NEC and Netcracker provide virtualized LTE core network to Taiwan

The new solution was provided via NEC Taiwan to the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a non-profit research institute working under the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan.

The vEPC was adopted by ITRI for an experimental network established for the small cell LTE Plugfest compatibility testing event. Ten Taiwanese small-cell LTE base station manufacturers participated in this event, seeking to verify functions for their base stations, enhance the competitiveness of their systems and explore new business opportunities.

“We are very pleased to have recently hosted a successful Plugfest compatibility testing event, utilizing the world’s first commercially available vEPC solution from NEC and Netcracker,” said Dr. Sheng-Ching Cheng, Deputy General Director of the Information and Communications Research Laboratories of ITRI.

“We will remain focused on undertaking research and development activities in cooperation with NEC, primarily with respect to software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV) and the internet of things (IoT), aiming to develop new business opportunities and increase the competitiveness of the telecommunications equipment industry in Taiwan.”

NEC and Netcracker will continue to support ITRI’s compatibility testing in order to promote further the expansion of the Taiwanese LTE telecom market.

Atsuo Kawamura, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation said: “NEC and Netcracker will continue to provide software-defined and virtualized solutions, including vEPC, to service providers in Taiwan and around the world in order to enable the delivery of better services more efficiently.”