NTT DOCOMO, Tuesday announced that it has completed proof-of-concept (PoC) trials that have verified the feasibility of network functions virtualization (NFV) using the software and equipment of six world-leading ICT vendors — Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, and Nokia Networks.
According to NTT, the trials successfully verified the interoperability of each vendor's Evolved Packet Core (EPC) 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. The POC will allow mobile operators to combine network hardware and software components of any vendor for deployment of network systems.
DOCOMO, as one of the founding member firms of the Open Platform for NFV, an open-source project formed last month is planning to utilize a virtualized mobile network for the commercial deployment by the end of March 2016.
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. I am delighted that we have confirmed the feasibility of NFV through multi-vendor initiatives with many of the top ICT players.
- Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at NTT DOCOMO
