Cisco and Rakuten Mobile, Inc. say that the Japanese mobile services provider will employ Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) and Cisco Routed Optical Networking technology to enable the delivery of 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) services to enterprise customers. Rakuten Mobile will introduce SRv6 micro-segments, an extension to the SRv6 network programming model, to help enable future 5G standalone services. Cisco Customer Experience (CX) will plan and implement the overall architecture and design.
The transition to SRv6 will help increase network resiliency and support a wider range of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), according to the companies. The use of Routed Optical Networking, which will see the implementation of coherent pluggable optics into network routers, will improve automation and enable Rakuten Mobile to reduce services deployment from 100 days to 40, reduce power consumption by nearly 30%, and increase profitability, the partners add.
“Reimagining mobile networking is at the very heart of Rakuten Mobile’s strategy, and our decision to go full-speed ahead on SRv6 and Cisco Routed Optical Networking demonstrates our effort to take advantage of technology innovation at every layer of the stack,” said Tareq Amin, CTO at Rakuten Mobile. “We knew that Cisco would walk in lock-step with us as we worked through each phase needed to implement this new technology and align it to our business goals.”
“Cisco and Rakuten Mobile are on a path to profoundly change the way network infrastructure is built, in order to connect as many people as possible to quality internet services,” said Jonathan Davidson, executive vice president and general manager, Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco. “Rakuten Mobile continues to mark important milestones to take its network to the next-level, and together we are showcasing the blueprint for the internet for the future to support our world of wireless and cloud-powered experiences.”
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