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The prospect of earning big bucks in connection with the upcoming fifth-generation wireless, or 5G–the latest iteration of cellular technology–is causing companies to partner up and get products ready for when this rolls out big time in 2019.
Verizon, Apple and Google (for 5G video streaming), Cisco, Samsung and Orange (for a new LTE network in Romania) and Qualcomm and just about everybody else (for a series of new projects) are three recent examples of these partnerships.
Here’s yet another one: Juniper Networks revealed Sept. 5 that it is expanding its 18-year partnership with mobile network provider Ericsson to produce an end-to-end 5G enterprise package using each other’s products and services. The two companies, who were close to merging three years ago, are now offering service providers a complete 5G transport network solution with single source of control to manage the new requirements of next-generation mobile service delivery.
Said to Be a Complete Solution, from Radio to Core
This partnership aims to offer service providers a complete solution from radio to core for new-service delivery while managing growing data stores and traffic complexity. 5G is expected to be a game changer for the next generation of business and consumer services, but the increase in connectivity, network traffic and customer expectations likely will create new challenges for managing the mobile transport network in a cost-effective way.
The first set of 5G use cases, such as connected cars, AR/VR and 8K video streaming, and the associated 5G radio requirements needed to support these diverse applications, will place heavy additional demands into a network. Capacity, connectivity, latency, synchronization, reliability and security needs all will require tighter integration between the 5G radio, core and transport layers of an end-to-end mobile network, Juniper said.
To address these challenges, Juniper’s expanded partnership with Ericsson is expected to simplify service providers’ 5G transformation by creating a tightly integrated solution that combines Juniper’s routing for next-generation WAN services and IP transport and Ericsson’s Router 6000 and MINI-LINK microwave portfolio for distributed, centralized and virtualized radio access, Juniper said.
Package Uses Juniper’s Cyber Security Platform
In addition, the solution utilizes Juniper’s Unified Cybersecurity Platform to secure the entire 5G mobile infrastructure against sophisticated threats. This package provides seamless connectivity from the radio cell site to the mobile core all unified under Ericsson’s management and orchestration solution.
The Ericsson-Juniper end-to-end mobile solution encompasses the following products from each company:
Access, fronthaul/backhaul:
- Ericsson Router 6000 flagship mobile backhaul portfolio.
- Ericsson Fronthaul 6000 includes high density optical solutions that complement microwave solutions for CPRI and eCPRI transport.
Microwave radio backhaul:
- Ericsson’s MINI-LINK is a 5G-ready microwave technology.
WAN Services and IP Transport:
- Juniper’s MX and PTX Series provide a high degree of versatility to support mobile infrastructure for 10G/100G/400G optical transport, simplified operations with Juniper’s unique universal design, advanced Junos OS software functionality including Junos Node Slicing, Juniper Telemetry Interfaces and an open, standards-based hardware-accelerated 5G CUPS User Plane.
- Juniper’s MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform is the industry’s only WAN edge services solution to deliver near-infinite programmability, cost efficiency and versatility with performance at scale for the evolving technological and business demands of next-generation mobile services delivery.
- Juniper’s PTX Series Packet Transport Routers are built to optimize IP/MPLS transport for backbone, peering and converged metro core applications.
- Juniper’s transport routers offer integrated dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) interfaces with interoperability between the MX, PTX series and Ericsson’s Router 6000.
Security Gateway and Gi Firewall:
- Ericsson Radio Base Stations are already integrated with the Juniper’s SRX Series Services Gateway, a high performance and highly scalable next-gen firewall platform, providing both Gi Firewall and security gateway solutions for end-to-end 4G/5G offerings. Juniper will continue to enhance its security solutions to work efficiently with Ericsson’s RAN solutions as they evolve to 5G.
Unified management and control:
- Ericsson’s management and orchestration solution will be applied across Ericsson and Juniper products, which will be fully integrated with full FCAPS support.
Manoj Leelanivas, Chief Product Officer of Juniper Networks, said in a media advisory that “commercial 5G is expected to represent close to a quarter of all global network traffic in the next five years. With both companies bringing together industry-leading network technology, Juniper and Ericsson will be able to more effectively capitalize on the immense global market opportunity in front of us and help our customers simplify their journey to fully operational 5G networks.”
Ericsson and Juniper will be demonstrating this end-to-end 5G transport solution at the Ericsson booth S.1724 in the South Hall at Mobile World Congress Americas Sept 12-14 in Los Angeles.