Subscribe
Home Blog Page 368

Sponsored: Five ways AI and ML accelerate 5G value for telcos

Annie Turner
-
0
Sponsored: Five ways AI and ML accelerate 5G value for telcos

It can be hard to know where to start with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) – here’s a look at successful real-life deployments by network operators.

5G brings unprecedented complexity due in part to disaggregation of networks from open RAN to the core, and new services powered by very low latency and slicing. 5G’s success will depend on the level of automation it will be built on: Key new 5G services will need the instantaneous configuration and reconfiguration of several network components to be viable and profitable                                   .

The volume, variety and velocity of data generated by 5G networks, applications and users continues to rise far beyond human abilities to collect, collate, verify, analyze and or act on it in real time, or something very close to real time. For this reason operators need greater insight from network data and to achieve closer collaboration between network-facing and customer-facing operations to improve customer experience and create new monetization opportunities.

Operators know they need to enable operations with AI (AIOps) to achieve 5G scale and agility but it is hard to know where to start and ensure the AI solutions can evolve with their needs.

“AIOps needs the support of multiple vendors and solution creators. This includes support for ML libraries, prebuilt workflows to support telecoms processes, prebuilt interfaces for major data sources to support data collection and the support of APIs within telecoms operators’ businesses to facilitate actions based on insights,” according to Analysys Mason in a new report, Using AIOps solutions in the telecoms industry: a market assessment.

This is why the Red Hat® OpenShift® (see graphic below) is a key part of an open hybrid cloud platform for AI projects built on open-source software that benefits from the collective skills and technology of partner and developer communities. Red Hat provides operators with a Kubernetes platform of the assurance, scale and quality they need.

 

 

You may wonder how operators overcome those challenges. Here are some real-life success stories that show five ways service providers and partners around the globe implemented AI to monetize or optimize their 5G networks: At the edge; developing customer-driven applications; monetization; predictive maintenance and closed-loop mediation.

 

Leverage the edge

A Japanese service provider is helping to address the shortage of workers, leveraging the      Red Hat OpenShift platform to deploy intelligence at the edge. The system integrates data from cameras monitoring stores in airports to detect potentially dangerous behaviors, such as customers leaving packages in stores, and theft.

Verizon Media built Leo, an AI platform and application certified on Red Hat OpenShift, to provide developers with 5G data insights, such as from large-scale AI inferencing, to build innovative new customer-facing services.     

“Red Hat OpenShift helps us harness edge data and deliver real-time intelligence,” said Ganesh Harinath, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Verizon Media. The company can process more than 1 million AI inferences per second and so has improved the accuracy of predictions for thousands of edge appliances and endpoints.”

 

Creating customer-driven apps and new monetization ops

Turkcell, a leading converged telecommunication and technology services provider, opted to build an AI services architecture and application hub on Red Hat OpenShift.

It was keen to develop customer-driven applications and create new monetization opportunities.

Red Hat OpenShift provides a common platform for AI tools, processes and workflows that are accessible to Turkcell’s developers from anywhere in the organization. Its data scientists across all teams benefit from AI capabilities on a single platform which spurs innovation in diverse areas. The operator now runs more than 50 AI services on Red Hat OpenShift and can bring new digital services to market in roughly half the time it took previously. Also, operational efficiencies from consolidating AI workloads on containers and Kubernetes have delivered cost savings of up to 70%.

Customer-driven developments include automating the onboarding of Turkcell’s customers, using AI, computer vision and optical character recognition to speed it up. 

To encourage customers’ use of the paid-for Fizy music streaming service, the services can detect emotion from selfies submitted by customers to suggest songs that match their mood and add to their experience.

Turkcell’s chat bot solution is just one example of new monetization opportunities: The chat bot software helps its own customers but Turkcell also offers it as a commercial product to other businesses.

 

AIOps for predictive network maintenance

Telcos already have large scale-implementations of virtualized network functions (VNFs) and network functions virtualization (NFV) will proliferate with the wider adoption of 5G. These VNFs, and in the near future cloud network functions (CNFs), run on commodity servers and support by various multi-vendors layers of hardware and software.

The Avanseus Cognitive Assistant for Networks (CAN) running on OpenShift gives network operations center and field teams highly accurate failure predictions for this environment,  seven to 30 days in advance (this is configurable). It also suggests remedial action and the likely root cause based on historical patterns. This ultimately helps reduce reactive trouble tickets by more than 30%. It has already been deployed by many service providers and enterprises.

 

AIOps for closed-loop mediation

Anodot, start-up with Intel as its major investor, offers  an AI/ML solution and one of the use cases it supports is closed-loop remediation for network operators which leverages Red Hat’s technology. Like predictive maintenance, closed loop remediation is a much sought after capability by telcos. Closed-loop processes can take an issue from start to fix with little or no manual intervention. In the coming age of 5G with services dependent on super high agility and super low latency, such capabilities will be essential.

