OREANDA-NEWS. NEC Corporation, a leader in the integration of IT and network technology,  and Portugal Telecom (PT), a leading global telecommunication service provider, announced a partnership agreement to evaluate network virtualization based on Software Defined Network (SDN) technology for datacenters and carrier networks.

The agreement enables both companies to test and assess the commercial feasibility and benefits of SDN implementation for carrier datacenters. NEC and PT will deploy NEC's "PF Series Programmable Flow Switch and Controller" SDN solution and test its capability to overcome economic and operational challenges within traditional architecture.

Furthermore, NEC and PT will carry out a joint case study for identifying the most beneficial SDN usage in PT's telecom infrastructure.

Network virtualization with SDN has exceptional potential, as it allows optimized use of available network resources, increases flexibility and simplicity in the creation and management of new network services, and reduces the investment required for its implementation and operation.

"NEC is a pioneer in the deployment of SDN technology for commercial environments, as one of the first to launch a series of Openflow enabled switches and controllers," said Mr. Naoki Iizuka, President and CEO, NEC Europe Limited. "We are honored to work with a leading global operator like PT, and firmly believe this partnership will accelerate PT's network transformation and evolution."

For Portugal Telecom, the challenges of legacy networks are leading the company to deal with complex and inflexible network configurations, operations and management. With this partnership, Portugal Telecom aims to understand how SDN can solve these challenges.