Ericsson deploys 3DExperience to boost product design as Elisa inks 5G core tech deal

In what marks the next step in a long-term relationship, comms technology giant Ericsson has begun a company-wide roll-out of the Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience engineering design and manufacturing platform to enable Ericsson’s digital transformation by integrating its product management and research and development (R&D) workflows.

The unified digital environment is designed to accelerate production through real-time collaboration across the organisation. Dassault Systèmes said the software would help Ericsson to enhance efficiency, manage increasing complexity, and reduce cost and time to market for its products.

“In the race to provide 5G solutions, efficient R&D, innovation and time to market are critical. Ericsson strengthens its digital connectivity through the product lifecycle using Dassault Systèmes’ diverse knowledge and know-how across the enterprise world. The 3DExperience platform will help Ericsson to achieve this,” said Olivier Ribet, executive vice-president for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR) at Dassault Systèmes.

Michael Gallagher, Ericsson’s head of operations and product lifecycle management transformation, development unit networks, said: “Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience platform was chosen to support the digital transformation. We have defined a clear implementation path for our product lifecycle management transformation strategy, where the platform is an integral part.”

The latest step in Ericsson’s part in the race to provide 5G solutions and product lifecycle has seen Finnish telecommunications service provider Elisa select Ericsson for a 5G technology deployment spanning 5G core and 5G radio access network (RAN). The agreement, with an option to extend, includes 5G non-standalone (5G NSA) and 5G standalone (5G SA) products and solutions.

Ericsson and Elisa have a history of working together, including cooperation on 5G. The companies teamed up recently to achieve the Nordics’ first end-to-end 5G standalone connection in Kirkkonummi, Finland. Ericsson Cloud Packet Core products and solutions are already live in Elisa’s 5G network and, as part of the partnership extension, Ericsson is now deploying its dual-mode 5G core solution to add support for standalone technology in Elisa’s network.

The partnership will also see Ericsson 5G RAN products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System portfolio introduced and deployed in Elisa’s 5G network from 2021. The network operates on 3.5GHz and 26GHz frequency bands.

Ericsson Spectrum Sharing for 5G standalone and 5G non-standalone will also be deployed as part of the deal. This will enable Elisa to dynamically share 4G and 5G traffic while enhancing capacity and coverage. Ericsson Spectrum Sharing will also allow Elisa to improve its mid- and high-band coverage through carrier aggregation with 5G in lower bands.

“This new, wider partnership increases our capabilities not only in the network environment in Finland, but also in the international digital services area,” observed Elisa CEO Veli-Matti Mattila. “With this partnership, our telco automation domain – Elisa Automate and Polystar – also gets Ericsson’s radio network technology as a development platform, which enables new innovations to our automation service portfolio. I’m looking forward to further enhancing our customer experience.”