There is a lot going on in the industry. If you’d like to hear more about AI and ML capabilities and how they are being deployed by network operators around the world, register here to join leading industry experts at Open5G virtual event on Oct 6.

 

Thank you to Alexandre Reiniger, Business Development Manager, Red Hat and Volker Tegtmeyer, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Red Hat for providing valuable insights for this article.
 

Huawei chairman Eric Xu Zhijun talks 6G, US chip bans and pandemic control

Nick Booth
-
0
Huawei chairman Eric Xu Zhijun talks 6G, US chip bans and pandemic control

Positions Huawei as a company that’s always ready to listen and seeking one world standard for 6G 

Equipment maker Huawei Technologies regards the chip ban as a mere flesh wound and will lead the world into 6G with the launch of the first products in 2030, its current chairman Eric Xu Zhiju has announced. 

Xu discussed Huawei’s 6G plans which were published on Huawei’s online community Xinsheng. Xu’s defiant message was that Huawei is well positioned to continue to lead in the coming 6G era.

Though 6G is a more complex technology than 5G, that means it’ll influence on multiple fronts like cloud computing, blockchain and big data. Which is why Huawei started investment in 6G research in 2017, while pushing 5G commercialisation, said Xu.

“Huawei will define 5.5G and research 6G at the same time in the next few years, and it is a test of the whole industry’s imagination and creativity whether 6G can surpass (5G and 5.5G technologies),” said Xu. 

Xu’s comments on 6G came as the first anniversary of the US chip ban, targeting Huawei, looms. On September 15, 2020, the US officially cut off Huawei from all suppliers of US technologies. It prompted speculation whether Huawei, which relied on chip imports, can survive but its business performance this year has exceeded market expectations, according to Xu. 

US chip ban made Huawei more profitable

Though Huawei’s sales revenues slumped by 29 per cent on a yearly basis in the first half of 2021, its net profit increased 9.8 per cent, surpassing last year’s 9.2 per cent growth. 

“The US ban hurt Huawei’s business to some extent, but not fundamentally,” Chinese tech analyst Xiang Ligang told the Global Times on Sunday. Given China’s vast market, Huawei easily maintained its capital, staff team and research capacity. “That will empower the company to push forward next-generation technologies and reinforce its lead in the global telecom industry,” said Ligang. 

Geopolitical uncertainties are more likely to limit the research and development of 6G tech, as Huawei might still be excluded from overseas markets in 6G products, said Xu.

Xu conceded that 6G will face a complicated set of choices in its research stage, which made ‘deepening cooperation more important than ever’. Geopolitical fluctuations and the de-globalisation trend get in the way of such cooperation, Xu said. 

Let 6G bring us together

“Satisfying results in 6G development will only be achieved if 6G is open enough, whether the participants are pluralistic and if the communication is thorough enough,” said Xu. 

The worst of all worlds would be a divided 6G movement, with two sets of standards and soaring connectivity costs causing losses to global companies, according to a Chinese telecom expert, Fu Liang, quoted in Global Times. 

Rival analyst Xiang didn’t seem enormously independent of the Chinese government’s official line. Xiang said that nations would learn from the side effects of the global splitting trend in the 5G era, which affected pandemic control. The experience will push countries to cooperate more in 6G development and Xiang predicted discussions of the 6G vision in 2023 and formulated 6G standards by around 2028.

Huawei is willing to hold discussions with companies and industries that might need 6G technologies to define 6G jointly, Xu claimed.

Flutterwave is launched in five African nations in partnership with MTN Group

Nick Booth
-
0
Flutterwave is launched in five African nations in partnership with MTN Group

Mobile commerce puts power in the hands of businesses, consumers and local economies says World Bank

Flutterwave, Africa’s payment technology company, has announced a mobile money partnership with MTN Group so that businesses in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia can get paid by phone reports This Day Live.

The enabler is MTN’s Mobile Money system (AKA MoMo), fintech that gives consumers and businesses electronic wallets, which simplifies electronic transfers and payments while granting access to digital and financial services. According to the World Bank mobile money systems have boosted African economies by giving self employed people access to payments and credit facilities for the first time. 

In June 2021 MTN MoMo had 48.9 million active users and 581,514 merchants. MoMo enables businesses to accept and make payments within the mobile money ecosystem. The new partnership will enable Flutterwave to offer MTN Mobile Money as a payment method to its business customers.

This year Africa has seen a surge in smartphone adoption, says GSMA, with half a billion subscribers across the continent’s 32 nations. GSMA predicts 50 per cent subscriber penetration by 2025. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is responsible for more than 45 per cent of the world’s mobile money accounts with the number of account holders exceeding half a billion by 2020, says Statista.

