Nokia has joined Telefónica’s roster of suppliers to rebuild its core network in Spain.
The Finnish firm said at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona it will provide core and virtualised routers to Telefónica Spain’s broad-ranging Fusión Network.
Nokia is deploying its IP portfolio at the core and peering layers of the Telefónica network.
The company said its 7950 XRS core router will enable it to address multiple networking roles with a common hardware platform. Its VSR Route Reflector (VSR-RR) will help it to implement highly scalable virtualised route reflection for internet, L3 VPN and L2 VPN applications.
Nokia will also provide various services as part of the upgrade of its network architecture, it said, including the migration and integration of current services onto the new technology.
Its 5620 Service Aware Manager and the 5650 Control Plane Assurance Manager products will be used to minimise misconfigurations, malfunctions and undetected routing updates in the control plane, it said.
Telefónica will start the long-term upgrade of its core network imminently. The project, scheduled to meet growing customer demand for high performance data and high definition video, and also to lay the groundwork for new 5G and IoT services, is expected to complete the project by 2019. US-based Juniper Networks was also confirmed at MWC as a partner for the core network upgrade.
Joaquín Mata, Network Technology and Operations Director at Telefónica Spain, said: “As we ramp up our video and high-bandwidth data services, we are committed to delivering the best possible quality of experience for our customers. We continue to rely on Nokia to evolve our IP core network with virtualisation and core router technology.”
Basil Alwan, Head of IP and Optical Networks at Nokia, said: “Telefónica is building on Nokia’s SDN, NFV and core routing capabilities to transform its IP core network for the next decade of growth. We are thrilled to expand our partnership with it. Our most advanced routing technology will support its leadership and help to build a strong foundation for the future.”