NEC and Netcracker implement virtualized LTE core for ITRI in Taiwan

NEC Corporation and Netcracker Technology have provided a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solution via NEC Taiwan Ltd. to the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a non-profit research institute working under the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan.

The NEC/Netcracker vEPC solution has a proven global track record 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.

The vEPC was adopted by ITRI for an experimental network established for the Small Cell LTE Plugfest compatibility testing event. 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 and Netcracker will continue to support ITRI's compatibility testing in order to further promote the expansion of the Taiwanese LTE telecom market.

"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," said Dr. Sheng-Ching Cheng, Deputy General Director of the Information and Communications Research Laboratories of ITRI. "We will remain focused on undertaking R&D activities in cooperation with NEC, primarily with respect to Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and the Internet of Things (IoT), aiming to develop new business opportunities and increase the competitiveness of the telecommunications equipment industry in Taiwan."

"We are thrilled to have helped ITRI successfully leverage the virtual LTE core networks for the Plugfest event in which ITRI validated the wide-ranging capabilities for virtualized infrastructure," said 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."

"Netcracker is pleased to be part of this important technology validation of virtualized network functions for Taiwan's mobile service providers," said Loh John Wu, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Netcracker. "We look forward to helping more service providers here provide value today, while building advanced, new networks and business capabilities for the future."