Italtel CEO at MWC: "Operators Must Upgrade to All-IP Infrastructure to Survive Market Evolution"

BARCELONA, March 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Customer Value and Quality of Experience must be at core of transformation, said Stefano Pileri on opening day of Mobile World Congress  

Operators wanting to stay afloat in the rapidly changing telecoms market will need to massively transform their infrastructure in terms of guaranteed bandwidth, communications security, low latency rate and minimum cost for increased capacity, Italtel's CEO Stefano Pileri has warned.

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Speaking as part of the Network Evolution in Practice session on the opening day of Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Pileri said the rise of Internet of Things (IoT), exponential growth of IP traffic, reduction in the profitability of telecommunications services and the increase in the number of devices have all contributed to the need for this transformation.

Over the course of his speech, Pileri said three main elements will drive this transformation: Simplification, virtualization and automation, with networks needing to take a minimal architecture which Italtel calls 'ABC': Access, Backbone and Cloud. This approach will also allow the integration of concepts such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV).

"Operators will see a range of benefits with this simplified structure," continued Pileri. "These include reduced Total Cost of Ownership of around 40%, reduced consumption and reduced operations and maintenance," said Pileri. "In addition, operators can reduce the time to market for new services and, most importantly, expose network services with standard interfaces to many third-party specialist applications, taking up the role of service enablers."

Pileri went on to suggest two possible architectures to guide the network transformation: A cutting-edge "Central Cloud" architecture and "Edge Cloud" architecture, with each type defined by a different use of resources and performance requirements.

Within the new architecture, technologies such as WebRTC, all-IP video solution and hardware and software accelerators should be considered, according to Pileri, as well as the concept of continuous closed-loop control on the dynamic operation through SDN.

To illustrate his recommendations, Pileri presented the use case of Vodafone Germany vNGN project. Italtel is supporting Vodafone's Telco over Cloud strategy by migrating the German operator's fixed legacy networks onto a virtualized infrastructure. The solution deployed includes IMS, Session Border Controller (SBC), Intelligent Routing, Network Management and Orchestration, WebRTC videoconferencing and using VMWARE and KVM interfaces. All of these support main open standards such as OpenStack and OpenDaylight, which Pileri also highlighted as being important.

Concluding his speech, Pileri re-iterated that operators can preserve their role in the telecommunications industry if they generate value for their customers.

"Virtualization, cloud architecture and automation of configuration management are essential factors to achieve the TCO targets of new networks in new competitive telecommunications environments," he said. "A fully virtualized "ABC" network structure that enables the cycle of continuous control with SDN and NFV at its core will enable a competitive environment for consumers and operators alike."

For more information about Italtel, please visit http://www.italtel.com/en/

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Italtel Group 

Italtel designs, develops, implements solutions for NGN and NGS; Professional Services dedicated to the design and maintenance of networks; IT System Integration Services; Network Integration and migration activities. Italtel counts among its customers more than 40 of the world's top TLC Operators and SPs. In Italy Italtel is also reference partner of Enterprises and Public Sector for the deployment of IP Next-Generation Networks and for the development of multimedia convergent services for their customers. Italtel is present in many countries including France, UK, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Poland, United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Brazil, Peru.  http://www.italtel.com.

SOURCE ITALTEL S.p.A.