A Skolkovo resident IT firm will investigate ways leading telecommunications company Rostelecom can reduce its costs by improving data networking and decreasing reliance on foreign software.
ARCCN had a stand at the Open Innovations Forum in Moscow last October. Photo: ARCCN
Rostelecom, which has a presence in every segment of the telecoms services market and covers more than 34 million households with fixed-line, pay TV, broadband and other services, has enlisted the help of the Applied Research Center for Computer Networks (ARCCN), a startup that increases the effectiveness of networking technology.
“Cooperation will allow Rostelecom to get the economic effect from the technologies mentioned above, and is aimed at the implementation of the import substitution program of Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation in the field of software,” a statement on the ARCCN website said.
At the core of the cooperation agreement signed by ARCCN and Rostelecom is the adoption by the latter of the former’s two key new technologies: NFV and SDN.
Network functions virtualization, put simply, replaces the need for new hardware by developing software that does the same job across existing networks. NFV offloads network functions into software that can run on industry-standard hardware.
Software-defined networking, meanwhile, is slightly different in that it allows software, often compared to an automated ‘brain,’ to choose the best path for data around an existing network.
ARCCN summarized the benefits: “Both approaches have a similar goal: to reduce network complexity, to ensure the scalability and automation management, to improve the power of the physical infrastructure by overlaying a virtual one, to simplify the deployment of software, and, of course, to reduce capital and operating costs.”
ARCCN is a research project created to develop technologies and products for computer networks of the new generation. In February 2012 the project received Skolkovo Foundation resident status.
Its priority is to conduct research into innovative computer networks technologies with high commercial potential.
Rostelecom, meanwhile, is an absolute market leader in providing telecommunications services to Russian government departments and corporate users at every level.
It is also a recognized technological leader in innovative solutions in the fields of e-government, cloud computing, healthcare, education, security and housing and utility services.