Verizon, Ericsson conduct cloud-native trial

Verizon and Ericsson have introduced cloud-native, container-based technology onto the core of Verizon’s active network during a proof-of-concept trial.

The trial, which the companies claim is the first container-based wireless Evolved Packet Core technology deployment in a live network anywhere in the world, introduces what they call “a much more efficient way to deliver operational applications that run the network”.

“The pace of technological advancement is rapid and is exponentially increasing. By evolving our core network past simply using virtualised machines and instead changing our underlying software architecture to run on cloud-native technology, we are able to achieve new levels of operational automation, flexibility and adaptability,” said Bill Stone, Vice President of Technology Development and Planning for Verizon.

Cloud-native virtualisation, in combination with built-in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI-ML), will “enable dynamic allocation of the appropriate resources and automated network configuration changes — including the ability to scale up or scale down network function capacity — to provide the right service levels and network resources needed for each use case”, the companies said in a statement released on 15 July.

“The industry’s evolution to cloud-native means big changes ahead,” said Nils Viklund, Head of Solution Area Packet Core at Ericsson.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/maxsim

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