VMware and Intel announced they are in full-swing to develop an integrated and interoperable platform for open and virtualized radio access networks (RAN).
The two companies aim to collaborate now so that they can assist communications service providers (CSPs) in introducing the 5G networks across the software-defined, virtualized infrastructure. Also, they claim to work with a ‘rich’ ecosystem of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), RAN software vendors, and telecom equipment manufacturers, all together to help CSPs build on the vRAN platform.
Many CSPs have already virtualized their core network that resulted in speeding up the reach of their services to market and improved operational costs.
“Many CSPs are choosing to extend the benefits of network virtualization into the RAN for increased agility as they roll out new 5G services, but the software integration can be rather complex. With an integrated vRAN platform, combined with leading technology and expertise from Intel VMware, CSPs are positioned to benefit from accelerated time to deployment of innovative services at the edge of their network,” explained Dan Rodriguez, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Network Platforms Group, Intel.
The collaboration will also help in building a programmable open interface that leverages Intel’s FlexRAN software reference architecture and a VMware RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). It will help in the development of innovative radio network functions for real-time resource management, traffic steering, and dynamic slicing.
Shekar Ayyar, VMware’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of Telco and Edge Cloud, said that there are advantages to delivering all network functions on one platform, especially as they expand their software-defined infrastructure to the RAN.
“With an integrated platform, CSPs will be able to deploy new network functions across the same Telco Cloud architecture, from the core to RAN, enabling the scale and agility needed to deliver services across a 5G network more efficiently. With an integrated vRAN platform, combined with leading technology and expertise from Intel VMware, CSPs are positioned to benefit from accelerated time to deployment of innovative services at the edge of their network,” he further added.
Since Dell Technologies is one of the partners of Intel and VMware, it will provide its compute portfolio for the integrated platform, says Dell’s Telco Business Unit General Manager Dennis Hoffman. Trials and testing will be performed with Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone (also in the list of their partners).
