Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier, the international wholesale division of Deutsche Telekom, and international mobile roaming specialist Comfone, announce the successful completion of the first phase of their joint inter-carrier 5G SA Roaming Proof-of-Concept (PoC) trial. The aim of this testing phase was to determine how carriers can best support operators in this new era of connectivity enabled by 5G technology. Both carriers jointly tested several scenarios including transport, hosted Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP) scenarios and SEPP-SEPP interconnection.
For the SEPP-SEPP interconnection, testing included how the transport layer security (TLS) interconnection safeguards the public land mobile network (PLMN) communication and still enables carriers to provide quality of service in the transport layer. For the hosted SEPP, both partners proved how mobile operators can get proper support from carriers in the operational aspects of the new security concept of 5G SA roaming. The test scenarios covered how certificate management works, how TLS interconnection is implemented and how the operator environment can be security connected to the hosted SEPP.
“We are excited that we could prove our environment is ready for real live 5G SA roaming scenarios in any possible configuration – also when operators are not our customers – because this means we can reach the complete roaming ecosystem,” said Nicholas Nikrouyan, Vice President, Voice & Mobile Solutions at Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier. “As a next step, we will extend our joint PoC with Comfone by including additional end-to-end testing with mobile operators. We will also conduct additional PoCs to test ultra-low latency roaming scenarios, 5G roaming value added services and network slicing roaming. We welcome operators to join us for any of these PoC initiatives.”
“5G standalone deployments are steadily increasing as more and more operators test and implement the innovative 5G service capabilities,” said Derek Moser, Vice President Business Development at Comfone. “Together with Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier and our customers, Comfone is committed to support mobile operators toward this industry transformation and prepare for the next era in mobile roaming. In the next phase of our trial, we will connect more operators to our 5G SA PoC environment by testing the various roaming scenarios as an IPX Carrier and as a Roaming Hub provider in preparation for the full integration into the Comfone Key2roam Platform production environment.”
5G has prompted the telecommunications industry to increasingly adapt its business functions, from network operations to ecosystem partner management, and Deutsche Telekom Group is leading this transformation. The new 5G-enabled functionalities which mobile operators are most interested in, include network slicing, campus networks or also simply experimenting with the new broadband capabilities that 5G enables. The expansion of the current PoC will test these demands and ensure operators can successfully exploit new 5G potential. Innovators and early movers are welcome to join the upcoming 5G SA PoC trial phase, as well as the PoCs for the 5G roaming value added services and the network slicing roaming functionalities.
