Case Study: NTT DOCOMO achieves commercial NFV deployment and improved core network flexibility and reliability with NetCracker VNF Manager

NEC Contributes to NTT DOCOMO's Commercial Deployment of Network Virtualization Technologies

NTT DOCOMO, a leading Japanese mobile operator serving over 73 million customers, partnered with NEC (and its Netcracker subsidiary) to virtualize core network functions to improve scalability, reliability and speed of service delivery. DOCOMO’s challenge was to move key LTE core elements off physical hardware so the network could flex up or down with load, recover quickly from failures, and pave the way toward a fully virtualized 5G-ready network.

NEC deployed a virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) — virtualizing MME, S-GW and P-GW functions — alongside Netcracker’s VNF Manager to handle VNF lifecycle operations; the solution went live in DOCOMO’s commercial network on March 9. The deployment enables elastic capacity management, rapid automated recovery from hardware faults, improved core stability and reliability, and accelerates DOCOMO’s path to a fully virtualized, more agile service platform.

NTT Docomo

Seizo Onoe

Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer