A Guide to 5G Telco Cloud Acronyms

A Guide to 5G Telco Cloud Acronyms

Tech Blog

Anyone who is a regular reader of our Tech Blog knows that we love our acronyms – and today’s post is no exception! With the Q.Synergy event taking place this week at Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT) offices in California – where datacenter architects and operators, component suppliers, solution providers and system integrators come together to share the latest industry trends at the convergence of 5G, AI and Cloud – we thought it would be a great time to share our guide to some of the different acronyms commonly found in the emerging world of 5G Telco Cloud datacenters.

First, a little bit about what these trends might be: while expanding support for hyperscale deployments is a common necessity across all datacenters regardless of the industry, the large-scale commercial roll-out of 5G – anticipated as early as 2020 – has brought the following challenges to the near horizon:

  • Navigating the skyrocketing manageability challenges caused by tremendous growth in the hyperscale datacenter;
  • Changes in the server architecture to accommodate this growth;
  • Evolving industry standards on “fast track” for enablement and management of the new changes.

In addition to these, 5G Telco Cloud datacenters also require support at scale for adding new subscribers and increased speed across a wide range of devices deployed on the network. Demand for new network functions also continues to increase rapidly, and telecom companies are under pressure to roll them out quickly. This demand drives the need for Network Function Virtualization (NFV), which 5G Telco Cloud providers must leverage to be successful and rapidly deploy new network functions.

With all of these rising challenges and trends in mind, we have compiled the following list of key acronyms found in the 5G Telco Cloud datacenter environment to help our readers gain some footing in this brave new world:

Selected 5G Telco Cloud Acronyms, Courtesy of AMI:

  • AMI – AMI
  • Aptio®V – Not an acronym, but useful: UEFI Boot Firmware from AMI
  • BMC – Baseboard Management Controller
  • BTS – Base Station, Base Transceiver Station
  • AMI Composer – Not an acronym, but useful: AMI Composer enables the composition of resources with the ability to seamlessly provision and deploy compute, memory, networking and storage resources
  • C-RAN – Cloud Radio Access Networks, Cloud-RAN, Centralized-RAN
  • EM – Element Management
  • FPX – MegaRAC® FPX Fabric Management Firmware
  • FTW – AMI “For the Win”
  • HSS – Home Subscriber Server
  • MANO – Management and Network Orchestration
  • MegaRAC® – Not an acronym, but useful: BMC and Remote Management Firmware from AMI
  • MMP – Management Midplane
  • NFV – Network Functions Virtualization
  • NFVI – NFV Infrastructure
  • NS – Network Services
  • OSM – A production-quality open source MANO stack that meets the requirements of commercial NFV networks
  • OSS/BSS – Operations Support System/Business Support System
  • POD – A collection of multiple racks in a datacenter
  • RMM – Rack Management Module
  • RMX – MegaRAC RMX Rack Management Firmware from AMI
  • SDN – Software-Defined Networks
  • SDS – Software-Defined Storage
  • SPX – MegaRAC SPX BMC Firmware from AMI
  • vHLR – Virtual Home Location Register
  • VIM – Virtualized Infrastructure Manager
  • VLR – Visitor Location Register
  • VM – Virtual Machine
  • VNF – Virtual Network Function
  • vSGSN – Virtual Serving GPRS Support Node
  • vSMSC – Virtual Short Message Service Center
  • TL;DR – Too Long; Didn’t Read: Call AMI @ +1.800.828.9264!

Because of these specific challenges and needs, some of the high-level network manageability features required by 5G Telco Cloud providers include the following:

  • No dedicated management hardware
  • Shared, poolable resources
  • Convenient access from anywhere
  • Rapid expansion and elasticity
  • On-demand network access
  • Offered as networks, servers, storage, app and 5G services

Fortunately, AMI products such as AMI Composer™ bring tailor-made solutions such as its AMI Composer Telco Cloud Manager (v1.0) to help address the manageability needs of 5G Telco Cloud datacenter end users and enable them to deliver Network Function Virtualization (NFV) at scale. AMI Composer Telco Cloud Manager also provides a streamlined dashboard for centralized view of all assets available for composition in the datacenter and enables users to discover, provision and deploy network services from a single application.

Thanks for reading today’s Tech Blog, we hope you found our list of 5G Telco Cloud acronyms helpful! Feel free to drop us a line via social media or our Contact Us form and let us know what you thought of today’s post – as well as what you might like to see in future posts!

About AMI

AMI is Firmware Reimagined for modern computing. As a global leader in Dynamic Firmware for security, orchestration, and manageability solutions, AMI enables the world’s compute platforms from on-premises to the cloud to the edge. AMI’s industry-leading foundational technology and unwavering customer support have generated lasting partnerships and spurred innovation for some of the most prominent brands in the high-tech industry. 

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