[Wakefield, MA / May 19, 2025] — The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) congratulates KDDI Corporation and DriveNets Ltd. on the signing of a strategic partnership agreement that will see DriveNets’ Network Cloud solution deployed in KDDI’s commercial backbone network by the end of FY2025. This milestone reflects a continued and deepening commitment to open and disaggregated network architectures and marks a significant advancement in the adoption of TIP-incubated technologies at scale.
KDDI has been an active contributor within TIP since 2020, driving the development and deployment of Distributed Disaggregated Backbone Routers (DDBR). These efforts culminated in Japan’s first commercial deployment of DDBR-based peering routers in June 2023, and the completion of technical validation for DDBR clusters as backbone core routers in February 2025. Both deployments were based on software from DriveNets, a long-standing supporter of TIP’s disaggregated networking principles.
DriveNets has been recognized within TIP for its commitment to open networking and compliance with community-driven requirements. The company was awarded the TIP Bronze Badge in 2023 for meeting the DDBR Peering and Internet Gateway (P&IGW) requirements, and again in 2024 for its compliance with TIP’s DDBR Provider Edge (PE) requirements for its Network Cloud solution.
With this new strategic agreement, KDDI and DriveNets will collaborate on the deployment of software-based core routers at four key backbone locations, reinforcing the scalability, flexibility, and efficiency of KDDI’s infrastructure. This initiative is particularly critical as operators around the world respond to the explosive data growth driven by AI and new digital services.
Kristian Toivo, Executive Director of TIP, commented:
“This announcement underscores the growing global momentum behind open and disaggregated network architectures. KDDI’s leadership and continued collaboration with innovative solution providers like DriveNets exemplifies TIP’s mission to accelerate the deployment of open, high-performance networks that can meet the evolving demands of the digital era. We look forward to continued engagement with both companies as they expand this deployment.”
As the industry moves into the AI era, TIP remains committed to supporting the development, testing, and validation of open network solutions that enable operators to deploy more agile, cost-effective, and scalable infrastructures.