Small Cell Forum (SCF) and ETSI’s NFV Industry Specification Group have signed an agreement to collaborate on a new work stream, exploring synergies between ETSI’s NFV program and SCF’s work to determine carrier requirements and recommendations for the virtualization of small cells. The collaboration between the two entities aims to ensure the objectives of both organizations are aligned, opening the door for SCF’s recommendations to be included in future ETSI use case definitions. SCF launched its virtualization program at the Small Cells World Summit 2014, an initiative in line with ETSI NFV Use Case #6.
SCF and ETSI have been working together since 2010, conducting the Plugfest events to accelerate the deployment of small cells through interoperability testing. To date, five events have taken place where the interoperability of 3G and LTE networks has been tested, the most recent being in June 2014, where multi-vendor SON in heterogeneous networks was tested. A remote Plugfest is planned for April, with the next face-to-face event scheduled for end of 2015.
SCF which works to accelerate small cell adoption to change the shape of mobile networks and maximize the potential of mobile services, said that it has almost 150 members, including 68 operators and telecoms hardware and software vendors, content providers and innovative start-ups.
ETSI has been a close partner of the Small Cell Forum for a number of years and the work on virtualization and the ongoing Plugfests is bringing us even closer together. Virtualization of the small cell layer and the radio network can open up a wide range of use cases and opportunities, so it’s important that we fully understand each of these. The work with ETSI enables us to align our work streams, providing input and conclusions that will help shape future use case definitions.
