In what Orange claims is an industry first, it will trial the Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management and Policy (ECOMP) service, which gives operators the ability to design and operate “software-centric” networks running on virtual machines, rather than traditional infrastructures.
Orange will assess ECOMP on its Polish network, adding virtual services in the country, before rolling out globally across Orange’s 28 country-wide footprint.
“Virtualisation of the network is an inevitable process,” said Orange Polska VP of strategy and transformation Piotr Muszyński. “By testing ECOMP at Orange Polska , we are preparing ourselves to become a software-driven company.
“In the future, these cutting-edge technologies will give customers completely new possibilities, such as the ability to self-activate and deactivate services, or to enjoy flexible rating, based on the time they consumed the service. The operator, on the other hand, will receive tools that allow real-time adaptation to meet the customer needs.”
The tests will be used to support the development of a number of virtual Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE) services for customers. These will be moved to the cloud and managed by the ECOMP platform.
On top of helping Orange Polska develop these vCPE services, Amdocs will serve as the technology integrator for the ECOMP platform.
Amdocs has also worked with AT&T in efforts to standardise network functions virtualisation (NFV) and software-defined networks (SDN) platforms for the telecoms industry. AT&T has also announced partnerships with Colt Technology Services in this area, and has committed to releasing ECOMP as open source software in conjunction with the Linux Foundation.
Amdocs Product Business Group president Anthony Goonetilleke said: “Always an innovator, Orange was the first service provider to join AT&T in its efforts to standardise NFV and SDN platforms and we are excited to be their partner in integrating open source ECOMP for the first time into a live cloud environment and demonstrating the first of many NFV applications.”
