Eagle-Lanner tech blog

 

The term mobility as a service (MaaS) has been the hot issue these days, and the reasons behind are 5G networks, V2X communications and mobile edge-cloud computing. Once intelligent Maas is realized, public transit vehicles like city buses will be able to collect and make sense of massive amounts of data from a huge array of sources, and there will be tremendous volume of data exchange on a daily basis. They may even communicate with sensors in response to signs like stoplights, bus stops, and even ones embedded in the roads to get traffic updates and rerouting alerts. In essence, they will act as a digital assistant to communicate with your device and gather information you need to go about your day.

2018 just started and the hype about NFV and SDN has been around for some time now. For the past years, service providers tested, validated and showcased many proof of concepts and created an eco-system what can help the migration path towards a simplified, open and programmable network infrastructure. 2017 seemed to be the year of the initialization of the network transformation starting with the lowest level in the network, the Customer Premise Equipment (CPE).

The current telecom industries are facing one of the most revolutionary eras that will drastically change the ecosystem, which is the upcoming of 5G networks by 2020. In the mean time, industry players have already employed technologies like SDN (Software-Defined Network) and NFV (Network Function Virtualization) introducing a more flexible, more agile, more visible and more secured network architecture.

A recent post published on AT&T‘s corporate blog by Chris Rice, Senior VP at AT&T Labs, and one of the most influential people in the telecom industry, together with John Medamana, VP Network Platforms, illustrated well the revolution the telecom industry is going through following the introduction of the white box concept.

The high anticipation of 5G technologies will be realized at the debut launch by KT (Korea Telecom) Corporation at the PyeongChang Olympics Games 2018. As promised, KT Corporation announced that they have setup the necessary infrastructure at the stadium including terminals, network protocols, bandwidth and edge devices to deliver audiences the immersive experience of watching the Winter Olympics games.

Radio Access Network (RAN) terminology is nothing if not confusing. Traditional RAN configurations are now termed “Distributed RAN.” The first phase of cost optimization through consolidation is typically called “Centralized RAN” or “CRAN.” Capacity improvements achieved through baseband pooling are often known as “Cloud RAN,” representing another, different use of the term “CRAN.” Currently, the ultimate approach to enhancements is “Virtual RAN” or “vRAN.” And we haven’t even mentioned “mini-CRAN,” proposed by China Mobile, let alone “Coordinated RAN,” “Collaborative RAN,” “Clean RAN” or “Advanced CRAN,” all of which have shown up in conference presentations over the past three years.

Around the globe, pretty much every telecom service provider is either running a network functions virtualization (NFV) proof-of-concept, or has already virtualized some areas of their network. In doing so, a major concern they have is how to effectively perform test and measurement (T&M) of these dynamic network environments which, if not properly assured, threaten carriers’ main competitive advantage: network reliability. Here, Accedian’s VP of International Sales, David Dial, explains what it takes to fully assure virtual networks, and how our solutions uniquely address this need.