Japan’s NEC has seen its profile in the global telecoms ecosystem steadily enhanced by 5G. This has been partly because of its role in Open RAN, developing the 5G radio and core for Rakuten’s roll-out and establishing its credentials as an alternative to the big five radio vendors, but with all the benefits of multiple decades of cellular experience with the demanding Japanese operators.
However, while NEC may not previously have escaped from Japan in the RAN market, it is a global player in some other sectors that are also being transformed or expanded by 5G – notably transport and backhaul networks, orchestration (via its Netcracker subsidiary) and systems integration. This combination of capabilities has attracted partnerships with other large vendors that want to increase their prominence in the 5G supply chain, such as the two router giants, Cisco and Juniper.
Cisco announced last week that it had expanded its integrator partnership with NEC to include 5G IP transport networks. The new Global System Integrator Agreement (GSIA) sees NEC acting as a systems integrator to incorporate Cisco’s IP transport and edge computing equipment in deployments that are targeted at 5G.
The 5G RANs supported by these transport networks could presumably come from any vendor, including NEC itself if its Open RAN efforts start to bear fruit in terms of 5G contracts outside Japan. A key aspect of the move towards multivendor open mobile networks is that the various components will require integration at hardware and software levels – at least until the day (which some think is mythical) when networks can be assembled in a more plug-and-play way from pre-integrated blueprints such as those in Rakuten Cloud Platform (RCP).
The integration requirement is controversial as it seems to add cost to an architecture that is partly being driven by the need for lower TCO, and as it may provide another stranglehold for the big RAN providers, which argue (with some validity) that neutral SIs will not be able to optimize their radios effectively for demanding scenarios. An SI with radio expertise, such as NEC, might be able to develop a compromise solution.
With Cisco, it will work to optimize the joint offering for specific international markets. The new deal builds on two decades of cooperations covering NEC backhaul, small cells and 4G systems combined with Cisco core and router offerings. Last year they announced a new collaboration focused on network security, based on NEC’s blockchain technologies and Cisco’s fraud detection, and targeted at critical infrastructure for carriers or enterprises.
Cisco worked alongside NEC in the Rakuten 4G roll-out but has not been visible in the 5G project. However, it has been building up its 5G-related portfolio with upgrades to its whole routing family, and last year it announced a deal with AT&T to support disaggregated IP routing technology for an edge routing platform.