Ericsson enhances its NFV play with OPNFV certification program

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) is launching an Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization (OPNFV) certification program, a move it says will create an environment to ensure network functions virtualization (NFV) systems and network infrastructure are compatible with emerging NFV standards and the open-source OPNFV reference platform.

The Swedish vendor is a platform member of the OPNFV, a collaborative project of the Linux Foundation where service providers and vendors work to advance the evolution of NFV and ensure performance and interoperability.

One of the key elements of Ericsson's OPNFV certification program is that it will be an open source reference platform that will allow service providers to accelerate the introduction of new products and services while reducing costs.

"The OPNFV certification program will certify vendors for compliance with the NFV standards being developed on the OPNFV reference platform," said Paolo Colella, vice president and head of consulting and systems integration at Ericsson, in a release. "Ericsson is a firm believer in the potential that NFV holds for telecommunications, and this certification program is one of the concrete steps we are taking to hasten its adoption."

Ericsson said that it will make the program and certification available from one lab in the United States and another in Europe, and globally via a distributed cloud environment.

Outside of this program, Ericsson has been actively aligning with key telecom industry vendors and service providers like Telstra and Ciena related to software-defined networking (SDN) and NFV.

In August, Telstra named Ericsson as its optical transport equipment supplier while providing a foundation to implement SDN and NFV functionality in its network. Earlier the two vendors established a joint agreement in which Ciena became Ericsson's preferred partner for packet optical and SDN.

For more:
- see the release

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