Vodafone Egypt has launched the first commercial virtual network function (VNF) in the Middle East.
Telecom equipment and software company Ericsson is the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology partner for Vodafone Egypt. Ericsson’s virtual Serving GPRS Support Node – Mobility Management Entity (SGSN-MME) has been managing commercial mobile broadband traffic on the Vodafone Egypt network since October 2016.
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Ericsson virtual SGSN-MME, which supports access technologies such as GSM, WCDMA and LTE, and interworks with Wi-Fi, provides full feature parity, and is agnostic to the cloud system with support for both Open stack and VMware. Vodafone Egypt network runs using a combination of virtual and native SGSN/MME in the same pool, supporting capacity expansion.
“The virtualization technology will enhance the speed and efficiency of services we provide to our customers,” said Osama Said, technology director at Vodafone Egypt.
Ericsson has built and operated more than 300 commercial LTE/EPC networks that include either a native or virtual SGSN-MME.
Rafiah Ibrahim, head of Region Middle East and East Africa at Ericsson, was instrumental in the successful execution of the NFV project for Vodafone Egypt.
