SK Telecom trials virtualised packet core

South Korean LTE pioneer SK Telecom has demonstrated a virtualised Evolved Packet Core proof-of-concept implementation. Teaming up with infrastructure vendor NSN the operator showed successful results for capacity scaling for both throughput and signalling traffic in connection with smartphone usage patterns.

NSN said that its virtualised EPC helps operators improve their competitiveness by introducing optimal services customised to its environment. The solution can be deployed to off-the shelf commercial IT hardware, helping operators reduce their OPEX costs, deploy effective solutions, and easily run and manage the application, the vendor said.

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“We have now verified the feasibility of telco cloud technology and can now make plans for our future commercial cloud solutions for enhanced flexibility and operational efficiency,” said Choi Jin-sung, executive VP and head of ICT R&D at SK Telecom.

In September this year, SK Telecom completed lab tests of NSN’s Liquid Applications technology over LTE, enabling the carrier to deliver media-rich services and content directly from the base station.

In October, the operator then teamed up with chip vendor Intel to cooperate on the development of a virtualised base station (vRAN) that can load and reconfigure all software functions in a general purpose server.