This is one to note. Today Nokia and Mavenir said they have completed interoperability testing between Nokia’s baseband (DU/CU) and an open RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) from Mavenir, over the Open FrontHaul interface.
The test took place at Nokia’s facility in Dallas, and it means that Nokia has now integrated its DU with four O-RU providers – according to the vendor. The interoperability test used a Mavenir CBRS RU, and deployed 4CC Carrier Aggregation using TDD and FDD spectrum in a 5G Standalone configuration. directional coupler
Mavenir has continually sniped at the reluctance of the big vendors to open up their systems to third parties, on Open RAN principles, accusing them of delaying the uptake of Open RAN within operators. Perhaps the majority of that ire has been directed at Ericsson but Nokia has been by no means immune.
Meanwhile, Nokia has always been publicly commited to the Open RAN path. It claims its AnyRAN strategy is a key enabler for moving vRAN workloads to COTS hardware, and it has advertised its previous integrations with three other RU providers. The only other public integration it names is with Fujitsu, with whom it is partnering in commercial rollouts with Deutsche Telekom.
A further step remains, which is for the major vendors to open interfaces on their RUs to third party basedbands.
In comments to TMN in February this year, Nokia’s Adrian Hazon said, “You have to remember, there’s an awful lot of parameters in that [fronthaul] profile… you have to set the right parameters for that radio, for that baseband, for that environment. You have to know what you’re doing. Connecting radio to baseband is not an easy thing to do, particularly without fracturing the processing required for massive MIMO or beam forming.”
Mavenir’s OpenBeam radio portfolio
In the press release for today’s announcement, Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia, said: “Our technology collaboration with Mavenir is further evidence of our commitment to Open RAN. We have developed our baseband software in a way that ensures that multi-supplier O-RAN systems can be deployed without compromises in performance, energy efficiency, security, or resiliency. We have now completed operability with Radios from four different suppliers using the O-RAN compliant 7.2x interface.”
Also quoted in the press release was John Baker, SVP, Business Development at Mavenir, often one to pull up the established vendors. For this release, he was in more peacemaking mode.
“This solution demonstrates a full circle of O-RAN interoperability whereby our industry-leading RAN portfolio integrates and interoperates in both directions with products from other RAN suppliers. This is real Open RAN – not the version where one supplier only connects their own products to each other. It is a great credit to both teams that they could integrate our Radio with Nokia’s Baseband in record time.”
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