Spain mobile network provider to use Affirmed VEPC platform for NFV deployment plans
Affirmed Networks scored a deal with Spain-based mobile network provider Aire Networks to provide its Virtual Evolved Packet Core platform as the foundation for Aire’s network virtualization plans.
As part of the deal, Aire is set to deploy Affirmed’s Mobile Content Cloud solution to help in the virtualization of its mobile network infrastructure. Affirmed said the network functions virtualization platform is designed to help lower operating costs and increase flexibility for mobile carriers by “moving away from legacy infrastructures to a more agile and flexible virtualized architecture” as it “empowers the creation and launch of new services and applications in a matter of hours and days – instead of months with traditional hardware-based products.”
Financial terms of the deal were not announced.
Affirmed recently garnered a deal with Canadian telecom provider Telus to deploy a cloud-based platform optimized for “Internet of Things” workloads. The deal calls for Telus to use Affirmed’s MCC platform, which works with 2G, 3G and LTE packet cores and includes policy and charging control, content and video optimization, Wi-Fi connectivity, service chaining, deep packet inspection, heuristics and real-time analytics.
Affirmed Networks claims 28 customers around the world. One of those customers, announced back in May, is South Korea telecom operator LG U+, which is working with Affirmed Networks to deploy NFV technology on its network with a NFV-based VEPC solution.
A number of companies have looked into breaking down the operational costs of NFV and SDN deployments using real-world scenarios. ACG Research earlier this year put out a report noting potential savings from moving towards SDN and NFV, with the firm noting gains from service innovations that SDN and NFV support.
“A major advantage of SDN/NFV is in its opex, which gives the operators the ability to rapidly provision new services,” explained Robert Haim, principal analyst at ACG Research. “Service roll-out is reduced by an order of magnitude of months to days. Moreover, with fast service roll out, a new service can be tested with a limited set of customers first, and then upon favorable feedback it can be introduced to the entire target market. This can save a lot of headache (and money) later if the service turns out to be not as well received as it was expected.”
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