(Finance) – Nokia and Vodafone announce that they have successfully completed the first trial in Italy of Nokia’s Open RAN technology on the 5G Radio Access Network, with the extension to some sites of the live network. This trial is a further step in the development of Open RAN which will pave the way for new software-based features that will facilitate the use of 5G connectivity in various sectors, from telemedicine to homes, from transport to industries.
Features and performance – Nokia and Vodafone have long collaborated to boost the spread of Open RAN, with a view to greater flexibility in the development of mobile networks. During the Open RAN experimentation on the Vodafone Italia live network, the potential of the Open RAN solution was confirmed, guaranteeing functionality and performance in line with traditional radio networks currently in use, such as download speeds of up to 1.1 Gbit/s and upload speeds of up to at 160 Mbps. Encouraging results were also achieved in terms of latency.
Technology – For experimentation Nokia’s high-capacity AirScale Massive MIMO radios were used and the first implementation of Nokia’s Open RAN software running on Dell’s general purpose (Commercial-off-the-shelf-COTS) hardware server and using Red Hat’s cloud infrastructure. The trial also includes the new network management system Nokia’s MantaRay radio network, for a consolidated view of the network and better monitoring and traffic management.
The experimentation also highlighted the maturity of the Open RAN approach, designed to give mobile operators and enterprises greater flexibility in building multi-vendor networks. The ability to combine software and hardware from different vendors is the foundation of Open RAN and is critical to fostering innovation and supply chain resilience.
Open RAN for Vodafone – A platform conceived like this will allow more independent software and hardware vendors, startups and local businesses to participate in the challenge using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), stimulating Europe’s innovation and competitiveness, while increasing digital autonomy and supply chain resilience.
Vodafone has the ambition to have 30% of its base stations based on Open RAN technology in Europe by 2030, based on Vodafone’s deployment of Open RAN sites in the UK and Romania. The hope is that this approach can encourage the large-scale adoption of disaggregation solutions between hardware and software and automation, and promote more agile and faster development of networks thanks to a broader and richer ecosystem.
Santiago Tenorio, Director of Network Architecture at Vodafonesaid: “Vodafone is dedicated to supporting the development and adoption of Open RAN around the world by promoting a diverse ecosystem of partners and solutions. This approach offers numerous benefits, including greater choice, greater energy efficiency, greater network and improved performance for customers”.
Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokiasaid: “Nokia’s anyRAN collaborative approach means just that. Communications service providers can deploy Open RAN with the server hardware and CaaS layer of their choice. Together with our ecosystem partners, we are committed to providing more choice and higher performance in Open RAN solutions for our customers than they will see from other RAN vendors.”