Telefónica has launched a mini autonomous LTE network to help rescue teams cope with disasters and retail businesses attract more customers.
The Spain-based operator said the LTE Nano aims to provide all the functionality of an autonomous LTE network at an “extremely small scale where low consumption and portability are paramount”.
It runs on a 40 grams Single Board Computer, SBC, on a Quad Core Cortex A53 processor and 2GB of RAM. It has integrated several components including the EdgeCentrix virtual Enhanced Packet Core (vEPC) solution from Quortus, which is able to run essential elements of both 4G and 3G networks including voice and data communications with minimum HW requirements.
“This innovation initiative is in line with our current efforts in bringing the benefits of the latest generation of LTE communications to all our customers, enabling services that were not possible before and helping said customers in finding new revenues for their businesses,” said Javier Gutierrez, director of Network Strategy and Development at Telefónica Espana.
“In this scenario, the combination of the highly efficient virtualised solution from Quortus and the benefits of a licensed LTE spectrum, is helping us in pushing the limits of what we thought possible and bring the reliability, quality, and security of LTE communications to completely new markets. Quortus has proven to be an excellent innovation partner in pursuing these objectives.”
Telefónica said rescue teams could use the Nano in a backpack “providing critical LTE communications in isolated places with no pre-existing coverage and difficult access”.
Retailers could use it for digital signage, security surveillance and wireless access to sales with firms in small office environments using it for voice communications, surveillance and quality wireless access to the office intranet.
It said that the small scale of the Nano implementation would also make it possible to embed LTE functionality in devices like a Femtocell, customer premises equipment or other customer’s devices.
Meanwhile, Telefónica has sealed a global framework agreement with Astellia to deploy the vendor’s geolocated-based RAN optimisation platform. It has already been deployed in Spain and will be rolled out to Latin America in 2017.
The platform is used in a variety of applications like troubleshooting and analytics to optimise the network and improve customer experience.
Telefónica has also selected TEOCO to be the main provider of spectrum refarming and frequency planning services for its opcos worldwide.
The agreement covers the full range of refarming services from specific performance parameters, multi-vendor compatibility and delivery requirements including frequency retuning.