Alcatel-Lucent announced Sunday it will expand its partnership with Intel to cover new cloud initiatives to help operators to develop new products and services for consumers and business customers.
The partnership, announced at the Mobile World Congress, will see both companies accelerate development and delivery of optimized virtualized cloud, wireless and IP network functions using Intel architecture
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) appeals especially to mobile service providers now because it allows them to innovate more quickly and easily while providing the best return on their investments in an all-IP network infrastructure such as LTE.
Specifically the expanded collaboration will focus on major areas such as virtualized Radio Access Networks (RAN) portfolio, CloudBand NFV platform, virtualized IP/MPLS functions, which are expected to gain momentum in next few years, Alcatel-Lucent said.
The virtualized RAN solution will enable telecom operators to use general purpose platforms in configurations that will reduce TCO and increase operators’ ability to scale networks to satisfy mobile data demand with rapidly changing devices and applications.
Cloud Platform, developing and optimizing Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand NFV platform including joint contributions to the Open source community and a push to accelerate service provider testing, validation and deployment of NFV technology and products.
“As we outlined in The Shift Plan, it is critical that we lead that change by working with the best and brightest partners who can break down the barriers between IT and networking,” said Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent. “In working together with Intel - a world leader in computing technology - Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be positioned at the forefront of innovation as operators rapidly move to the cloud.”