Tokyo, December 9, 2025 – NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) announced today that its Network Operating System (NOS) has been awarded the Silver Badge for compliance with requirements outlined by the Telecom Infra Project (TIP). The NOS meets the Mandatory Use Case Requirements for SDN for Transport (MUST) developed for TIP’s open and disaggregated 400G optical transponder solution, Phoenix. This recognition further demonstrates the advancement and commercial-level reliability of NEC’s optical transport solutions.

MUST is being implemented by the TIP Open Optical and Packet Trasport (OOPT) MUST SubGroup, led by telecom operators such as Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange, Deutsche Telekom and Telia, which defines the target architecture and technical requirements for SDN-based transport networks. It requires that the control and management APIs for open optical terminals (O-OTs) comply with OpenConfig data models.

The Phoenix solution is also part of TIP's OOPT initiative, led by NTT, Telia, Telefonica, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, and MTN, which defines open technologies, architectures, and interfaces in the optical and IP networking domains. Phoenix is the result of close collaboration among operators, specifying technical requirements for evaluating solution compliance through TIP's testing and validation process.

In the process of becoming compliant with Phoenix, NEC has transitioned from a traditional optical transmission architecture to an advanced SDN management approach, adopting the SDN concept of centralized network resource management to enable flexible control and operation. Practical feedback from leading telecommunications operators such as Telefónica and Orange was important in refining NEC’s NOS solution to meet the specified requirements of TIP. The solution already earned a Gold Badge from TIP’s Phoenix Program in January 2025, and its growing maturity has now been further demonstrated by receiving the MUST Silver Badge.

"NEC’s NOS has now earned both the MUST Silver Badge and the Phoenix Gold Badge, demonstrating our commitment to the future of advanced operations through the expansion of SDN alongside commercial-level quality," said So Sato, Senior Director of NEC Corporation’s Network Solutions Division. "We will continue to pursue our commitment to openness and disaggregation, strengthening our global market competitiveness with the strong support of innovative telecom operators like Telefonica and Orange, as well as the leadership of TIP."

"NEC has demonstrated a high level of compliance with the Open APIs technical requirements defined by the MUST SubGroup at TIP, resulting in the NEC Network Operating System (NOS) solution being recognized with this new Silver Badge distinction," said Arturo Mayoral López de Lerma, Head of Transport Technology at the Telecom Infra Project. "The Telecom Infra Project is proud to support operator testing activities that have contributed significantly to the industrial development of SDN-mature solutions for optical transport featuring open APIs such as OpenConfig."

"NEC’s Network Operating System earning the MUST Silver Badge represents an important milestone for the industry and reinforces the value of openness and disaggregation in optical transport," said Juan Pedro Fernandez-Palacios Jimenez, Head of Transport at Telefónica CTIO. "For Telefónica, this progress is essential for enabling end-to-end SDN automation, standardised OpenConfig/YANG data models, and seamless controller-to-transponder integration across multi-vendor optical domains. NEC’s NOS and its Phoenix compliant transponder have proven strong alignment with our strategy towards programmable, software-defined transport networks that simplify operations, unlock greater innovation and support the evolution towards autonomous network operations."

***

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of “Orchestrating a brighter world.” NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com.