Red Hat, NEC to develop solutions for CSPs

Open source solutions provider Red Hat has tied up with NEC Corporation to  develop network functions virtualization (NFV) features that would help communication service providers (CSPs) to modernize their networks.

NEC’s NFV integrated with Red Hat’s  Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform,  OpenStack Platform , an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution, are designed to enable CSPs to implement their modernization plans.

As communication service providers (CSPs) transform their businesses and modernize both their infrastructure and offerings, NFV enables them to deliver customer-facing services more easily and faster, with increased demand capacity, a statement said.

NEC and Red are working in collaboration for more than a decade and now, both the companies are changing their focus to NFV system integration with OpenStack, leveraging NEC’s extensive knowledge of telecom networks.

This enables the acceleration of NFV features in OpenStack and the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) in order to achieve carrier-grade and carrier-scale systems, including data plane acceleration through the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK).

NEC's NFV system integrated with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack platform will be designed to deliver mobile packet core virtualization, also known as virtualized Evolved Packet Core, or vEPC, as well as virtual Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE).

NEC and Red Hat plan to continue the expanded collaboration to integrate and optimize Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform and NFV, along with contributions to open source communities, including OpenStack and Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV).

Tim Yeaton, senior vice president, Infrastructure Business Group, Red Hat, said: “NFV offers tremendous potential to transform the telecommunications industry and radically change the way CSPs deliver solutions to their customers. NEC has long appreciated the power of ‘open’, and has always been an excellent partner. Through this expanded collaboration, Red Hat is excited to help meet CSP interest in NFV and open source cloud platforms - and more specifically, OpenStack, as they look for solutions to drive costs down and deliver new high value offerings.”

Atsuo Kawamura, senior vice president, NEC Corporation, said: “Through our long-term and continued collaboration with Red Hat, we are working to build an open industry standard which has enormous potential for expanding awareness and adoption of NFV. NEC, as a top 10 OpenStack contributor and a proven network vendor, aims to continue collaborating with Red Hat to drive innovation in the telecom industry through open source.”