South Korean operators continue to push NFV, SDN and 5G plans, with Juniper scoring a deal to bolster LG Uplus deployment.
South Korea continues to be on the leading edge of mobile telecommunications technologies, including those based on virtualization platforms in support of next-generation “5G” network plans. The latest move comes from operator LG Uplus, which recently rolled out a carrier-grade virtual routing platform designed to support its 5G network plans.
The deployment, which is said to be the first in the country, included Juniper Networks’ VMX and EX4300/EX2200 Ethernet Switches in support of virtual routing and OpenStack-based network functions virtualization orchestration. The new equipment was tied into previous deployments of Juniper’s MX960 3D Universal Edge Router.
The equipment is designed to support auto recovery by recognizing network errors and being able to dynamically create a new virtual router in real-time to maintain service continuity, and auto healing designed to prevent system overload if operator defined maximum computer processor usage and memory utilization values are exceeded. Juniper also claims the deployment can support third-party hosted operating systems, hypervisors and orchestration tools, and enables IPv6 routing, anti-hacking and anti-distributed denial of service attacks in the carrier’s NFV infrastructure.
RCR Wireless News recently spoke with Paul Obsitnik, VP of service provider marketing at Juniper Networks, as part of our “NFV/SDN Reality Check” video show to get his view on the need to deliver NFV solutions designed to address different types of operational models.
South Korean telecom operators, including LG Uplus, Korea Telecom and SK Telecom, have been aggressively targeting NFV and software-defined networking deployments in preparation for their 5G network plans. While initial 5G standards are not expected to be finalized for at least a year, the operators have been working with vendor partners on technology aspects expected to be part of those standards as well as bolstering their virtualization plans in order to support technologies like virtualized radio access network and network slicing.
Furthering the rush are the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics scheduled to take place in PyeongChang, South Korea, which the country’s operators are looking to use as a showcase for their 5G network plans.
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