Smart Communications Inc., PLDT Inc.’s mobile wireless arm, said it has successfully conducted the test transport network disaggregation technology that will strengthen its digital infrastructure.
The demonstration was held at the PLDT-Smart Technolab in Makati City in partnership with various hardware and software vendors. Smart is the first telco to do so in the country.
Smart explained that the transport network refers to the infrastructure that carries data, video, voice, and other communication signals from point to point. This network’s operation usually relies on tapping a single vendor for both hardware and software functions.
Disaggregation would allow the firm to select, use, integrate, and operate standardized hardware and software from different vendors, ensuring that the new components can be added and replaced without disrupting the whole transport network.
“The disaggregated network technology is a significant milestone achievement as we transform our end-to-end network towards a fully Software Defined Network (SDN) and Cloudified network,” said Eric Santiago, PLDT and Smart First Vice President and Head of Network.
"It is a game-changing approach to network infrastructure, and its benefits will, in turn, allow PLDT and Smart to provide better, innovative and affordable services, and pave the way for future innovation and transformation of the transport network," Santiago added.
PLDT and Smart VP and Head of Network Strategy and Transformation Office Arvin L. Siena affirmed the new system, saying “the successful functionality and interoperability test conducted in our laboratory indicates that the solution is approaching the maturity stage.”
“The virtualization of routing function and its disaggregation from the hardware platform is a positive step towards the overall transformation of the transport network architecture, which promises to bring more flexibility, agility, and cost efficiency to our backbone infrastructure,” Siena added.
As of September 2023, PLDT’s total fiber footprint is over 1.1 million kilometers, 0.2 million cable kilometers of which are for international fiber and 0.9 million are for domestic fiber.
The same fiber infrastructure supports Smart’s mobile network from 3G, 4G/LTE to 5G, which currently covers 97 percent of the country’s population.