Month: March 2016

NTT DOCOMO’s vEPC Launch: It’s Not Often That “Multi-vendor,” “NFV” and “On Time” Come Together

by David Snow, posted in Net Transformation, SDN/NFV, Vendor Transformation
David Snow
David Snow

Summary Bullets:

  • Two and half years ago, NTT DOCOMO embarked on a foundational NFV infrastructure project, which was commercially launched this month.
  • Selecting three vendors from the original six, DOCOMO made multi-vendor interoperability and resilience key tenets of its solution, just as NFV originally envisioned.

It was almost exactly two and a half years ago, at the SDN & OpenFlow World Congress 2014 in Dusseldorf, when NTT DOCOMO committed to roll out its national vEPC infrastructure by the end of fiscal 2015, i.e. March 2016. On the ninth of this month, that indeed happened. Continue reading “NTT DOCOMO’s vEPC Launch: It’s Not Often That “Multi-vendor,” “NFV” and “On Time” Come Together” →

MWC16: Open Source Steps in to Unblock NFV MANO

by David Snow, posted in SDN/NFV
David Snow - Principal Analyst, IP Services Infrastructure
David Snow – Principal Analyst, IP Services Infrastructure

Summary Bullets:                 

  • Mobile World Congress saw not one, but two, new open source MANO initiatives launched
  • While a true open source is a massive step forward for telecom, MANO may end up in a state of “openkill”

With general consensus that, for the first time in three years, MWC16 was not dominated by operator or vendor NFV messaging, it’s not true to say that there wasn’t any significant NFV activity – far from it. What was particularly intriguing though, was that the significant NFV activity was around open source MANO.

Six months ago, open source MANO was considered an “interesting experiment” and confined to Telefonica’s research for the UNICA project.  However, since then, the concept has gathered significant industry support.  First, in December last year, OPNFV announced that it intended to “remove scope constraints” and consider addressing the parts of MANO above the VIM, and a few weeks ago at Mobile World Congress, two new open source MANO initiatives were launched, the Open Source MANO (OSM) Community, under the auspices of ETSI, and the Open-Orchestrator (Open-O) Project, under the Linux Foundation. You can follow the links to see which operators and vendors are involved in each; but that’s not the subject of this post. Continue reading “MWC16: Open Source Steps in to Unblock NFV MANO” →

MWC16: IoT Roundup – Everywhere and Nowhere in Barcelona

by Peter Jarich, posted in Internet of Things, Net Transformation, Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich

Summary Bullets:

  • Mobile World Congress saw plenty of discussion and activity around IoT, including technology demos, technology trials, and solution enhancements.
  • Anyone looking for significant movement on NB-IoT at Mobile World Congress was likely to be disappointed, and LPWA players are taking advantage of that.

Long before Mobile World Congress 2016 kicked into gear, it was clear that two themes would dominate it – 5G and IoT. The 5G message was straightforward: vendors and operators are beginning to focus on commercialization, with fixed use cases being an early example. On the IoT front, there was no shortage of “noise,” but discerning one clear theme was difficult. Nokia’s pledge of $350 million to an IoT-focused investment fund was an impressive commitment to the space. Beyond that, however, we had NB-IoT movement and market development, but no major NB-IoT breakthroughs, no significant new LPWAN endorsements, nothing to suggest that carriers were conclusively gaining ground in “moving up the stack” to deliver more than IoT connectivity. Continue reading “MWC16: IoT Roundup – Everywhere and Nowhere in Barcelona” →

MWC16: Wireless Backhaul Roundup – Will a New Approach Improve E-Band’s Tepid Popularity?

by Ed Gubbins, posted in Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband
Ed Gubbins
Ed Gubbins

Summary Bullets:

  • Multiple backhaul vendors are offering (or plan to offer) new solutions that bond E-band links with traditional microwave.
  • This approach has pros and cons, but it will need to overcome the sources of lackluster market traction for E-band backhaul thus far.

In the wake of Mobile World Congress, we at Current Analysis have offered up our takes on the most important takeaways from the show in terms of new radio access networks solutions, 5G activity, IP services infrastructure and more. When it comes to the area of wireless backhaul, the most notable developments related to E-band millimeter wave technology. Continue reading “MWC16: Wireless Backhaul Roundup – Will a New Approach Improve E-Band’s Tepid Popularity?” →

MWC16: “Open” for Business

by Peter Jarich, posted in Net Transformation, Ultra Broadband, Vendor Transformation
Peter Jarich
Peter Jarich

Summary Bullets:

• From 5G and IoT, to virtualization and digital transformation, Mobile World Congress 2016 telegraphed plenty of technology trends which will shape the rest of the year.

• New “open” initiatives involving operators and vendors incorporated many of these technologies. More importantly, they point to a drive by operators to exert more control over network technologies.

With Mobile World Congress 2016 behind us, you’ll soon start seeing event recaps, recounting the key trends and events that shaped the show. Our own round-ups will start appearing any minute now.

Continue reading “MWC16: “Open” for Business” →