Vodafone and Huawei have claimed an industry first after they carried out a live update of a key network service without taking it offline.
The companies upgraded a VoLTE service based on Huawei’s virtualised network core CloudEdge, in a process called an in-service software upgrade (ISSU).
By creating an upgraded software version of the network function on the same data centre, they were able to move all subscriber data in batches from the old version to the new version.
The process, which included performance and service quality tests at each stage of the migration, was completed without affecting existing VoLTE services.
Huawei said in a release that ISSUs would enable seamless, automated and granular upgrades of services.
Dai Jisheng, President of Huawei Cloud Packet Core, said: “As strategic partners, Huawei and Vodafone have maintained in-depth and constructive collaboration in NFV and 5G-oriented cloud evolution, achieving many remarkable feats in joint innovation.
“The PoC success of Agile ISSU once again shows Huawei’s in-depth understanding and continuous investment in the Cloud Native field. Huawei will help Vodafone achieve continuous business success.”
Vodafone is currently undertaking a company-wide virtualisation project called OCEAN, which aims to simplify and speed up the delivery of services to customers.
At Mobile World Congress last week it signed a deal with NEC/Netcracker to deploy the vendor’s Hybrid Operations Management platform to orchestrate and manage operational services, reducing time to market.