NEC and its subsidiary Netcracker Technology have provided a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solution 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 delivers virtualized 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, enabling 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.
“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.”
