The partnership yields “a very competitive joint offering” for private 4G and 5G, according to ng-voice’s CEO
Telecom software maker ng-voice has announced a new partnership with telco infrastructure software maker Casa Systems which ng-voice says will yield fully cloud-native 4G and 5G solutions for mobile network operators (MNOs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and enterprises. The partnership combines ng-voice’s Kubernetes-based IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core with Casa Systems’s 4G/5G multi-access core solution.
Ng-voice says its IMS core is infrastructure-agnostic and 3GPP standards-compliant. The company says the new solution will simplify the deployment and management of public and private networks with reduced cost and faster time to market than the competition.
“It’s roughly 80% less resource footprint compared to the Java solutions,” ng-voice CEO David Bachmann told RCR Wireless News. “It’s fully cloud-native and hardware-agnostic, so we run on bare metal, on any public or private cloud. We can run on any kind of NFVI (Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure). We can run multi-cloud.”
The partnership with Casa Systems “is an interesting combination in terms of ‘stick,’” said Bachmann. Both ng-voice and Casa Systems emphasize cloud-native solutions that run on any kind of infrastructure.
“To really leverage these capabilities, we’ve managed to find the right partner believes in the same idea of where the future is going,” he said. What’s more, Bachmann added, teaming up with Casa Systems helps ng-voice reach the burgeoning market for private 4G and 5G communications.
“(Casa Systems has) an interesting momentum to particular address the private 4G and 5G market. And I think it’s a very competitive joint offering there,” Bachmann said.
Ng-voice sees different opportunities for its own IMS core offering, depending on the client.
“It’s everything from the classic kind of voice deployment for an MNO decommissioning its 3G network, and now needs to move forwards from 3G to 4G,” Bachmann said. Those vendors are looking for an IMS to modernize voice services, something that has a smaller resource.
Another emerging use case is for customers who have up to now had data-only networks, but now have emerging needs for voice as well. Ng-voice is looking to capitalize on the inevitable transition away from legacy 3G technology to 5G, Bachmann suggested.
“There’s an increasing number of uses cases even in private 4G and 5G that require voice,” he said. “This whole market needs to transition voice to 5G in the next five years, due to the decommissioning of their 3G networks.”
Maintenance costs, the headaches of operating multiple core services in parallel, and other factors are converging to compel operators to consider new IMS solutions, he said.
Casa Systems announced a new partnership with Google Cloud in August to develop new solutions around cloud-native 5G core, 5G Standalone (SA) Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) and enterprise mobile private networks. The deal also includes coordinated global sales, marketing, and support efforts, according to Casa Systems.
“A lot of people are talking about running telco applications over a public cloud, working with hyperscalers. What’s different about this? I want to address this from two aspects: one is technical, the business. Technically, this is a complete integration of cloud-native infrastructure functions over a public cloud. We are truly integrating all our 5G functions with Google Cloud infrastructure. We are basically working with Google to make sure everything we have is leveraging Google infrastructure,” Jerry Guo, Casa president and CEO, told RCR Wireless News.
This integration includes Google’s cluster management, automation, operations, data analytics and monitoring functionality, Guo said. On the business side, he added that Casa Systems will leverage Google’s considerable resources to expand its reach.
