One of Japan’s major service providers, NTT DOCOMO, Inc. and NEC Corporation have succeeded in interoperability testing for 5G standalone (SA). The companies used a 5G base station baseband unit conforming to O-RAN open interface specifications and radio units (RUs) of different vendors. The multi-vendor interoperability test used a software upgrade to introduce SA capability to NEC’s 5G non-standalone (NSA) central unit/distributed unit (CU/DU) operating on DOCOMO’s commercial network.
“As a result, the system was transformed from a 5G NSA system into a 5G SA system using the same 5G CU/DU hardware,” NEC said. “Since the 5G CU/DU can also accommodate existing NSA, the unit can be used to flexibly and quickly upgrade a 5G network.”
Going forward, the two companies aim to introduce the 5G CU/DU for DOCOMO’s SA services in order to further expand its 5G services, transitioning from the NSA system combining 4G cores and 5G base stations to the SA system combining 5G cores and 5G base stations. Additionally, as the lineup of interoperable 5G base station devices expands through multi-vendor connectivity, 5G coverage areas can be designed according to the number of users and services by taking advantage of each vendor’s strengths.
“Moving ahead, DOCOMO and NEC will continue to verify the performance of 5G CU/DU, and aim to introduce new units into DOCOMO’s commercial network, resulting in expanded 5G coverage with sophisticated base station equipment that enables superior 5G service,” NEC said.
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