwan with our long-term partner, Taiwan Mobile as its sole supplier. I am also encouraged to see how our AirScale portfolio is helping to reduce energy consumption and pave the way for a sustainable future.”

https://www.nokia.com

Taiwan Mobile deploys 5G standalone core with Nokia

Taiwan Mobile Co. has deployed Nokia's 5G standalone core. The installation includes Nokia’s voice core, cloud packet core, subscriber data management, signaling, network exposure, policy controller, cloud infrastructure, and security management for radio transport. The 5G standalone core network enables Taiwan Mobile to provide advanced 5G services such as network slicing and smart city solutions that require ultra-low latency and reliability.Nokia...

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom extends 5G deal with Nokia

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) awarded a two-year deal to Nokia to enhance its 5G network across Taiwan’s central and southern regions. Under the deal, Nokia will provide equipment from its latest energy-efficient AirScale portfolio across 4,000 new sites to boost performance and capacity.Nokia will supply CHT with solutions from its AirScale Single RAN equipment portfolio including macro base stations, small cells, 5G Massive MIMO antennas (64TRX and...


Nokia integrates Microsoft Azure Arc for Industry 4.0

Nokia plans to integrate Microsoft Azure Arc capabilities into the Nokia MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) platform for Industry 4.0 use cases.   Through the integration, Nokia MXIE and private wireless solution customers have seamless access to the full Azure ecosystem offering on MXIE.

Microsoft Azure Arc offers a simple way to deploy and manage Azure applications on-premise with multi-cloud resources, such as virtual or physical servers and Kubernetes clusters. It simplifies governance and management by delivering a consistent multi-cloud and on-premise management platform.

The Nokia MXIE is a highly-resilient as-a-service OT on-premise edge solution that accelerates the digital transformation of operational technology (OT), and is powered with 4.9/LTE and 5G connectivity provided by the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC).

Nokia said the integration provides enterprises with added access to Azure capabilities while benefiting from private wireless connected assets’ real-time data and on-premise, highly-resilient OT-centric edge processing.

https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2022/05/30/nokia-strengthens-partnership-with-microsoft-to-enhance-performance-at-the-mission-critical-industrial-edge/

Microsoft and Nokia target Industry 4.0

Microsoft and Nokia have formed a strategic collaboration targetting Industry 4.0 solutions for enterprises and communication service providers (CSPs). The idea is to drive industrial digitalization and automation across enterprises, and enable CSPs to offer new services to enterprise customers. The companies are targetting connected scenarios across multiple industries including digital factories, smart cities, warehouses, healthcare settings, and...

Nokia to supply data center switching for Microsoft Azure

Nokia will provide its data center switching solutions for Microsoft Azure. The deal expands the long-standing relationship between the companies, including collaboration as part of the open source SONiC initiative to develop chassis-based platforms focused on the requirements of high-capacity data centers.. Financial terms were not disclosed.Nokia confirmed that it will supply its 7250 IXR chassis-based interconnect routers to support high-density...


BT boosts ADSL speed with 4G aggregation

BT began offering a Hybrid Speed Boost capability that will boost the fixed broadband speeds of small business customer currently being served via ADSL over copper lines. 

Hybrid Speed Boost combines the copper infrastructure with EE’s 4G network to provide an automatic uplift in speeds to 20 Mbps downlink and 10 Mbps uplinlk on average.

Hybrid Speed Boost from BT is underpinned by MultiPath TCP (MPTCP) technology from Tessares. MultiPath TCP is an enhancement to TCP, and enables the efficient, selective combining of existing network assets. It takes TCP based traffic and is able to split the traffic over multiple paths (such as fixed and mobile networks) to deliver increased speeds to customers.

Hybrid Speed Boost is included at no extra cost for new BT business broadband customers taking ADSL broadband plans. 

Chris Sims, BT’s MD for its SoHo (Single/Small Office, Home Office) unit, said: “Using cutting-edge technology, we’re launching the first product in the UK to fuse fixed and mobile connections together to bring faster speeds to small firms which might be struggling on slower copper lines. While the Openreach full fibre network is expanding at pace, week on week, we understand the frustration of small firms who risk being stuck behind as they wait to hear when ultrafast full fibre broadband will come to them. Fast, reliable broadband is vital for the smooth, day to day running of a business, so we’ve taken action today to boost speeds for business taking copper broadband – at no extra cost.

www.tessares.net

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-cranks-up-broadband-speeds-for-thousands-of-small-businesses-on-copper-lines/

Ericsson expands 5G R&D centre in Ireland

Ericsson plans to hire 250 people at its Irish Research and Development Centre in Athlone to support the company’s ongoing development of innovative cloud-native products that orchestrate, automate and power its global 5G portfolio.

The new positions, which will be added over the next three years, will be for cloud native engineers with competences including Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, HCP, together with core programming languages such as Java, C++, JavaScript, Python and Golang. This project is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

One of Ireland’s largest employers within software development, Ericsson has had a Research and Development (R&D) presence in Athlone since 1979. The Athlone facility, which is the global R&D headquarters of Ericsson Digital Services OSS (Operations Support Systems), currently employs 1200 people developing its OSS and Cloud RAN (Radio Access Network) portfolio. Ericsson employs an additional 200 at its Dublin base.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Leo Varadkar TD said: “This is really great news. Ericsson is expanding further, adding 250 new jobs to the 1400 the company already employs here. These new jobs are in new areas in cloud-native technologies, providing some really exciting opportunities for the Midlands. It truly is a vote of confidence in Athlone and Ireland as a whole that such an internationally renowned company has chosen to make this investment. Thank you to Ericsson for their continuing commitment to our country and the Irish-based team who I know were crucial in the decision to bring this investment to Ireland.”

Denis Dullea, Head of Research and Development at Ericsson Athlone said: “This announcement underscores our global reputation as a world-class R&D software development centre. Our team here already play a critical role in the development of Ericsson products, services and solutions that enable Ericsson to deliver limitless connectivity that makes the unimaginable possible. We are hiring an additional 250 software developers, engineers and architects with cloud native skills to enhance our capability to deliver the benefits of cloud native technologies to our global customer base via our RAN, Management, Automation and Orchestration offerings.”

https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/3/2022/ericsson-to-hire-250-at-its-rd-campus-in-athlone-to-support-5g-growth-and-continued-investment-in-cloud-technologies

Yokogawa tests 5G industrial control with DOCOMO

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has conducted a proof-of-concept test (PoC) of an autonomous AI controlling an industrial process and connected over DOCOMO's 5G network.

The fiel test, which successfully controlled a simulated plant processing operation over a period of 35 days, demonstrated that 5G is suitable for the remote control of actual plant processes.

Both Yokogawa and DOCOMO, as members of the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA), which is pursuing industrial applications for 5G, will continue to evaluate the use of 5G for remote, autonomous plant operations. 

The 5G-ACIA will present the results of this demonstration test at Hannover Messe 2022*6, between May 30 and June 2.

https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2022/0530_00.html