(Telecompaper) Alcatel-Lucent and Saudi operator Mobily announced the first deployment globally of virtualized radio access network (RAN) software from Alcatel-Lucent's Network Function Virutalisation (NFV) portfolio. Mobily is deploying Alcatel-Lucent's 9771 Wireless Cloud Element Radio Network Controller (WCE RNC). Running virtual radio network control functions over open, carrier-grade platforms provides considerable advantages over traditional approaches, according to Alcatel-Lucent. This facilitates advanced RNC requirements for geo-redundancy, near-zero downtime maintenance and software upgrades, load balancing, and dynamic reconfiguration.