Vodafone
has switched on the UK’s first 5G OpenRAN. The site in Bath is the first
of 2,500 5G and 4G OpenRAN sites that Vodafone has committed to, and a
major step in supporting the Government’s ambition to accelerate the
development of the OpenRAN ecosystem.
Last month, the UK Government and telecoms operators announced shared
ambitions to expand support for the OpenRAN ecosystem. Vodafone has
championed the OpenRAN ecosystem since its conception in 2016 and is
actively using OpenRAN across many parts of the UK.
To celebrate the deployment of the site, the first 5G video call over
OpenRAN infrastructure was made by Vodafone UK’s Chief Network Officer
Andrea Dona to the Minister for Digital Infrastructure Julia Lopez on 11
January.
Julia Lopez, Digital Infrastructure Minister, the Department of Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport, said: “This phone call, the first in the UK to
be made using 5G OpenRAN infrastructure, marks a big step forward for
innovation in UK telecoms.
“OpenRAN will have an important role to play in the future of our mobile
networks and I congratulate Vodafone for being the first to make it
happen.
“The government is investing in the technology through our £250 million
diversification strategy so we can deliver the amazing benefits of 5G
for people and businesses with more diverse, resilient and secure
equipment in our networks.”
The installation of equipment at the site marks a number of firsts,
including:
The beginning of the first scaled OpenRAN project in Europe, with
2,500 sites committed by 2027
The first 5G OpenRAN site
The first time OpenRAN technology has been deployed on a UK macro site
to carry live customer traffic
Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone UK, said: “This is the
beginning of a new chapter for the mobile industry. Our team has been
working tirelessly to take OpenRAN technology from a theory in our lab
to our customers in the real world – it’s remarkable how much has been
achieved in such a short period of time.
“OpenRAN as a concept is only five years old, and we’re already
fundamentally changing how we deploy connectivity infrastructure. This
is a watershed moment in the telecoms industry, and a catalyst for
change and evolution.”
OpenRAN technology separates software from hardware, so there’s more
flexibility for mobile operators. Where previously one vendor would have
delivered the whole solution, OpenRAN enables telecoms operators to work
with more specialist suppliers. Not only will this diversify the
telecoms supply chain, adding resilience to Critical National
Infrastructure, it will also act as a catalyst for innovation.
This could result in more energy-efficient telecoms equipment, as well
as increasing the speed at which mobile operators can deploy next
generation networks. The technology is widely seen as a disruptor for
the telecommunications industry, and Vodafone is one of the leaders
supporting the development of this vendor ecosystem.
As part of the First Site Installation (FSI), the following OpenRAN-compliant
technology will be deployed:
Samsung virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) Solutions, as well as
technical, product and integration support
Dell open hardware servers
Intel technologies to enable optimized solutions, including Intel Xeon
processors, workload acceleration and connectivity
Wind River Studio for management of containerised OpenRAN CU/DU
workloads, automation, orchestration, and lifecycle management of
network functions
Capgemini Engineering and Keysight Technologies have provided testing
and integration services in the Vodafone lab to ensure interoperability
of the multi-vendor ecosystem. Once technologies and vendors have been
verified as OpenRAN-compliant, deployment of equipment becomes a much
simpler task.
OpenRAN 4G and 5G antennas from Samsung and NEC will be deployed from
mid-2022. Once interoperability tests for these radio units have been
completed in the lab, the units can be deployed in a ‘plug and play’
manner on the existing OpenRAN infrastructure.
Thomas Riedel, Head of Samsung Networks Europe at Samsung Electronics,
said: “As a global leader, we are proud to begin the UK’s first
wide-scale OpenRAN commercial deployment, delivering carrier-grade 5G
vRAN solutions to Vodafone. Based on our vRAN experience with tier-1
operators around the globe, this is another meaningful milestone for us,
and we look forward to continue working with Vodafone.”
Dennis Hoffman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Dell
Technologies Telecom Systems Business, said: “Vodafone’s commitment to
pushing OpenRAN technologies forward will deliver new levels of
innovation to its customers, partners and the open ecosystem. We look
forward to reaching more milestones with Vodafone as we accelerate their
OpenRAN deployment and offer new opportunities for businesses,
communities and the telecommunications industry.”
Paul Miller, Chief Technology Officer, Wind River, said: “Vodafone’s
OpenRAN leadership is game changing for the industry, and Wind River is
proud to partner with Vodafone on this important milestone to realise
the benefits of OpenRAN. As the de facto infrastructure for OpenRAN/5G
vRAN and only 5G solution that is commercially deployed at scale, Wind
River Studio enables flexible networks and offers validated
architectures to help service providers quickly and reliably deploy new
services with industry-leading total cost of ownership.”
Massimo
Rocca, Global Account Director for Vodafone at Capgemini Engineering,
said: “We are proud to continue our long-lasting relationship with
Vodafone and we are excited to bring our expertise in engineering and
system integration for this project, building the lab environment,
supporting the integration of different vendors, and performing
end-to-end testing. OpenRAN and network disaggregation are key
challenges for telecom operator’s transformation towards sustainability
and automation. Thanks to our dedicated teams we are helping Vodafone
pioneer the OpenRAN transformation.”
Scott Bryden, Vice President and General Manager of Keysight’s Operator
Industry Solutions Unit, said: “Keysight is delighted to support
Vodafone with solutions that test and validate the capabilities
essential to creating robust networks based on OpenRAN specifications.
Keysight solutions leverage common software platforms with built-in test
automation, which enable continuous integration and continuous delivery
(CI/CD) for accelerated innovation.”
Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President and General Manager – Wireless Access
Networking Division, Intel, said: “Vodafone has consistently brought to
market advanced networking technologies, and this is another example of
Vodafone helping propel the mobile industry forward. Intel is pleased to
be among a diverse ecosystem of Open RAN partners supporting Vodafone’s
innovative network launch.”
