In order to reduce the barrier to entry for many companies and encourage the diversification of network equipment providers, Vodafone and Qualcomm Technologies have announced plans to join forces to develop a technical plan for more equipment providers to help build 5G networks. the future using Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) technology.
The partners said that when two or more providers are used in a network, each of them is located in a cluster and the points where they meet are often the most challenging in terms of performance. As a result of their joint work, they said customers would benefit as Vodafone and other telecommunications companies blended and combined hardware and software from a choice of providers to expand 5G networks to the specific geographic areas where they are most needed.
In particular, the reference projects will be used to support emerging and well-established network infrastructure providers to develop highly efficient, virtualized, interoperable and modular 5G networks on a large scale. This aims to make cellular infrastructure more innovative and competitive.
The reference design will combine Vodafone’s engineering expertise to build large-scale networks with The skill of Qualcomm Technologies in the development of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) solutions for devices and infrastructure products. This combination aims to ensure that Open RAN is ready for use in 5G networks and is able to support bandwidth-intensive applications, such as virtual and augmented reality devices, even in busy urban areas.
The partnership comes just days after Vodafone revealed it is open a laboratory for testing and integration of Open RAN on their technology campus in the UK.
Vodafone sees Open RAN as capable help him separate the hardware and software components of the network to select the optimal solution providers for specific roles, rather than their own end-to-end solutions, on which most RAN technologies are built. The result is that it can bind operators with a small number of suppliers.
The open RAN is also being considered by Vodafone as a catalyst in the RAN domain to become an organization offering software defined and virtualized network with autonomous work using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The operator sees many advantages of this approach. These include lowering the entry barrier for RAN companies and increasing the resilience of the ecosystem, as technology companies can scale specific capabilities instead of focusing on a complete end-to-end solution.
Vodafone said that this approach will allow niche technology segments to work with more specialized vendors, as well as provide the opportunity to work with global IT vendors and existing platforms brought by the ability to deploy Open RAN on commercially available (COTS) common – target processors (GPP), widely used in IT systems.
“Global supply chains need a diverse and vibrant vendor ecosystem to sustain them in the event of a product shortage or one vendor having difficulty,” said Vodafone Network Architecture Manager Santiago Tenorio.
“Open RAN provides a greater variety of vendors, allowing many more small vendors to compete on the world stage. Following the recent launch of our new Open RAN testing and validation lab, combining Vodafone Engineering’s creativity with that of our partners, we are pleased to partner with Qualcomm Technologies to give smaller vendors the best start. “
Dino Flore, Qualcomm’s vice president of technology for Europe, said: “Virtualized and Open RAN offers a significant opportunity to make 5G networks more flexible and cost-effective, making them a platform for innovation.
“Collaboration to develop complete solutions from Open RAN RU with massive capabilities for multiple inputs, multiple outputs (MaMIMO) to high-performance distributed unit (DU) platforms provides an important step forward in accelerating the transition to open, virtualized and interoperable radio access networks . “
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