Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and NEC Corporation announced a strategic collaboration in the development of a 5G open and virtualized distributed unit (DU) powered by the Qualcomm® X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card, which will be developed under NTT Docomo’s 5G Open RAN Ecosystem (OREC). The telecom giants are joining forces to accelerate the global spread of Open RAN to simplify deployments and lower the total cost of ownership of energy-efficient, virtualized, cloud-native 5G solutions.
Docomo announced in February that it would be working with the Qualcomm, NEC and 10 other companies to accelerate the introduction of Open RAN to carriers. Specifically, Docomo’s target was to package ORAN solutions and to introduce, operate and manage them, based on demands from operators. Other members of the original ecosystem include: Dell Technologies Japan Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Intel K.K., Mavenir, NTT DATA Corporation, NVIDIA, Red Hat, VMware K.K., Wind River and Xilinx, Inc. Last month, Hewlett Packard Japan, G.K. joined Docomo’s 5G Open RAN Ecosystem, which now has 13 partner companies.
Additionally, Docomo said it would develop virtualized RAN (vRAN) with higher flexibility and scalability to further drive the commercialization of Open RAN. Compared to current vRAN, the Ecosystem hopes to triple both transmission speeds and the number of operable base-station cells and more than halve the power consumption by March 2022. The testing of advanced vRAN is now under way at Docomo’s lab at its R&D center in Yokosuka, Japan, which serves as a remote testing site that is available free of charge to overseas carriers.
Network operators currently face the difficult challenge of deploying cost-effective 5G network infrastructure, while addressing the complexities and demands of next-generation networks that are needed to enhance user experiences, according to Docomo.
Sadayuki Abeta, PhD, vice president and general manager of NTT Docomo’s Radio Access Network Development Department, was interviewed on the significance of the 5G Open RAN Ecosystem in Forbes magazine. He said that an open network gives Docomo the “benefit of being able to take a best-of-breed approach that is customized for a particular scenario with each customer.” As a result, Docomo can reduce the costs of multi-vendor selection and lower supply chain risks.
He noted that operators can face performance challenges when introducing Open RAN, which can only be solved only through interoperability testing. He also said carriers also benefit from greater innovation between the O-RAN equipment manufacturers.
“Our Open RAN ecosystem is not just integrating equipment but realizing fusions of technologies through working with partners,” Abeta said. “Also, we provide a remote open-test environment for the Open RAN ecosystem, so that operators around the world can access the lab with our support.”
By J. Sharpe Smith Inside Towers Technology Editor
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