SS8 interoperates with Affirmed vEPC for lawful intercept

SS8 Networks confirmed its interoperability with the latest Affirmed Networks virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC).

SS8’s goal is to provide communication service providers (CSPs) with the lowest barrier of entry to the next generation of lawful intelligence. SS8’s integration with Affirmed Networks’ market-leading vEPC solution offers CSPs a secure and encrypted Lawful Interception platform that meets a variety of global requirements. It also provides the optimized agility, scalability, and flexibility associated with Affirmed’s vEPC architecture and solution.

“At SS8, we provide cost-effective, scalable, and compliant lawful Intelligence solutions. The interoperability with Affirmed’s vEPC has enabled us to expand our offerings and better meet the needs of our customers,” said Dr. Keith Bhatia, SS8 CEO. “Affirmed has been a true strategic partner, supporting our vision to make the world a safer place by providing the best lawful intercept platform possible.”

“Affirmed’s ability to rapidly and cost effectively deploy its vEPC solution to meet the needs of tier one operators globally is well recognized. By partnering with SS8, together we can radically reduce the time it takes to deploy and test a lawful interception solution,” said Anand Krishnamurthy, CEO of Affirmed Networks. “Implementing this platform with our vEPC will allow SS8 to help their customers deploy quickly, seamlessly, and more reliably.”

Microsoft to acquire Affirmed Networks for telco cloud vEPC

Thursday, March 26, 2020  Affirmed Networks, Mergers And Acquisitions, Microsoft  

Microsoft agreed to acquire Affirmed Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Affirmed Networks, which is based in Acton, Massachusetts, supplies virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solutions for mobile operators. Affirmed’s virtualized evolved packet solution capabilities include CUPS, 5G NSA, network slicing, integrated virtual probe, virtualized DPI, GiLAN, analytics and security services, virtualized Wi-Fi, and service automation platform. The company claims 76 deployments, including announced projects with AT&T, Etisalat, and Vodafone.

Microsoft said the acquisition will boost its efforts "to work with the telecommunications industry, building on our secure and trusted cloud platform for operators. With Affirmed Networks, we will be able to offer new and innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of operators, including managing their network workloads in the cloud."

https://www.affirmednetworks.com/

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Turkcell has virtualized 60% of mobile core service using Affirmed's NFVi

Turkcell has selected Affirmed's Service Orchestration and Automation platform and its virtualized Wi-Fi gateway.

Turkcell, which has been working with Affirmed for the past three years, has deployed a single, unified NFVi (Network Function Virtualization infrastructure) architecture. The installation is one of the largest commercial, virtualized mobile networks in the EMEA region. Turkcell has now virtualized 60% of its mobile core services on its telco cloud, which features 20 unique virtualized network functions (VNFs), and is on target to meet its 75% goal by the end of 2020.

The selection of Affirmed's Enterprise and Mobile Wi-Fi solution will provide Turkcell with new opportunities to monetize its flexible and dynamic virtual infrastructure, while connecting its 4G/LTE network to trusted Wi-Fi networks, enabling seamless network connectivity and a better customer experience.

"At Turkcell, we provide resilient and reliable connectivity to our customers, backed by our state-of-the-art infrastructure. The combination of virtualization, automation and new revenue-generating services has enabled Turkcell to become a market leader and meet the needs of our customers most effectively. Affirmed has been a true strategic partner and the key enabler in us undertaking this unique network transformation," said Gediz Sezgin, Turkcell CTO.

"Affirmed's Service Orchestration and Automation platform radically simplifies service creation and service provisioning while dramatically reducing time to create, deploy, test, modify and launch new services," said Ron Parker, CTO from Affirmed Networks. "Implementing this platform, combined with our Wi-Fi solution, will allow Turkcell to create new network slices, help their enterprise customers to on-board and provision new customer premise equipment and enable new subscriber services to be deployed quickly, seamlessly and more reliably."

Turkcell is Turkey's leading mobile network operator and currently serves more than 48 million subscribers.

Microsoft to acquire Affirmed Networks for telco cloud vEPC

Thursday, March 26, 2020  Affirmed Networks, Mergers And Acquisitions, Microsoft  

Microsoft agreed to acquire Affirmed Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Affirmed Networks, which is based in Acton, Massachusetts, supplies virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solutions for mobile operators. Affirmed’s virtualized evolved packet solution capabilities include CUPS, 5G NSA, network slicing, integrated virtual probe, virtualized DPI, GiLAN, analytics and security services, virtualized Wi-Fi, and service automation platform. The company claims 76 deployments, including announced projects with AT&T, Etisalat, and Vodafone.

