- Hungarian NatCo adopts cloud‑native containerised converged packet core.
- Requirement to support all access technologies from 2G to 5G.
- Mavenir further deepens Group bonds.
US software‑based networking player Mavenir announced that Magyar Telekom (MT) is implementing a cloud‑native containerised converged packet core to enable it to more easily deploy enterprise solutions that utilise 5G features such as low latency and network slicing.
A key attraction for the Hungarian NatCo is that the converged packet core supports all mobile access technologies, including 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G (both standalone and non‑standalone/SA and NSA), and enables them to run on a common cloud‑native platform provided by Deutsche Telekom (DT).
Laszlo Boka, Platform and Core Services Tribe Lead at MT, also cited the requirement for an open architecture “that could run on our specified hardware and software platforms, and seamless integration with third‑party network functions”.
The open architecture is based on DT‑defined hardware and a Kubernetes‑based platform. Mavenir cited further attributes such as a “fully containerised solution based on stateless microservice architecture that allows better resiliency and faster recovery in the event of network failures. It also enables the easy onboarding of users on Deutsche Telekom containers‑as-a‑service”.
Tarek Elbasyouny, Chief Architect at Mavenir, told Fierce Wireless that MT is “starting with 5G SA and later will add NSA and 4G access”.
Elbasyouny noted that Mavenir will continue to support existing voice and data services such as voice‑over-LTE and voice‑over-Wi‑Fi, with voice‑over-5G New Radio (VoNR) to be added in future.
DT has a longstanding relationship with Mavenir, which has largely focused on the implementation of network core apparently capable of migrating to cloud‑native virtualisation. In October 2022, it announced that Telekom Deutschland had chosen to implement converged packet core technology within its 5G SA network (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #118).
In late‑2021, Mavenir linked up with Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TRMC) on the implementation of its cloud‑native virtualised IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) within TRMC’s network (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #107).
In early‑2020, twin NatCos Slovak Telekom and T‑Mobile Czech Republic announced the completion of what they called a “harmonised” core network, which used a Mavenir IMS product (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #97). Mavenir also has past links with Hrvatski Telekom, Magenta Telekom, and T‑Mobile US on next‑generation voice and data infrastructure (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #38, #41, #49, #51, and #65–#66).
More recently, the vendor has been participating in the Group’s O‑RAN Town deployment in Neubrandenburg, Germany, to trial open radio access network (RAN) technology (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #108). Mavenir supplied cloud‑native baseband software for 4G and 5G distributed and central units, including multiple input, multiple output, while Fujitsu and NEC provided remote radio units for the project.
