Nokia launched a pair of new network core platforms that shrink down its 5G-focused communication service provider (CSP) core product for mission-critical public safety and power utility verticals.

Bryan Davies, portfolio marketing manager for cloud and network services at Nokia, explained in an interview with SDxCentral that the Core Enterprise Solutions products take advantage of a microservices-based architecture to provide those verticals with a communication base with features they need and nothing else.

“What we're essentially doing is we're taking a communication service provider core and shrinking it down,” Davies said. “The way we're shrinking it down is by refactoring the containers. It's a fully software core that's based on [container network functions], but we're taking the containers and reducing the number of CPUs that are in those containers to create a smaller solution.”

Davies noted this reduces the capacity of the platform from the multimillions of subscribers that a CSP would need to support a commercial network down to several hundred-thousand voice endpoints that a public safety organization requires or several million IoT endpoints for power utilities.

“Power utilities don’t generally need voice services, but they do need a lot of IoT capacity,” Davies added.

This also reduces the overall footprint and maintenance cost of the system compared to a more fully stocked platform.

“You have to remember that these public safety organizations and power utilities, they don't have the hundreds of operation staff that a carrier will have,” Davies said. “So part of this overall approach is to make it very easy to operate with far fewer people.”

SNS Telecom and IT predicts annual investments in public safety 4G LTE and 5G infrastructure will grow at a 13% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2022 and 2025, hitting more than $2.3 billion by the end of 2025.

The customizable system also includes Nokia’s group communication product to support mission-critical push-to-talk services and interface with public safety communication systems. That interoperability means the platform could tie into something like AT&T’s First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) public safety network in the United States, as well as similar efforts in other countries.

Davies explained that focused support does differentiate the platforms from a more traditional operator core. He noted that operators typically want at least a five-nines level of reliability for a network, meaning it can only be offline for at most three minutes per year.

However, this public safety and public utilities platform operates in a more siloed environment where customers can schedule downtime to perform maintenance and will likely also be tied into a CSP core for broader coverage or uses that can overlap those potential maintenance windows.

“In the carrier space, they do not have unplanned downtime ever,” Davies said. “But you can do that in the critical communications space, you can take the system offline and it doesn’t cause a problem as long as you're not responding to an event.”

The system also furthers increased confidence in the hardening of containerized architectures. This growing confidence has migrated from the hyperscaler ecosystem to powering commercial wireless networks and now mission-critical environments.

One iteration of the platform is already being used in a proof-of-concept (PoC) with Zetron in Australia. This system will replace the existing analog radio infrastructure of the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) with a Nokia-powered Zetron ACOM Command and Control platform.

Davies explained that the Zetron deployment tackles multi-agency coordination challenges in remote areas. The Nokia platform will be more broadly available later this year.