According to foreign media reports, Vodafone and Huawei Technologies announced on 2nd Dec. about the establishment of CoreNetwork R & D laboratories in Milan, Italy, to jointly promote innovation in the core network in order to benefit customers. The move marks a further deepening of their cooperation, and operators are taking a more open attitude to the equipment manufacturers in innovation.

Vodafone and Huawei jointly established the CoreNetwork Innovation Center (CIC) in Milan, Italy. It is equipped with Huawei’s latest mobile and core network equipment & technology to promote innovation in the core network solutions.

Vodafone and Huawei’s cooperation in R & D aims to enhance their competitive strength in the core network areas, such as mobile broadband, IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and FMC (fixed mobile convergence), and finally bring new creativity to achieve timely market launch. According to analysis, research and development work may also include packet core network technology, especially evolution of packet core (EPC) for the LTE. The Innovation Center is Huawei’s main core network technology investment in Europe, which highlights the close cooperation between operators.

Vodafone official said the new center is a way to achieve “higher cost-effectiveness” through cooperation, who also pointed out that the future core network development would enter the agenda, “We are planning our core network architecture map and confirm to cooperate with Huawei’s development blueprint.

This is not the first time that Vodafone and Huawei have jointly created a mobile technology lab. In December 2007, the two sides had cooperated to set up a research and development center in Madrid, Spain, dedicated to the research and development of radio access network (RAN) technology.(http://www.szcpost.com)

 source:szcpost