2degrees aims for network virtualisation with Metaswitch

US based communications software company, Metaswitch says 2Degrees mobile has selected its technology to implement a number of key network functions in software on standard virtualised servers as part of its plan to virtualise its network.

Network functions virtualisation (NFV) has been rapidly gathering momentum among the world’s fixed and mobile telecommunications providers ever since a group of 12 formed in 2012 the Network Functions Virtualisation Industry Specification Group. The vision of NFV is that all the functions required to operate telecommunications networks and provide services on those networks will eventually be implemented in software running on standard virtualised servers rather than requiring dedicated hardware.

Metaswitch says 2Degrees as selected its Clearwater vIMS Core, Perimeta vSBC (Session Border Controller) and SIP Assurance Server (SAS) software “as the foundation on which to rapidly innovate, introduce and scale fixed and mobile communication services in the cloud.”

Metaswitch supplied the same products to Spark in mid 2015 to support a virtualised voice over LTE (VoLTE) proof-of-concept trial. It claims Clearwater to be “the only real cloud native communications software solution, … [coupling] breakthrough economic advantages with the reliability, performance and simplicity that service providers need to build and maintain a genuine competitive advantage.”

Metaswitch describes the product as “a cloud-native virtual IMS [IP Multimedia subsystem, a framework for delivering internet protocol multimedia services over telecoms networks] core built on a microservices architecture and open source framework that runs on any cloud infrastructure.”

It explains: “Historically, mobile phones have provided voice call services over a switched-circuit-style network, rather than strictly over an IP packet-switched network. core built on a microservices architecture and open source framework that runs on any cloud infrastructure.”

Metaswitch says that, “With elastic scale out capabilities, highly efficient redundancy models and carrier grade performance on COTS [commercial off the shelf] cloud infrastructure, Clearwater enables network operators to lower the risks of prototyping, stand up new services in days and dramatically accelerate time to revenue.”

Metaswitch claims that the combination of Clearwater and Perimeta will deliver “immediate capex/opex savings and operational simplicity while scaling smoothly to meet the needs and opportunities presented by 4G, 5G and IoT applications for businesses and consumers.”

According to Metaswitch SVP for APAC, Ray Tsang, "Real cloud native communications software solutions are the only way to deliver fully on the economic and rapid innovation promises of NFV.”