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NEC joins industry and academia in Europe to develop a converged cloud-based 5G network and service platform

*** For immediate use November 9, 2015

  • The Superfluidity project, part of the European H2020 5G Public-Private Partnership (5G PPP) initiative, will define and develop a converged cloud-based 5G virtual network and service platform distributed over the mobile edge and core of 5G networks extending up to data centers. Superfluidity will in this way enable innovative use cases and empower new business models that require very fast mobility of network and service functions close to end users.
  • The Superfluidity consortium comprises 18 partners with an extraordinary blend of Telco and IT players (leading telecom industry vendors, operators, IT companies, small and medium-sized enterprises) and academic institutions.

Superfluidity is "a state in which matter behaves like a fluid with zero viscosity". The Superfluidity project aims at achieving superfluidity in the 5G network: i.e., the ability to instantiate services on-the-fly, run them anywhere in the network (core, aggregation, edge) and shift them transparently to different locations.

The Superfluidity project tackles crucial shortcomings in today's networks and aims at improving today's long provisioning times, with wasteful over-provisioning used to meet variable demand. Superfluidity will softwarize the network infrastructure departing from the usage of rigid and cost-ineffective hardware devices.

NEC, telecom industry vendors, operators, IT companies, small and medium-sized enterprises and academia in Europe and Asia are working together to tackle such issues designing a 5G network and service platform. Superfluidity will revolutionize the design of the network architecture by providing high performance network components and services decomposed into elementary and reusable small "software units" which will be embedded into a native, converged cloud-based architecture.

The work is planned for a period of 30 months, which started on the 1st of July 2015.

As a result, the "superfluid" 5G network will enjoy: i) location independence of network services in heterogeneous networks; ii) time independence via instantaneous deployment and migration of services; iii) scale independence for almost unlimited and transparent service scalability; and iv) hardware independence via development and deployment of services with high performance irrespective of the underlying hardware.

Consortium members
Vendors and IT:
NEC, Alcatel Lucent (Technical Coordinator), Citrix, Intel, OnApp, Red Hat.
Operators:
British Telecom, PT Inovacao e Sistemas, S.A., Telefonica, Investigacion y Desarrollo, S.A.U..
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises:
EBlink, Telcaria Ideas S.L., Unified Streaming.
Academia:
CNIT (Project Coordinator), University Ben Gurion, University of Liege, University of Technology Dresden, University Politehnica of Bucharest.

NEC outlined its vision for Network Evolution toward 2020 and Beyond at MWC 2015: The "Network 2020" will facilitate the easy fusion of ICT platforms and the network across various industries, using high-capacity, low-latency, power-saving, flexible architecture based on SDN/NFV and C-RAN technology.
Link: http://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/nsp/5g_vision/

For more information please contact:

Saverio Niccolini, Deputy General Manager, NEC Laboratories Europe, NEC Europe Ltd. (saverio.niccolini@neclab.eu)
Project Web Page: www.superfluidity.eu

***

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company's experience and global resources, NEC's advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society.  For more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com.

Based on its Mid-term Management Plan 2015, the NEC Group globally provides "Solutions for Society" that promote the safety, security, efficiency and equality of society. Under the company's corporate message of "Orchestrating a brighter world," NEC aims to help solve a wide range of challenging issues and to create new social value for the changing world of tomorrow. For more information, please visit
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About NEC Europe Ltd.
NEC Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, a leader in the integration of IT network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. NEC Europe is building upon its heritage and reputation for innovation and quality by providing its expertise, solutions and services to a broad range of customers, from telecom operators to enterprises and the public sector. For additional information, please visit the NEC Europe home page at: http://uk.nec.com/

About NEC Laboratories Europe
NEC Europe Ltd. established NEC Laboratories Europe in 1994. The Laboratories are located in Heidelberg, Germany and South Ruislip, UK. NEC Laboratories are conducting research and development on cutting-edge ICT technologies, in particular Future Internet, next generation fixed and mobile networks, the Internet-of-Things, Intelligent Transportation Systems, multimedia, security and service saving energy and protecting our environment. Special emphasis is placed on solutions meeting the needs of NEC's European customers. For additional information, please visit the NEC Laboratories Europe home page at: http://uk.nec.com/en_GB/emea/about/neclab_eu/

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