NEC and Netcracker Technology today announced that they have provided a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solution to the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan. ITRI which is a govermental research institute leveraged the virtual LTE core networks for a Small Cell LTE Plugfest compatibility testing event during which ITRI performed the validation of the wide-ranging capabilities of a virtualized infrastructure.
Ten Taiwanese small cell LTE base station manufacturers participated in this event, seeking to verify functions for their base stations, enhance the competiveness of their systems and explore new business opportunities.
NEC/Netcracker said that the vEPC solution enables a set of virtualizing network functions such as the Mobility Management Entity (MME) that accommodates LTE handset authentication and handover controls, and the Serving Gateway (S-GW)/PDN Gateway (P-GW) for audio and packet processing, and enables them to run on a general-purpose IA server.
Dr. Sheng-Ching Cheng, Deputy General Director of the Information and Communications Research Laboratories of ITRI
We are very pleased to have recently hosted a successful Plugfest compatibility testing event, utilizing the world's first commercially available vEPC solution from NEC and Netcracker.
Atsuo Kawamura, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation
NEC and Netcracker will continue to provide software-defined and virtualized solutions, including vEPC, to service providers in Taiwan and around the world in order to enable the delivery of better services more efficiently.
