Expandium’s core network monitoring and assurance solutions

Viavi acquires Expandium

  • Viavi Solutions announced the acquisition of Expandium, a French provider of core network monitoring and quality assurance solutions based on software analysis techniques for large volumes of data.
  • Expandium was created in 2005 and is based in Saint-Herblain (44) near Nantes, France.

 
This acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, enables Viavi to complete its network quality assurance solutions offering with native virtualized Cloud solutions that comply with the virtualization requirements of Tier 1 service providers worldwide.

According to Viavi, in order to better manage operations and user experience across multiple generations of telecom technologies, wireless and wired networks, and in new areas such as IoT and V2X (Vehicle to everythings), telecom operators are moving away from proprietary equipment to software-defined services running on out-of-the-box servers. Communication networks are adopting a disaggregated architecture. It is no longer a topology of discrete nodes, but a more dynamic and scalable environment that can adapt to changing demand. The set of actors who operate and exploit the network must evolve accordingly, replacing hardware solutions with containerized virtual machines that can respond dynamically to the evolution of the network.

While Viavi continues to virtualize its core network insurance solutions of the RAN Nitro Mobile range, the acquisition of Expandium enables Viavi to complement its offering with cloud-based, micro-services and 5G-ready mobile core network insurance technologies. Expandium uses techniques such as Machine Learning, flow processing and pattern detection within a vendor-independent platform that can connect to heterogeneous data sources. This enables data analysis and information for network monitoring, troubleshooting, fraud detection, etc.

“Our major service provider customers report that up to 75% of their networks have already been virtualized, and they expect their suppliers to deliver products that will fit into their new fully virtualized 5G SA architecture,” said Sameh Yamany, CTO of Viavi. “Working closely with these customers, we have evolved our insurance technologies to seamlessly link the physical, virtual and disaggregated core and the radio access network. The combined expertise of Viavi and Expandium will enable us to deliver 5G solutions that meet these increased expectations in terms of virtualization”.

In addition to its solutions for mobile network operators, Expandium also specializes in monitoring platforms for mobile rail services such as GSM-R and migration to LTE-R and FRMCS. Following its acquisition by Viavi, Expandium will continue its activities in this market.