HPE RAN Automation Debuts
April 25, 2022
HPE RAN Automation is a service management and orchestration solution
that provides multi-vendor management and automation for any Radio
Access Network (RAN) and helps communications service providers increase
operational efficiency and accelerate deployment.
This pre-integrated cloud-native solution, delivered as a service,
leverages HPE operations support systems and artificial intelligence and
machine learning (AI/ML) technologies to offer zero-touch management of
multi-vendor RAN infrastructure. The solution orchestrates the full
life-cycle of both virtual Distributed Units (vDUs) and virtual
Centralized Units (vCUs), enabling operators to dynamically configure
radio frequency parameters and optimize the use of radio access
resources and spectrum.
“While the direction towards the open disaggregated RAN is clear, many
operators will have to manage a mixture of existing 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G,
virtualized RAN and Open RAN solutions over the next few years,” said
Tom Craig, VP and GM, HPE Communications Technology Group. “The winners
will be those who embrace automation and commit to a disaggregated,
open, multi-vendor future. Building on our experience gained from one of
the largest RAN disaggregation deployments in the industry, HPE RAN
Automation provides a pre-integrated, truly open, fully vendor agnostic
solution that addresses existing, pure Open RAN and traditional
networks. With this latest innovation, we are introducing a zero-touch
operational experience to manage the ever-growing complexity, accelerate
roll out and optimize multi-vendor radio access networks.”
Interest in Open RAN is growing rapidly with the majority of operators
either piloting or planning to make significant investments in
disaggregated radio access technology over the coming years. Operators
are looking to the industry to bring scale and innovation through
workload-optimized x86 based hardware, specifically tuned to run
virtualized radio access software. In addition, AI-driven management and
automation tools will be essential to simplify RAN operations and
engineering for the multi-vendor, multi-generational disaggregated RAN.
HPE RAN
Automation is delivered as a service on a
public or private cloud as a pre-integrated
set of capabilities and operated centrally
by HPE offering the following:
·
Fully-automated lifecycle management with
AI/ML powered assurance –detects
anomalies, predict failures, correlate
information across the hardware and software
layers, perform advanced analytics and send
actionable signals to the appropriate
components to take action according to the
specific use cases.
· A
single secure web user interface –allows
operators to interact with the different
functions of the platform with single
sign-on authentication.
· A
consistent set of management capabilities
across heterogeneous hosting environments,
compliant with
ETSI
specifications –supports operators by
providing the ability to onboard and deploy
third party RAN vDU and vCU network
functions.
HPE RAN
Automation follows the principles of
O-RAN Alliance’s
Service Management and Orchestration (SMO)
architecture which provides the capability
to provision, monitor and operate all layers
of the disaggregated RAN from infrastructure
to RAN software. Furthermore, continuous
integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD)
practices ensure that HPE RAN Automation is
constantly updated according to the latest
O-RAN standards and integrates seamlessly
with the latest software updates from RAN
partners.
The first step operators usually face is the
rollout of RAN optimized hardware across
thousands of distributed sites. HPE RAN
Automation addresses this challenge and
supports operators with a step-by-step
approach as they move towards Open RAN, by
utilising the
HPE Resource Aggregator for Open Distributed
Infrastructure Management,
a DMTF Redfish based open-source framework
to manage diverse edge infrastructure.
Once
the infrastructure and the network functions
are in place, HPE RAN Automation supports
further advanced AI capabilities and
standardized interfaces to offer O-RAN
compliant non-real-time RAN Intelligent
Controller (RIC) functionality and host a
suite of radio network applications (rApps)
from HPE and partners. Initial deployments
of HPE RAN Automation will include a radio
frequency (RF) configuration and
optimization module. This capability is
integrated with the AI/ML assurance and
orchestration modules to automate RF
parameters provisioning and operations
according to specific services and policies
set by the operators.
“5G is expected to yield more complex
network engineering and a myriad of vendor
network types, driven by multi-technology
and multivendor solutions,” says Ahmad Latif
Ali, Associate VP at IDC. “While many
operators are still refining their own
network transformation and road maps, open
network architectures will undeniably play a
key role in driving RAN evolution. The
creation and development of new RAN
ecosystems will be critical for operators
with management and orchestration through
end-to-end automation becoming a key
strategic priority for those CSPs looking to
effectively operate their heterogenous
environments, consisting of 5G and previous
generations of mobile networks deployed
across multiple clouds and on traditional
physical infrastructure.”
HPE RAN
Automation is a key part of the
HPE Open RAN Solution Stack
and has been validated and optimized for the
the HPE ProLiant DL110 Gen10 Plus – Telco
server,
the industry’s first Open RAN workload
optimized server, enabling faster deployment
of Open RAN.
Availability
The
solution is ready for demos and early
trials.