Microsoft said the acquisition will boost its efforts "to work with the telecommunications industry, building on our secure and trusted cloud platform for operators. With Affirmed Networks, we will be able to offer new and innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of operators, including managing their network workloads in the cloud."

https://www.affirmednetworks.com/

Turkcell builds unified telco cloud on Red Hat OpenStack

Thursday, February 07, 2019    

Red Hat confirmed that its OpenStack Platform and Ceph Storage solution powers Turkcell's centralized virtualization infrastructure (NFVi), which is called the Turkcell Unified Telco Cloud. Red Hat Consulting helped Turkcell design its Unified Telco Cloud and train up its network team, in collaboration with Affirmed Networks in the role of main systems integrator.

Turkcell serves more than 35 million subscribers with 99 percent population coverage in Turkey, making it a leading mobile operator in Turkey and the surrounding region.

Turkcell states it has now virtualized 18 percent of its overall data and voice services capacity on its telco cloud and is on target for its three-year goal of 40 percent. Live VNFs include PCRF and AAA for policy and charging, Data Optimization for differentiated quality of experience for customers, DPI for traffic management and enhanced VAS (value-added services), IMS and RCS for next-generation voice services and CG-NAT for IP address management, from multiple vendors. Turkcell is able to deliver workloads of more than 1.8 terabits per second (Tbps) of traffic and is currently carrying near to 1 Tbps of live traffic from customers across the regio

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Microsoft to acquire Affirmed Networks for telco cloud vEPC

Microsoft agreed to acquire Affirmed Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Affirmed Networks, which is based in Acton, Massachusetts, supplies virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solutions for mobile operators. Affirmed’s virtualized evolved packet solution capabilities include CUPS, 5G NSA, network slicing, integrated virtual probe, virtualized DPI, GiLAN, analytics and security services, virtualized Wi-Fi, and service automation platform. The company claims 76 deployments, including announced projects with AT&T, Etisalat, and Vodafone.

Microsoft said the acquisition will boost its efforts "to work with the telecommunications industry, building on our secure and trusted cloud platform for operators. With Affirmed Networks, we will be able to offer new and innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of operators, including managing their network workloads in the cloud."

https://www.affirmednetworks.com/

Affirmed Networks unveils cloud-native UnityCloud

Tuesday, May 21, 2019  Affirmed Networks  

Affirmed Networks introduced a cloud-native 5G solution that allows mobile operators to seamlessly converge multiple networks, including 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and wireline core, on to one unified core.

The Affirmed UnityCloud, which is an evolution of Affirmed’s Mobile Content Cloud (MCC), is built on four key pillars:

• Innovation platform that enables operators to easily create and deploy new services with fine-grained network slicing for customized enterprise services
• Automatic networks that instantiate, orchestrate and scale the network up or down with no human involvement, including closed-loop automation
• Self-assured networks with observability to ensure minimal latency and maximum performance so Service Level Agreements are met
• Non-stop networks that provide 6-nines of availability with no service interruptions, even when adding new features or performing software upgrades

Affirmed said its UnityCloud embraces open source technologies including Kubernetes, Istio, Envoy, Jaeger and others. The company has several trials underway with tier one operators globally that are building 5G Standalone (SA) networks.

Affirmed UnityCloud significantly improves network economics by converging ‘Any G’,   This eliminates the need for operators to maintain parallel legacy networks dedicated to just one service.

“A telecom transformation is underway. A new generation of networks is being built to connect 50+ billion devices, creating a multi-trillion dollar market opportunity,” said Hassan Ahmed, Chairman, and CEO, Affirmed Networks.

https://www.affirmednetworks.com/products-solutions/5g-core-unitycloud/

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Affirmed Networks unveils cloud-native UnityCloud

Affirmed Networks introduced a cloud-native 5G solution that allows mobile operators to seamlessly converge multiple networks, including 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and wireline core, on to one unified core.

The Affirmed UnityCloud, which is an evolution of Affirmed’s Mobile Content Cloud (MCC), is built on four key pillars:

• Innovation platform that enables operators to easily create and deploy new services with fine-grained network slicing for customized enterprise services
• Automatic networks that instantiate, orchestrate and scale the network up or down with no human involvement, including closed-loop automation
• Self-assured networks with observability to ensure minimal latency and maximum performance so Service Level Agreements are met
• Non-stop networks that provide 6-nines of availability with no service interruptions, even when adding new features or performing software upgrades

Affirmed said its UnityCloud embraces open source technologies including Kubernetes, Istio, Envoy, Jaeger and others. The company has several trials underway with tier one operators globally that are building 5G Standalone (SA) networks.

