Bringing Cutting Edge Network Solutions to the Australian Market
Mavenir, a leading software company in network infrastructure solutions, and Titan ICT, a provider of information and communication technology (ICT) services, announce a partnership to bring Mavenir’s cutting edge network solutions to the Australian market.
With contracts signed, this partnership will allow Titan ICT to offer Australian customers access to Mavenir’s Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) for 4G and 5G mobile networks, as well as Mavenir’s cloud-native core network solution which offers “agility, adaptability, scalability, seamless mobility, high throughput services, and easy deployment and maintenance with automation on any cloud”. These solutions will allow communication service providers in Australia to improve their network efficiency, agility, and cost-effectiveness, while also providing a better user experience for their customers.
Mavenir’s Open RAN
Mavenir is a pioneer in Open Ran Network Architecture, providing the world’s first, fully contained, virtualized and open network. The vRAN solution opens the protocols and interfaces between various Radio Access Network sub-components including radio, hardware and software, delivering freedom of choice to operators when designing and building networks.
Why is the Communications Industry Moving Towards Open RAN?
In the case of traditional Radio Access Networks, proprietary single-vendor equipment imposes operational limitations. When attempts are made to combine sub-components from different vendors, the network’s performance is impaired, so operators are inclined to stick to a single-vendor scenario.
By contrast, Open RAN supports a multi-vendor modular approach which increases network agility and provides significant cost benefits, network simplification, efficiency and availability. The distributed unit and centralized unit can run as virtualized software functions on vendor neutral hardware, providing the associated benefits of virtualization.
In partnership with Mavenir, Titan ICT will be able to drive interoperability, support innovation and provide more secure networks through open standards and compliance.
Titan ICT is proud to be Mavenir’s first official partner in Australia.
VIRTUALIZED NETWORK FUNCTIONS (VNFs)
Virtualized Network Functions (VNF’s) replace the need for traditional physical hardware which is expensive to purchase, requires maintenance and is limited by its pre-defined functionality. Being software defined, VNFs break free from the constraints of proprietary hardware to offer significant benefits.
VNFs allow greater flexibility and agility because new services and applications can be integrated on demand without the need for extra hardware. This allows network services to adapt quickly to changing enterprise requirements.
Service chaining is much simpler with VNFs as there is no requirement to manually cable together physical hardware. Likewise, provisioning and deprovisioning is more straight forward, meaning service providers can upscale or downscale on demand. We have summarised some of the main benefits of VNF’s below:
VIRTUALIZED NETWORK FUNCTIONS: Summary of Benefits
- Negates supply chain issues associated with sourcing hardware.
- No need for separate hardware devices to accommodate each network function.
- No ongoing hardware maintenance or need for equipment replacement at point of obsolescence.
- Reduced power consumption and cooling requirements.
- Less space consumption with the absence of physical hardware.
- Lower OPEX and CAPEX costs.
- Simpler service chaining.
- Easier to upscale / downscale on demand.
- Quicker to add new features and functions because it only requires a software change – new service packs can be added quickly.
- Greater agility facilitates a faster response to evolving enterprise needs.
- Faster return to operation (RTO).
- In a disaster recovery scenario (for example a natural disaster), VNF’s can simply transfer to another server. There is no need to replace hardware or endure the extended timeframes involved in sourcing new equipment.