The Japanese telecommunications operator NTT Docomo is working with vendors Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and NEC and has completed proof-of-concept (PoC) trials to verify the feasibility of network function virtualization (NFV), Telecompaper.com writes, then adds that Docomo, using the virtualized Evolved Packet Core (EPC), the core network of LTE systems, and each of the three vendors verified network control mechanisms, such as scalable user-data processing capability.

Following these PoC trials, Docomo now plans to deploy services using a virtualized mobile network by the fiscal year ending March 2016. The company has been cooperating separately with the three vendors on this feasibility verification since last November.