Cannes, France; 3GSM World Congress — (press release excerpt) — Nokia today announced new platform technology for “All-IP” mobility networks. The new, uniform Nokia FlexiFamily platforms, based on open standards, will be the foundation for the cost-efficient All-IP systems that will accelerate the future development of the entire mobile industry. The first members of the FlexiFamily to be introduced are the open, carrier-grade Nokia FlexiServer and Nokia FlexiGateway platforms.

The Nokia FlexiServer is a high availability (HA) carrier-grade server platform using the Linux operating system. The use of mainstream hardware technologies and open-interface software components facilitate fast product creation. Nokia IP Multimedia Core servers implementing 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem will be based on Nokia FlexiServer. These network servers will eventually supersede current mobile switches, enabling mobile networks to provide rich-call capabilities far beyond present voice- and messaging-centric services. For radio access, the Nokia FlexiServer is used for products that manage the control plane for mobility and connection functions, including common radio resource management.

The Nokia FlexiGateway is a carrier-grade gateway platform and the future basis for network user-plane functions such as packet routing and processing. Based on the modular design of the embedded Nokia FlexiServer, tightly integrated with a highly efficient fault-tolerant routing platform, the Nokia FlexiGateway enables the independent scalability of packet routing and processing functions. Nokia FlexiGateway, with specially designed content-aware provisioning extensions, will gradually complete the implementation of the All-IP architecture.

Industry-wide standardization of interfaces, through forums like the 3GPP, is required to make affordable data services widely available. However, such standardization alone is not enough. Nokia is therefore inviting other industry players to share and standardize open specifications for All-IP platforms. The Service Availability and Carrier Grade Linux industry initiatives, for example, support flexible and low-risk adoption of new technologies. Combining Nokia's own strong R&D with leading industry players will further leverage these standards-based industry innovations to allow Nokia to focus on providing value-add solutions. This ecosystem will speed up the entire mobile industry.

A uniform All-IP network infrastructure is also needed to decrease the technical complexity of the network and reduce the cost per bit in a market where packet traffic volume is growing faster than revenues. The Nokia FlexiFamily is the foundation for such a cost-efficient All-IP solution. Open interfaces and a standards-based architecture reduce the costs of development, deployment and operation to enable mobile data services to take off.

 
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