Enea announced the creation of the industry’s first virtualized data schema giving mobile operators the ability to map 4G and 5G data models into a single customizable view from the 5G Core to the edge.
Developed for the Stratum network data layer, Enea’s telco-grade solution breaks through vertical data silos allowing operators to launch and onboard new use cases such as edge computing, network slicing, and IoT while interworking seamlessly with 4G systems and the 5G Core.
“Data is at the heart of 5G, and operators need genuine agility to maximize their potential,” said Roland Steiner, senior vice president for telecoms, Enea. “But network providers have struggled to manage 4G and 5G data on their own terms. Our virtualized 5G core data management solution gives ownership of data back to operators so they can take back control of their data and their network.”
Enea’s open standard virtual schema, based on 3GPP guidelines, unlocks the data path allowing operators to manage and control both 5G and 4G data without any vendor lock-ins. Unlike service-based architecture (SBA) in the 5G Core, 4G lacks the standards that separate data and functions. As a result, mobile operators have been at the mercy of infrastructure vendors, with added data management costs, when they needed to launch new 5G services with legacy 4G data systems.
Having been freed from legacy vendors, operators can now have full control over their 4G/5G data to achieve cost efficiency and have the flexibility to create 5G ecosystems that match their network needs.
In a recent study from ABI Research, the strategy for mobile operators to take back control of their data and deploy seamless 4G/5G data management architecture was highlighted. It examined vendor lock-ins and the importance of distributed data platforms in the 5G Core.
ABI’s senior research director, Dimitris Mavrakis, said, “Enea’s Stratum comes at a pivotal moment for operators. Operators want to enter the enterprise market with 5G and use AI and ML to monetize a variety of use cases. Yet 4G/5G centralized data platforms have been a major pain point for operators with proprietary and centralized databases that did not scale. A growing number of operators including AT&T, Telenor, Telefonica, Orange, and Vodafone have implemented significant upgrades to their data platform strategies. More operators will deploy virtualized, distributed systems in line with their cloud-native strategies.”
Thanks to Stratum’s cloud-native capabilities, mobile operators can dynamically onboard new services faster. Stratum delivers robust data management at the edge, allowing data that is created or updated in one location to be accessed and read anywhere, securely and instantly.
Enea provides mobile operators with 5G-ready products for the mobile core, originally developed by Openwave Mobility. Its 5G network data layer unifies subscriber and session data across network functions, while its video traffic management alleviates RAN congestion and maximizes subscriber QoE.