NEC and Netcracker Technology announced that they have conducted a successful trial in partnership with K-Opticom of Japan of a system combining network functions virtualisation (NFV) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet PON (EPON) technologies.
The companies claim that the trial verified for the first time that virtualised CPE (vCPE) can be successfully operated over 10 Gbit/s Internet connections.
K-Opticom is a provider of telecommunications services in the Kansai region of Japan based on its own fibre network, serving over 1.5 million residential subscribers. The company specifically offers the mineo mobile service through a MVNO arrangement and the eo denki electric power retailing service for residential customers.
NEC noted that vCPE provides CPE and other top-layer functions, such as dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) and network address translation (NAT), from data centres over Internet connections. vCPE is designed to allow the provision of enhanced home-based communications and to simplify home gateways, and the vCPE trial with K-Opticom delivered the following:
1. By virtually establishing conventional CPE functions on the K-Opticom network, vCPE can support the provision of a secure communications environment, as well as facilitate the delivery of new services such as VoD, cloud storage and parental control.
2. Enabled monitoring of communications status on devices such as computers and smartphones remotely at the request of the service user; allowing communications services top be improved and facilitating the prompt identification and resolution of faults.
NEC stated that based on the results of the trial with K-Opticom, the companies plan to conduct further trials in preparation for the full-scale roll-out of vCPE over 10 Gbit/s Internet services.http://www.nec.com/en/press/201704/global_20170411_02.html
