Deutsche Telekom is now using a new platform for IP-based voice telephony in the fixed network. With the new "NIMS" (Next Generation IP Multimedia Subsystem) platform, the company is launching the cloudification of voice telephony. In the future, NIMS aims to ensure that the control of up to 18 million connections of Deutsche Telekom customers will come centrally from the DT data centers set up in Germany.

Thanks to virtualized network functions, the fixed network works faster and more efficiently, including, for example, updating or adding new network functions. The management and allocation of voice capacity in the network is also faster and always in line with current demand.

In addition, Telekom's new platform uses open standards and interfaces, allowing hardware and software independence. Infrastructure and applications from completely different manufacturers can be combined and individual blocks can be exchanged more easily.

"This approach is almost revolutionary," says Walter Goldenits, Head of Technology at Telekom Deutschland. "Within a few months, we have managed to create a completely new system and put it into operation. With state-of-the-art working methods, motivated partners, and the know-how of our colleagues, we have taken a decisive step into the future of automated and software-based telecommunications.”

The NIMS platform accepts fixed network calls and delivers them to the right place. In a pilot phase, the Telekom fixed network team put the new system through its paces, where technicians successfully handled more than 100 million voice calls. They tested calls within the Telekom network and across network boundaries - so-called interconnections. The rollout of the platform for interconnections will continue step by step over the coming months with support from the technology partners for the NIMS platform – Juniper Networks (Cloud Infrastructure & Prime Integrator), Red Hat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, Mavenir and Metaswitch. Being an open platform, Telekom expects to expand this list of NIMS technology partners as the demand for services grows. 

With the virtualization of interconnect traffic, Deutsche Telekom has taken an important step towards network modernization and will continue driving forward the cloudification and automation of voice telephony.