Rakuten Mobile to Drive International Standardization for Advanced Edge Cloud Tech, with Funding Awarded by NICT
Tokyo, October 22, 2024 - Rakuten Mobile, Inc. today announced that it has officially started activities designed to drive international standardization for advanced edge cloud technologies as of October 2024, in a project selected for support by Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) under their Innovative ICT Fund Projects for Beyond 5G/6G: Strategic Program for Social Implementation and Overseas Deployment*1.
The project, partially funded by NICT, aims to address the limitations of current international standards for network specifications that were established before the advent of cloud-native networks. These existing standards are inadequate for the increasing user numbers and communication volumes anticipated in the Beyond 5G era. Rakuten Mobile seeks to incorporate the requirements of flexible, efficient and scalable cloud-native networks into these specifications.
Rakuten Mobile has already built a large-scale, fully virtualized cloud-native mobile network in Japan. Leveraging this expertise, the company will closely collaborate with organizations responsible for international standardization to drive the creation and adoption of unified international standards for cloud management, including edge cloud technologies essential to the Beyond 5G era, thereby contributing to the widespread adoption of cloud-native networks.
Furthermore, through its subsidiary Rakuten Symphony, Inc., Rakuten Mobile aims to ensure that global cloud solutions such as Rakuten Cloud comply with international standards, as part of the company’s goal to deploy flexible and secure cloud services worldwide*2.
International standardization project overview
| 1. | O-RAN ALLIANCE |
|---|---|
| Support the standardization of cloud infrastructure management and cloud-native network function management within the O-RAN ALLIANCE. Contribute to the automation and standardization of APIs that optimize Kubernetes-based cloud-native environments*3. | |
| 2. | 3GPP |
| Develop and refine interoperability standards between O-RAN*4 and 3GPP systems, promoting the creation and adoption of unified international standards for cloud management. Focus on further standardizing operations and maintenance (O&M) for managing cloud-native, microservices-based 3GPP network functions*5. |
Duration of project activities
August 2024 - March 2026 (planned)
Through this initiative, Rakuten Mobile aims to drive the global standardization of cloud-native networks for the Beyond 5G era, contributing to the development of cutting-edge communication technologies that will boost Japan's international competitiveness and realize new next-gen services.
Notes
*1 Press release: Rakuten Mobile Launches R&D into Advanced Edge Cloud Technology, with Funding Awarded by NICT (November 17, 2023) https://corp.mobile.rakuten.co.jp/english/news/press/2023/1117_01/
*2 For more details on Rakuten Cloud, visit the Rakuten Symphony website: https://symphony.rakuten.com/telecom-cloud
*3 Kubernetes is an open-source system used to deploy, scale and manage containerized applications. Kubernetes is a registered trademark of The Linux Foundation in the United States and/or other countries.
*4 A radio access network (RAN) that complies with the specifications established by the O-RAN ALLIANCE.
*5 Microservices is a network development approach that divides large-scale software applications into multiple small, independent services.
*Product names and service names included in this press release are generally trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Trademarks such as ™ and ® may be omitted when company trademarks are mentioned.