This is a deliberately vague buzzword in the industry, which means the application of cloud computing technology specific to the telecommunications market. Moreover, the definition is changing as telecommunications operations change to adopt new network and communication models that work with hybrid, public and private cloud networks.
Telecom operations have stricter requirements for productivity and quality of IT services or public cloud operations – along with significantly more regulatory oversight. Operator networks need faster traffic management, more reliability, minimization of flicker and lower latency than public clouds can provide, so telecommunications clouds are created with special requirements.
However, whether in a local area network or in a telecommunications network, cloud computing is a distributed computing architecture. The software works on the network as microservices or virtual machines. These applications are managed and orchestrated by hypervisor and application container technology. The software is available in scale, depending on the demand and availability of resources.
Virtualization and transition to the cloud
Telko clouds are built on the concept of Network features Virtualization infrastructure (NFVI), a software network definition (SDN) approach. In the telecom cloud, Cloud custom features and virtual network functions (VNFs) are replacing physical devices to provide basic network services.
The main network functions can be implemented as software processes. These processes run on hardware in the CATS. They replace specialized hardware devices that require physical space for installation, maintenance, and maintenance. By implementing features in software, managing their lifecycle, and using automation, operators can scale operations and introduce new features faster and more efficiently.
“Telco cloud is a software-defined, highly resilient cloud infrastructure that allows telecommunications to add services faster, respond more quickly to changes in demand, and manage their resources more centrally.” said Little Red Riding Hood.
5G cloud infrastructure allows Multi-Access Edge Computing (GUY), net cutting and ultra low latency communications, as well as disaggregating a radio access network (RAN) through Open RAN and other initiatives. These core technologies are key to emerging business opportunities in the 5G economy.
“Telecom Cloud represents the data center’s resources needed to deploy and manage a mobile telephone network with data transmission capabilities from carrier companies in large-scale manufacturing operations. These clouds are traditionally based in private data centers, which are used to manage the telecommunications requirements of 3G / 4G and LTE networks. With the current deployment of 5G equipment in the community of mobile service providers internationally, providers have adopted strategies related to network virtualization (NFV) and software-defined data center (SDDC) management. This makes the implementation of the necessary operational software of the operators more efficient, ” said VMware.
Examples of telecommunication clouds
IBM launches hybrid cloud architecture focused on telecommunications with dozens of partners in the ecosystem. Companies are focused on “accelerating business transformation, increasing digital customer engagement and improving flexibility as they upgrade their enterprise applications and infrastructure to unlock the power of 5G and edge,” according to IBM.
IBM Cloud for Telecommunications includes IBM Cloud Satellite and Red Hat OpenShift for flexible cloud-based services, and integrates IBM Edge Application Manager and Telco Network Cloud Manager.
VMware sees its Telco Cloud Platform as a way for 5G operators to support a consistent horizontal architecture “To continue to implement existing services such as vEPC and to support the same platform for new, cloud services, including standalone 5G services.”
Plate selected VMware Telco Cloud as a basis for the upcoming 5G green network. In a statement announcing the deal, Dish CEO Mark Rouen said the telecommunications cloud platform would allow them to provide online distributed cloud, peripheral computing and network sharing features to their customers.