EXFO, the communications industry's test, monitoring and analytics experts, today announced it is collaborating with Red Hat, the world's leading provider of enterprise open-source solutions, to enable telecommunication service providers and enterprise customers to better capitalize on the opportunities of 5G. The EXFO Nova Active μ-Verifier service assurance solution is now available as a Red Hat certified container for deployment on Red Hat OpenShift in hybrid cloud environments offering customers a cloud-native testing platform that provides visibility of mobile networks—from edge to core and cloud—which is critical for ensuring performance for revenue-generating 5G networks.
According to joint research findings from Heavy Reading and EXFO, 88% of mobile network operators (MNOs) are planning to deploy 5G standalone (SA) within the next two years. Integral to 5G, mobile edge computing (MEC) and cloud computing are essential for delivering ultra-reliable, lower latency performance—which is critical for IoT and Industry 4.0 applications. Yet, nearly two-thirds of network issues now originate from virtualized cloud infrastructure, making its assurance a key component in rapid root cause analysis and fault resolution. As such, service providers now require complete visibility of network performance across virtual and cloud-native network functions.
EXFO's Nova Active μ-Verifier solution helps close the visibility gap between service and network layers in hybrid 5G networks and cloud infrastructure. MNOs are able to detect, diagnose and resolve issues by relying on cloud-native container-based testing. The solution has been certified by Red Hat as a container that can be deployed on Red Hat OpenShift and its value has been demonstrated through partnership with a Tier-1 North American operator.
"As mobile technology, especially 5G, continues to weave its way into every industry across the globe, service providers are under more pressure than ever to evolve and scale with increased efficiency," said Honore LaBourdette, vice president, Telco Media & Edge Ecosystem, Red Hat. "Red Hat OpenShift is the industry's leading enterprise Kubernetes platform and helps form a flexible, scalable foundation for future connectivity from the core, all the way out to the edge. We are pleased to collaborate with EXFO to certify its service assurance solution to further extend customer choice and cloud-native support for service providers."
"The combination of EXFO's active testing solution and Red Hat's cloud-agnostic orchestration provides the adaptive service assurance that service providers need to deliver on the promise of 5G," said Claudio Mazzuca, Vice President, Strategic Partners and Alliances at EXFO. "These are key tools to provide granular visibility into the foundation of 5G's performance: cloud-native networks. This can enable network operators to generate revenues from enterprises and industry, while ensuring exceptional customer experience."