INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology
China Unicom selects Nokia core
networking products for 5G
The deal also includes products from Nokia’s
Cloud Packet Core portfolio, including the
Nokia Cloud Mobile Gateway.
The product provides the 5G standalone
Session Management Function and
User Plane Function, in addition to
supporting the 4G Serving Gateway and
the Packet Data Network Gateway in China
Unicom’s network.
Nokia currently has a 17% market share in
China Unicom’s rapidly expanding VoLTE
network, where it has deployed Nokia’s
cloud-based vIMS platform. This deal will
further enhance the long-term partnership
between China Unicom and Nokia.
Nokia has expanded its
relationship with the Chinese
communication service
provider China Unicom.
China Unicom has chosen Nokia to
support the buildout of its 5G SA
Core network in China, marking
an expansion of Nokia’s existing 4G
working relationship with the Chinese
communication service provider.
Nokia has been awarded approximately
a 10% share of China Unicom’s 5G core
network. The core network performs a
variety of functions, including setting up
connections, bandwidth management,
scaling and securing the network and, now
with 5G, opening the network to support
new, software-enabled use cases such as
network slicing.
The Nokia Cloud core products that China
Unicom selected provide Unified Data
Management, Session Management and
User Plane Functions and are complemented
by Data Refinery and NetAct, all deployed on
Nokia’s CloudBand.
Unified Data Management, a critical
function with the arrival of 5G and the
evolution to cloud architecture, manages all
subscriber data and services efficiently and
cost effectively. The Session Management
Function is a fundamental element of the
5G Service Based Architecture, primarily
responsible for interacting with the
decoupled User Plane Function as well as
subscriber session management.
The User Plane Function delivers the packet
processing foundation for the Service Based
Architecture, by allowing packet processing
and traffic aggregation to be performed
closer to the network edge, thereby
increasing bandwidth efficiencies while
reducing costs.
Nokia has provided critical support in getting
China Unicom’s 4G network successfully
established and will continuously support
China Unicom in its 5G networks up
and running in the future, leveraging its
advanced core network solutions.
Markus Borchert, President of Nokia Greater
China, said: “Nokia is very proud to expand
our working relationship with China Unicom
beyond 4G. We are looking forward to close
collaboration with China Unicom on novel
business models and 5G service innovation
to enable an open 5G ecosystem.” •
NOKIA IS VERY
PROUD TO EXPAND
OUR WORKING
RELATIONSHIP WITH
CHINA UNICOM
BEYOND 4G.
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