Mavenir looks to moderate NFV expectations as hype swells

Network function virtualization has become a significant talking point across the mobile telecommunications space, with most wireless operators and equipment vendors looking more closely at the technology. That attention comes from the potential cost savings and potential improvements in rolling out new services that wireless carriers are always looking to take advantage of.
IDC recently released a report predicting that network virtualization was “set to revolutionize the telecom industry as it transforms the culture and operational infrastructure, as well as the fabric of legacy proprietary infrastructures that have, until now, dominated the space.” That followed a report from Maravedis-Rethink released earlier this year that predicted early three-fourth of mobile operators will deploy some form of NFV by 2018, noting the move to NFV will be one of the most important ways carriers will “transform their cost base and their service delivery in the next few years.”
However, while the promise of NFV appears almost limitless, there are still considerable hurdles in place before the telecom space is able to take full advantage of the potential. RCR Wireless News recently spoke with Mavenir Systems, which provides software-based networking solutions designed to support the rollout of next-generation services, like LTE, voice over LTE and IP multimedia subsystem, on the topic.
Ian MacLean, VP of strategy and marketing at Mavenir, provided insight into where the NFV market currently stood in terms of supporting the wireless communications market, why the hype of NFV continues to outpace reality and how wireless carriers will eventually be able to benefit from NFV to expand services. MacLean explained that while NFV will indeed be a crucial part of the evolution of telecom networks, the current market was still in its infancy, and that he did not expect significant deployments to happen until at least next year.

Mavenir recently announced that its IMS core network and Telephony Application Server was being used by T-Mobile US as part of the carrier’s recently launched voice over LTE service. Mavenir said its platform is designed to ensure compatibility between VoLTE and voice over Wi-Fi solutions with legacy network services.
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