Telefónica Spain will use Juniper Network’s Security Gateway platform and networking product to secure its 5G network mobile backhaul.

Specifically, the operator will deploy Juniper’s SRX5800 Services Gateway platform, which includes both virtual and containerized firewalls (vSRX and cSRX). It also uses a third-generation services processing card (SPC3) with security acceleration for IPsec. This helps operators meet the high-bandwidth requirements of gNodeB on mobile backhaul security for large scale 5G deployments. Juniper says the platform supports 338 million concurrent user sessions.

Juniper’s AutoVPN feature allows for one-time Security Gateway configuration for all gNodeB points including newly added ones.

Additionally, the Services Gateway platform uses fourth-generation input output cards (IOC4) that supports up to 480 Gb/s and offers multiple connectivity options from 10-Gb/s Ethernet to 100-Gb/s Ethernet.

In the future, Telefónica may use the platform to support additional services, including carrier-grade network address translation, stateful firewall, intrusion prevention system, denial of service, application security, virtual private networks, unified threat management, quality of service, and large-scale multi-tenancy.

And because Telefónica already uses Juniper’s Junos network operating system, Juniper says the new security platform deployment will also lead to capex and opex reductions for the network operator.

Telefónica Spain’s 5G network will enable new connectivity use cases including IoT and augmented reality for customers, Telefónica Spain CTO Joaquin Mata said in a statement. “We need to ensure that the network traffic from all connected devices can traverse our network securely without impacting network performance,” he said. “By leveraging Juniper’s single, low-latency security platform, we can be confident, regardless of scale, that our 5G network will be secure now and into the future.”

The two companies already partner on other parts of Telefónica’s network and in other geographies.

Telefónica manages networks in 17 countries spread across Europe and Latin America and has been working with Juniper over the past couple years to upgrade its networks to support 5G deployments. The operator calls this project the Fusion Network, and it aims to combine legacy networks into a single IP network that reduces complexity, improves operations with network automation, and enables Telefónica to design new services for its customers.