FEATURE : MOBILE TECHNOLOGY only in terms of sheer compute volume . But when physical access to telco sites is difficult , the ability to remotely control , manage and provide network services in a softwaredefined way is proving a major advantage . Therefore , it is vital that telcos adopt NFV confidently to keep up with consumers ’ increasing need for seamless connectivity .
As a sign of projects and deployments to come , F5 recently partnered with Rakuten Mobile to support the company ’ s launch of the world ’ s first fully virtualised , cloud-native mobile network and its future deployment of 5G . The carrier is leveraging NFV capabilities to optimise its new mobile network and accelerate its path to 5G services . It is also
using F5 ’ s N6 / SGi-LAN solution to virtualise multiple functions , including carrier grade network address translation , its firewall , a transparent cache for the domain name system and IP traffic optimisation .
By consolidating many different functions in a single solution , Rakuten has significantly simplified and stabilised its network architecture using a single vendor ( rather than five or six providing different capabilities ).
More broadly , the radical cloud-based and virtualised architecture points to how telcos can , and indeed should , double down on their traditional brand values of reliability and dependency . • during the COVID-19 pandemic that people really started to realise the technology ’ s true value .
In an NFV architecture , the hardware is decoupled from the software . A common hardware layer ( off-the-shelf servers ) is leveraged to host a wide variety of vendorsupplied network functions running in virtual machines . These are known as virtual network functions ( VNF ).
When used optimally , NFV architectures can speed up the enablement of new services and network functions , as well provide near real-time elastic network scaling to reduce total cost of ownership .
To date , NFV uptake has been slower than expected due to technological complexity and a closely related skill gap . An industry failure to deliver on projected cost benefits early on has also hit confidence levels . On top of that , deploying , patching and orchestrating VNFs from several vendors has proven both difficult and cost prohibitive , if
AS PEOPLE STAY AT HOME AND ACCESS ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES ,
TELCOS WILL KEEP LOOKING TO EXPAND AND PROTECT THEIR IPTV
SERVICES WHILE REDUCING RISKS TO DOWNTIME TO AN ABSOLUTE MINIMUM . www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO
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