Nokia and Vodafone have completed a successful end-to-end Open RAN trial on Vodafone Italy’s live 5G standalone network. This trial utilized Nokia’s AirScale Massive MIMO radios and baseband software on Dell PowerEdge XR8000 servers and Red Hat OpenShift, a hybrid cloud platform powered by Kubernetes, connected to Nokia’s standalone 5G core. Additionally, Nokia’s MantaRay Networks Management system was used to enhance network monitoring and management. This trial showcases the maturity of Nokia’s anyRAN approach, providing mobile operators and enterprises with greater network-building flexibility.
Nokia’s support for Open Fronthaul features, integrated with its high-performance RAN software, ensures performance consistency with existing RAN. Nokia has collaborated with five open radio unit suppliers, demonstrating the openness and high performance of its AirScale O-RAN DU/CU. This solution offers operators enhanced flexibility, efficiency, and scalability. By integrating with Red Hat OpenShift, service providers can scale their 5G networks and introduce new services quickly.
Vodafone aims to implement Open RAN technology on 30 percent of its masts in Europe by 2030 and is already deploying this technology commercially. This includes 2,500 Open RAN sites in the UK, marking the first large-scale deployment in Europe, as well as sites in Romania. Partnering with key vendors like Nokia, Vodafone is leading the adoption of open, disaggregated, and automated networks, enabling rapid introduction of innovative customer services.
Santiago Tenorio, Director of Network Architecture at Vodafone, emphasized the company’s commitment to Open RAN development and adoption, highlighting benefits such as increased choice, energy efficiency, network capacity, and performance.
Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia, stated that Nokia’s anyRAN approach allows Communication Service Providers to deploy Open RAN with their preferred server hardware and CaaS layer. Nokia and its ecosystem partners are dedicated to offering more choice and higher performance in Open RAN solutions compared to other RAN suppliers.
