Project Title:
Virtualization for 4G and Beyond Mobile Networks (NFV)
Project Reference:
ART/203CP
Project Period:
20150930 - 20170929
Funds Approved (HK$’000):
22578
Project Coordinator:
Mr Alex Kai-ho Mui
Deputy Project Coordinator:
/
Deliverable:
1) Virtualized Evolved Packet Core (EPC) software (2) Virtualized LTE Small Cell Gateway software (3) Virtualized Security Gateway software (4)Virtualized WiFi/4G Convergence Gateway software (5) Virtualized LTE Small Cell Management software (6) Virtualized Network Protocol Stacks Software (7) a. System integration and verifications (7) b. NFV Platform Establishment and Enhancement, Integrations
Research Group:
Mr Jiadong OU
Dr Che-I Justin Chuang
Mr Jui Kuang, Ray HO
Ms Mei Fan, Rebecca CHOI
Ms Angel CHEUNG
Dr Xin Yi LIU
Mr Koon Man, Angus SAM
Mr Calvin LEE
Dr Billy Siu-Ping CHAN
Mr Xiao-Dong Wang
Mr Jesse Yi Ai
Dr Ying Dong
Mr James Shijun Fan
Mr Ted Yao-Cheng Liang
Mr Qing-Hua Liao
Mr Allen Jian-Chao Lu
Dr Yolanda Yau Yau Tsang
Ms Alley Hua Xia
Mr Lin Xu
Ms Alexandra Po-Chun Yue
Mr Ansel Shao Hua Zhang
Mr Wai Lok Wong
Mr Benjamin Tze Kit Lee
Ms Hua Shen
Mr Zi Gan Andy Zhou
Mr Dong Zhe Su
Mr Jing Wei Liu
Mr Richard Liang Liu
Mr Zhi Cheng Luo
Mr Simon Yee Wong
Mr Jian Jun Zhang
Mr Jian-Sheng Samson Xie
Sponsor:
Fujian Sunnada Communication Co. Ltd. [Sponsor]
Fujian Sunnada Communication Co. Ltd. (Licensing) [Sponsor]
Innofidei Technology (HK) Ltd. [Sponsor]
Innofidei Technology (HK) Ltd. (Licensing) [Sponsor]
INTEL CORPORATION (Licensing) [Sponsor]
Intel Corporation (UK) LTD. (Licensing) [Sponsor]
TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd [Sponsor]
ZyXEL Communications Corp. (Licensing) [Sponsor]
Description:
The demand of ever-increasing mobile traffic pushes operators to consider how to provide new services including scaling the network capacity dynamically with efficiency and low cost. Operators must offer new and innovative services to drive revenue and stay competitive. They also have to deliver these services quickly with cost under control. In telecom industry, each generation of operator’s network has its dedicated hardware and network infrastructure. Services are coupled to these hardware equipment and physical network topology. To launch a new service, it often requires another variety of dedicated hardware and change of the network topology, which is is costly and complicated. The aim of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is to do network functions in software. It is one of the emerging technologies, which leverages IT cloud computing and server virtualization techniques. NFV enables operators to deploy network services dynamically in software without making changes to network infrastructure on the hardware level. The virtual network can be set up and managed similar to the virtual machine. The project aims to research, develop and integrate LTE network subsystems (Evolved Packet Core, Smallcell Gateway, Security Gateway, WiFi/LTE convergence Gateway) in Virtualized Network Function (VNF) format. These VNFs shall be deployable in mainstream open standard NFV platforms (including WindRiver, Open Platform NFV – OPNFV etc) and be manageable by mainstream NFV orchestrators, with carrier grade performance and high availability capabilities. This project has attracted international industry players to collaborate with the goal to deploy the developed technologies in live networks when this project completes.
