Software-based telco networking provider Mavenir is snapping up Brocade’s Virtual Evolved Packet Core business in a move it says will expand its 5G reach into private LTE and the Internet of Things.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Mavenir said all related intellectual property will be part of the transfer. That includes 22 granted and pending patents, a research and development facility in Mumbai, India, and customer support and maintenance contracts. Additionally, Mavenir said it will hire certain Brocade employees associated with the vEPC business, who will work with Mavenir to support customers and deliver new end-to-end solutions for the future.
Those solutions will likely come from a combination of the Brocade assets with Mavenir’s existing network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) offerings.
According to Mavenir, Brocade’s vEPC technology leverages cloud computing, network virtualization, and software networking to provide scale and efficiency on x86-based services. The software can reportedly scale from a single microprocessing core to a rack of servers depending on the use case, while maintaining the capability to integrate with traditional node-based EPC architectures. Mavenir said these vEPC capabilities will be a key part of its mobile edge computing and IoT strategy.
“We are building a 5G architecture with control plane-user plane separation and stateless VNFs. The small footprint, combined with a highly scalable architecture and built-in HSS, is ideal for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), private LTE, and industrial IoT spaces,” Ashok Khuntia, GM and EVP of Mavenir’s Access Products division, commented. “When bundled with our virtualized radio access network product, Mavenir offers a complete, fully virtualized end-to-end next generation core and access network.”