Asian operators have been conducting trials of network functions virtualization (NFV) systems in a bid to speed up adoption of the technology in carrier networks.
NTT DoCoMo has completed proof-of-concept trials verifying the feasibility of NFV using software and equipment from Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, NEC and Nokia Networks.
The trials involved interoperability testing of each vendor's EPC software with a different vendor's equipment.
"Thanks to collaborative efforts in the mobile network industry, NFV is soundly moving toward practical realization, rather than just ending up as a pie-in-the-sky dream," NTT DoCoMo CTO Seizo Onoe said.
"I am delighted that we have confirmed the feasibility of NFV through multi-vendor initiatives with many of the top ICT players."
DoCoMo is one of the founding members of the Open Platform for NFV, which was formed last month. The project aims to develop an open source virtualization platform. The operator aims to have a virtualized mobile network by the fiscal year ending in March 2016.
Alcatel-Lucent has meanwhile signed a deal with KT to collaborate on their own NFV proof-of-concept trial for KT's Giga Network.
The proof-of-concept network will use Alcatel-Lucent's virualized evolved packet core systems, its CloudBand NFV platform and a Nuage Networks SDN services platform.
“KT is happy to collaborate on our NFV proof of concept with Alcatel-Lucent who has been delivering open and integrated NFV and SDN products,” KT head of technology infra laboratory center HongBeom Jeon said.
“We expect this collaboration will help us create converged services for Gigatopia era and develop new revenue generation models.”