Ericsson and AT&T have demonstrated the deployment of a Telco Virtualized Network Function (VNF) in a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environment that is integrated with OpenStack at the OpenStack Summit on October 27, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan.

The proof of concept (PoC) showcased a fast and secure deployment of the virtualized Web Communication Gateway (vWCG) – a Telco VNF – in Apcera’s container-based, policy-driven PaaS environment that is fully integrated with OpenStack. The PoC showed audio and video communications between multiple Web browsers utilizing the vWCG deployed in an OpenStack-integrated PaaS environment.

“AT&T and Ericsson have been working together on a prototype to demonstrate the deployment of a Telco VNF in an OpenStack-based PaaS environment. This specific prototype showcased a fast and secure deployment of the virtualized Web Communication Gateway (vWCG) – a Telco VNF – in Apcera’s container-based policy-oriented PaaS environment that is fully integrated with OpenStack,” said Toby Ford, Assistant Vice President, IT Operations Strategic Realization, AT&T.

“Ericsson is leading the development of both Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and PaaS environments that are integrated with OpenStack for deploying VNFs on Telco networks. This demonstration showed how a complex VNF such as vWCG can be deployed using Apcera’s PaaS technology with a few clicks of a mouse. This is an important step toward fast, secure and policy-integrated deployment of Telco VNFs on micro-services-based containers,” said Magnus Arildsson, Head of IaaS and PaaS, Ericsson.

“The partnership between Ericsson and Apcera has accelerated the development of a micro-services-based PaaS environment suitable for deploying Telco VNFs. This PoC paves the way for cost-effective, efficient deployment of VNFs and further collaboration with Telco operators to integrate carrier-grade requirements with Apcera’s trusted cloud platform,” said Derek Collison, CEO and founder, Apcera.