Affirmed UnityCloud significantly improves network economics by converging ‘Any G’,   This eliminates the need for operators to maintain parallel legacy networks dedicated to just one service.

“A telecom transformation is underway. A new generation of networks is being built to connect 50+ billion devices, creating a multi-trillion dollar market opportunity,” said Hassan Ahmed, Chairman, and CEO, Affirmed Networks.

https://www.affirmednetworks.com/products-solutions/5g-core-unitycloud/

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Affirmed Networks launches virtualized EPC on AWS

Affirmed Networks is introducing a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The company says its "Mobile Network as a Service" enables mobile operators to quickly and economically deliver both 4G and 5G services over a scalable cloud infrastructure without requiring excessive capital investments.Mobile operators could use the vEPC to deliver differentiated services, such as IoT/M2M services, enterprise data services, MVNO wholesale services, 4G and 5G services, without costly data center or network infrastructure investments.

"The industry has realized that to keep pace with the explosion of data growth a new approach is required," said Amit Tiwari, Affirmed Networks' Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Systems Engineering. "Cloud-based mobile network architectures are providing operators with unprecedented network flexibility. With the ability to now access AWS as part of a "Mobile Network as a Service" solution, operators gain the ability to easily and cost-effectively scale their networks and their business across geographies and networks that were previously out of reach. With this evolution in networking, they can provide new, innovative, and extremely cost-effective services for end customers."

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Etisalat Deploys Affirmed for Mobile Core

Etisalat has successfully on-boarded its first virtualised telecom function using Affirmed Networks' virtualised Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solution.

UAE-based Etisalat made its first live LTE data and voice calls on its NFV telco cloud platform in April this year.

The vEPC will be used to deliver broadband and voice services for both mobile and fixed users, in addition to providing advanced connected car and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services.

http://www.affirmednetworks.com/

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Affirmed Releases Service Automation Platform

Affirmed Networks introduced its Affirmed Service Automation Platform (ASAP) for legacy and virtualized networks of mobile operators.

Affirmed Networks said its solution provides broad service automation across a wide range of standard network element interfaces, enabling non-programmers to quickly create service templates or recipes from existing methods of procedure (MOPs) and execute those recipes across the entire network.

"Today, NFV is being deployed globally as a result of the transformational benefits it can provide in terms of both cost savings and revenue-creation," said Angela Whiteford, Affirmed Networks' Vice President, Product Management and Marketing.  "Automation is the missing link that enables rapid service creation in legacy and virtualized environments and allows operators to create new services that were not possible before in their current environment."

http://www.affirmednetworks.com/

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Affirmed Networks Lands Saudi Telecom for vEPC

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has deployed Affirmed Networks’ virtual Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solution in its live network.

Affirmed said its solution involves virtual geo-redundancy, and supports the delivery of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services in the region. The Virtual Evolved Packet Core deployment is currently in full operation in STC’s network to support M2M services across the Kingdom. The new vEPC platform is initially geared towards supporting services in the area of M2M services. The delivery of M2M connectivity enables STC’s customers to gain real-time information on their respective services and will help reduce costs and improve the productivity and safety of their various assets.

http://www.affirmednetworks.com/

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Affirmed Networks Intros Virtualized Wi-Fi Gateway

Affirmed Networks introduced an Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG) and Trusted Wi-Fi Access Gateway (TWAG) solution that enables fixed and mobile operators to offer virtualized Wi-Fi access.

The carrier-grade virtualized Wi-Fi solution delivers the scalability and encryption required to increase the number of IPSEC-encrypted sessions on demand without the need of specialized encryption hardware. The company said it is able to achieve this by leveraging its expertise in virtualizing network elements with a solution on the IPSEC encryption front. Its virtualized Wi-Fi gateway takes advantages of hardware and software advances from Intel, including Intel AES New Instructions (Intel AES-NI) and Intel Multi-Buffer Crypto for IPsec Library.  These advances enable the delivery of a high-performance, fully-virtualized IPsec-enabled ePDG on standard high-volume servers.  In particular, new capabilities associated with the performance gains provide accelerated data encryption and greater levels of security.

"Network security is a critical issue for service providers," said Renu Navale, director, Intel Network Builders. "Robust and scalable encryption capabilities in Intel platforms will help accelerate the development of high-performance virtualized security appliances. Our work with Affirmed Networks is an excellent example of how we collaborate with Intel Network Builders members to deliver optimized solutions for comms networks."  

