Network testing company EXFO has announced a new collaboration with Red Hat, focused on adaptive service assurance for a 5G world.
Specifically, EXFO’s Nova Active μ-Verifier service assurance solution is now available as a Red Hat-certified container, which can be deployed on Red Hat’s OpenShift platform in hybrid cloud environments. The combination, the partners said in a release, enables a cloud-native testing platform for visibility of mobile networks from the edge to the core and cloud, for ensuring 5G mobile network performance.
EXFO said the value of the certified solution has already been demonstrated in a partnership with an unnamed North American Tier 1 operator network.
“The combination of EXFO’s active testing solution and Red Hat’s cloud-agnostic orchestration provides the adaptive service assurance that service providers need to deliver on the promise of 5G,” said Claudio Mazzuca, VP of strategic partners and alliances at EXFO. “These are key tools to provide granular visibility into the foundation of 5G’s performance: cloud-native networks. This can enable network operators to generate revenues from enterprises and industry, while ensuring exceptional customer experience.”
The Nova Active μ-Verifier solution, as EXFO describes it, helps “close the visibility gap between service and network layers in hybrid 5G networks and cloud infrastructure,” providing container-based testing that enables mobile network operators to detect and troubleshoot issues. EXFO developed its Nova service assurance portfolio to support a “new breed” of assurance for modern, highly virtualized networks, as company CEO Philippe Morin has told RCR Wireless News.
The test company noted that mobile edge computing and cloud computing are “essential for delivering [the] ultra-reliable, lower latency performance” expected in 5G systems, particularly those for industrial and IoT systems. But call it what you will, virtualization/ software-ization/cloudification of the network has come with a new set of complications. EXFO, citing joint research conducted with Heavy Reading, says that now, nearly two-thirds of network issues originate from virtualized cloud infrastructure. Which makes visibility into, and assurance of that software infrastructure “a key component in rapid root cause analysis and fault resolution,” EXFO said.
