TOKYO -- NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced the completed deployment of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) solutions, including virtualized Evolved Packet Core (vEPC) and a Virtual Network Function Manager (VNF Manager), for NTT DOCOMO, INC.'s (DOCOMO) commercial networks. On March 9, DOCOMO started providing its commercial mobile communication service by using the NFV technologies.

The vEPC virtualizes the functions of a LTE core network, including the Mobility Management Entity (MME), the Serving Gateway (S-GW), and the Packet Data Network-Gateway (P-GW). A VNF Manager from Netcracker, a wholly owned NEC subsidiary, handles lifecycle events, such as creation, activation, termination and update of virtualized Network Functions (VNF).

The NFV solutions delivered by NEC open the way both for flexibly increasing or decreasing the processing capacity of the core network according to the load and for automatically recovering from hardware failure in a short time. This will help improve the stability and reliability of the core network.

"I'm delighted that we have developed and deployed NFV with NEC and other leading vendors in the NFV domain. To maximize benefit of NFV, DOCOMO expects to virtualize many other key components of its mobile network, aiming to eventually establish a fully virtualized network. I'm convinced that our multi-vendor NFV is the first step toward our goal," said Mr. Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, NTT DOCOMO.

"We are delighted to contribute to DOCOMO's successful deployment of network virtualization technologies for their commercial networks," said Mr. Shunichiro Tejima, Executive Vice President, NEC Corporation. "With this success, NEC will further expand commercial deployment of NFV based solutions globally, which enable telecom operators to introduce innovative services to the market more quickly and efficiently."

NTT DoCoMo Inc. (NYSE: DCM)