Universal Customer Premises Equipment (uCPE)

uCPE

As a raw technology, Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) promised much but it was only with the emergence of specific use cases that this promise began to be properly realised. Universal CPE (uCPE) is one such use case and having recognised the early potential, Iricent invested heavily in developing our knowledge and capabilities in order to deliver the benefits on behalf of both service provider and enterprise customers.

Universal CPE (uCPE) utilises a white-box /COTS server running a high performance network operating system (NFVi) to create an open cloud-native environment at the network edge. Scalable multi-vendor solutions running on this platform combining a mix of open source and 3rd. party commercial software components provides the flexibility to deploy and change out network functions as needed.

Zero touch deployment provides the ability to perform service turn-up without site specific pre-configuration or manual intervention over any access network while deployment, lifecycle operation and management are handled by a centrally hosted Management and Orchestration (MANO) platform.

NETWORK REVOLUTION

Bringing the benefits of NFV to the customer premises

With uCPE, multiple services can be hosted on a single COTS server and new services can be added as virtual or containerised functions (VNFs / CNFs) rather than deploying dedicated proprietary appliances for individual services. By moving from proprietary appliances to the  software defined and open uCPE model, services can be deployed and activated on demand. New services can be instantiated by adding or replacing VNFs / CNFs on the uCPE and new branches can be added to the network without the need for network engineer site visits. The uCPE model facilitates the mixing and matching of components from different vendors allowing the building of best of breed solutions, prevents lock-in and future-proofs the solution.

Iricent offers a range of uCPE deployment use-cases including:

Micro Data Centre / Micro Cloud / Edge Cloud

Cost effective, low latency, high-bandwidth, secure and flexible private cloud facilities offered in conjunction with communications services, e.g. SD-WAN, firewall, IDS/IPS, etc. The solution leverages NFV orchestration to provide dynamic self-provisioned on-demand services.  Multiple services can be remotely turned up on a single server creating a highly repeatable and scalable proposition

Mobile Neutral Host

A shared wireless infrastructure providing service to end-users with subscriptions to different hosted operators (MNOs) seeking ways to cost effectively extend network capacity and coverage as well as for corporates and public sector bodies who wish to deploy private 5G networks or other wireless infrastructure

IoT Gateway

Distributed  IoT gateway or hub hosting along with communication services for both managed and enterprise-owned deployments requiring local processing of IoT applications

To find out more about Iricent uCPE solutions.