"Our work with Intel Technologies allows us to ensure that our technical innovation remains at the 'world-class' level that our customers deserve," said Angela Whiteford, Affirmed Networks' Vice President of Marketing and Product Management.  "Mobile operators are investing heavily to gain new customers and to remain profitable and must keep churn to a minimum.  By providing operators with virtualized Wi-Fi capabilities, not only can they begin to offer revenue-driving services, they also significantly improve network coverage, and the overall customer experience as a result.  Wi-Fi also provides a valuable 'offload' option that operators are utilizing to improve overall network utilization."

http://www.affirmednetworks.com

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Affirmed Networks Collaborates with HP on OpenStack Service Platform

Affirmed Networks is working with HP to deliver a carrier-grade OpenStack NFV service platform for mobile networks.

The platform combines Affirmed Networks' NFV-based mobile packet core solution with HP's OpenStack solution.

"Carriers worldwide are strongly motivated to move to virtualized networks running on OpenStack environments due to the many capital and operational savings this architecture provides," said Amit Tiwari, VP Strategic Alliances and Systems Engineering, Affirmed Networks.

"We continue to see strong interest in NFV from CSPs who want to gain greater agility against non-traditional competitors from a content delivery perspective," Werner Schaefer, vice president, Network Functions Virtualization, HP. "We are committed to working strategically with industry leaders like Affirmed Networks who can help us provide open, carrier-grade solutions that allow our customers to drive top-line growth."

http://www.affirmednetworks.com

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ACG Report Presents Business Case for NFV Now

A new study, conducted by industry research firm ACG and sponsored by Affirmed Networks and VMware, presents the business case for why Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) should accelerate their move to a NFV-based architecture.

The report makes a five-year cost comparison between MNOs with traditional and virtualized network architectures.  Some key findings:

• MNOs that transitioned to an NFV-based platform began saving money in the first year and realize an investment payback in three years;
• Adopting a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (EPC) solution, reduced capex by 69% and opex by 67% on average; and
• Mobile operators were able to deploy a virtualized network much more quickly (in as little as six months) than they were with traditional networks (15 months on average) resulting in quicker time to market and time to revenue.

“In order to increase both network capacity and performance, and also accelerate service creation, MNOs have the option of staying with traditional architectures or moving to a virtualized approach,” said Ray Mota, President, ACG Research.  “While we are seeing that many operators intend to move toward a virtualized approach, what we saw as a result of this research were the severe negative consequences that delaying that migration can have on their bottom line.”

http://www.affirmednetworks.com/tco-report/

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Europe's Transatel Picks Affirmed Networks to Virtualize its Infrastructure

Transatel, a Paris-based company that enables mobile virtual network operators, has selected Affirmed Networks' Mobile Content Cloud solution for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).

Transatel, founded in August 2000, has launched more than 150 MVNOs across Europe in the last 10 years. Transatel has roaming agreements with seven major European carriers to offer seamless service to its subscribers.


Affirmed said its Mobile Content Cloud enables rapid service launch by moving away from legacy infrastructure with a more agile and flexible virtualized architecture. By virtualizing network functions with the Affirmed Mobile Content Cloud and utilizing data center/cloud environments, Transatel is able to differentiate their service offering as well as embrace new and flexible business models critical for taking on a leadership position in the MVNO and M2M business.

“In the M2M and Internet of Things space, Transatel offers a comprehensive embedded connectivity solution for consumer device manufacturers and distributors to embed connectivity into their devices ‒ such as PC, tablets, and gaming devices ‒ at the time of manufacturing via soldered SIM card and benefit from local connectivity in the country of commercialization, whilst supporting advanced economic models, such as B2B2C and split billing, effectively becoming data MVNOs,” said Jacques Bonifay, CEO of Transatel. “Affirmed Networks’ virtualization solution is a key component to support these various economic models in real-time mobile data control and charging, radically simplifying the way new services are created and launched, and monitored for our customers’ benefits.”

“We admire Transatel’s forward thinking vision of the consumer device market and the role the MVNO model will play in this market to bring differentiated services to subscribers. In many ways it parallels our own philosophy of innovation at Affirmed,” stated Hassan Ahmed, Chairman and CEO of Affirmed Networks. “The Transatel team immediately recognized that our virtualized architecture greatly enhances their ability to launch and monetize new services while radically simplifying their operations and management.”

http://www.transatel.com
http://www.affirmednetworks.com/

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