Turkcell has selected Affirmed’s Service Orchestration and Automation platform and its virtualized Wi-Fi gateway.
Turkcell, which has been working with Affirmed for the past three years, has deployed a single, unified NFVi (Network Function Virtualization infrastructure) architecture. The installation is one of the largest commercial, virtualized mobile networks in the EMEA region. Turkcell has now virtualized 60% of its mobile core services on its telco cloud, which features 20 unique virtualized network functions (VNFs), and is on target to meet its 75% goal by the end of 2020.
The selection of Affirmed’s Enterprise and Mobile Wi-Fi solution will provide Turkcell with new opportunities to monetize its flexible and dynamic virtual infrastructure, while connecting its 4G/LTE network to trusted Wi-Fi networks, enabling seamless network connectivity and a better customer experience.
“At Turkcell, we provide resilient and reliable connectivity to our customers, backed by our state-of-the-art infrastructure. The combination of virtualization, automation and new revenue-generating services has enabled Turkcell to become a market leader and meet the needs of our customers most effectively. Affirmed has been a true strategic partner and the key enabler in us undertaking this unique network transformation,” said Gediz Sezgin, Turkcell CTO.
“Affirmed’s Service Orchestration and Automation platform radically simplifies service creation and service provisioning while dramatically reducing time to create, deploy, test, modify and launch new services,” said Ron Parker, CTO from Affirmed Networks. “Implementing this platform, combined with our Wi-Fi solution, will allow Turkcell to create new network slices, help their enterprise customers to on-board and provision new customer premise equipment and enable new subscriber services to be deployed quickly, seamlessly and more reliably.”
Turkcell is Turkey’s leading mobile network operator and currently serves more than 48 million subscribers.
Microsoft to acquire Affirmed Networks for telco cloud vEPC
Microsoft agreed to acquire Affirmed Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Affirmed Networks, which is based in Acton, Massachusetts, supplies virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) solutions for mobile operators. Affirmed’s virtualized evolved packet solution capabilities include CUPS, 5G NSA, network slicing, integrated virtual probe, virtualized DPI, GiLAN, analytics and security services, virtualized Wi-Fi, and service automation platform. The company claims 76 deployments, including announced projects with AT&T, Etisalat, and Vodafone.
Microsoft said the acquisition will boost its efforts “to work with the telecommunications industry, building on our secure and trusted cloud platform for operators. With Affirmed Networks, we will be able to offer new and innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of operators, including managing their network workloads in the cloud.”
https://www.affirmednetworks.com/
Turkcell builds unified telco cloud on Red Hat OpenStack
Red Hat confirmed that its OpenStack Platform and Ceph Storage solution powers Turkcell’s centralized virtualization infrastructure (NFVi), which is called the Turkcell Unified Telco Cloud. Red Hat Consulting helped Turkcell design its Unified Telco Cloud and train up its network team, in collaboration with Affirmed Networks in the role of main systems integrator.
Turkcell serves more than 35 million subscribers with 99 percent population coverage in Turkey, making it a leading mobile operator in Turkey and the surrounding region.
Turkcell states it has now virtualized 18 percent of its overall data and voice services capacity on its telco cloud and is on target for its three-year goal of 40 percent. Live VNFs include PCRF and AAA for policy and charging, Data Optimization for differentiated quality of experience for customers, DPI for traffic management and enhanced VAS (value-added services), IMS and RCS for next-generation voice services and CG-NAT for IP address management, from multiple vendors. Turkcell is able to deliver workloads of more than 1.8 terabits per second (Tbps) of traffic and is currently carrying near to 1 Tbps of live traffic from customers across the regio