Momo deals Africans a better hand

The MTN and Flutterwave offering will positively contribute to this trend by increasing mobile money usage and penetration in Africa, according to Flutterwave CEO, Olugbenga Agboola. Local economies and livelihoods will surge while new opportunities are created for individuals and businesses across the continent, said Agboola.

“Africa has one of the highest growth rates for mobile money adoption and e-commerce in the world. It makes sense that we help provide a seamless payment method to support and ensure African businesses reap the full benefits of the e-commerce boom in the region. Our goal has always been to grow a new wave of prosperity in Africa by creating more avenues for businesses in Africa to accept payments. With this partnership, we can achieve this while creating endless possibilities for our customers,” said Agboola.

The new partnership will further expand on Flutterwave’s previous collaboration with MTN, beyond Uganda and Rwanda, with the potential of deepening adoption of digital payments and e-commerce in Africa, a sector expected to reach $29 billion by 2022, according to Statista.

MoMo is an enabler to accelerating digitised payments in Africa, said Serigne Dioum, group chief digital and fintech officer at MTN: “Building strong ecosystems through partnerships is central to our platform strategy.” 

Spanish mobile operators told to prepare bids for 26 GHz 5G spectrum auction

Nick Booth
-
0
Spanish mobile operators told to prepare bids for 26 GHz 5G spectrum auction

Spain’s next spectrum auction will be a market run between Xmas 2021 and New Year 2022 

The Spanish government will begin to allocate spectrum in the 26 GHz band for 5G network operators some time between the end of 2021 and the start of 2022, says Europa Press.

The 26 GHz band is the last spectrum option left for 5G network operators in Spain. Each license will run for 20 years, rising to a maximum of 40 years.

Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Intelligent Infrastructures, Roberto Sánchez, told reporters the government is working on the final details of the process. It would probably award part of the frequencies to operators and allocate another part for shared use, Sánchez added, since this would allow industries to use this spectrum.

In July, the Spanish government raised €1.1 billion by auctioning the 700 MHz spectrum to Telefónica, Vodafone and Orange for the expansion of their 5G services. The Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs said this was €15 million euros above the starting price.

The 700 MHz spectrum tender process was divided into two blocks of 2×10 megahertz and three of 5 megahertz, consisting of a total 12 rounds of bidding, which was contested by the country’s three major operators after local operator Masmovil decided not to take part in the process.

Telefónica’s fast rollout discount

Vodafone Spain paid €350 million for two separate 10 megahertz blocks, which will be paid in a single instalment, in addition to a licensing fee of €15.5 million payable each year. The operator said it would use the new frequencies to expand its 5G footprint and offer better indoor coverage. Orange Spain paid the same for an identical spectrum allocation.

However, Telefónica paid €40 million less, €310 million euros for two 10 megahertz blocks, as it is committed to faster rollout. 

Spanish operators currently run their 5G services in the 3.5 GHz block of spectrum, which was awarded in 2018.

In February 2021 Orange and Telefonica’s networks were given license to expand when the Spanish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation awarded them the remaining two 10-megahertz blocks of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band. Each paid the €21 million starting price for their 10-megahertz block as the were the only participants in the auction.

GenXComm gets $20 million to maximise 5G speeds with full duplex

Nick Booth
-
0
GenXComm gets $20 million to maximise 5G speeds with full duplex

Start up uses legacy networking technique to save precious spectrum for private 4G LTE and 5G networks

US start up GenXComm has been awarded $20 million by to coax the best performance from the private 4G LTE and 5G networks using a legacy technology – Full Duplex.

Investors led by BMW iVentures were impressed by performance hikes that are created by this ancient technology. To many full Duplex invokes memories of the smell of soldering irons hovering over RS232 cabling connectors. However, this technology from a bygone era is back and could give vital boost to the performance of 5G networks.   

GenXComm launched in 2016 out of a research and development effort at the University of Texas at Austin around dynamic filtering and Radio Frequency (RF) photonics systems. In 2017, the company scored $7 million in funding from Intel and others with the goal of enabling full duplex communications for 5G, cable systems and other possible uses.

Its mission has been refined to help mobile operators to make use of their most precious asset – spectrum. So now it’s being directed to optimise communication by allowing wireless channels to transmit and receive simultaneously. Which is why GenXComm is angling its technology into the private wireless networking space, according to Light Reading reports.

Save our spectrum with FD

Old fashioned Full Duplex succeeds where 5G’s frequency division duplexing (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) have shortcomings. FDD transmits and receives signals in different spectrum bands while TDD uses different time slots in the same frequency band, so uplink signals must alternate, with uplinks connecting for a few seconds then handing over to downlink signals for their few seconds.

Full duplex shows the new methods how it’s done. It allows wireless networks to simultaneously transmit and receive wireless signals over a single spectrum channel at the same time.

The challenge, for wireless equipment makers, is to eliminate any possible interference between the uplink and downlink signals.

This differentiates Full Duplex from dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), which uses the same spectrum band to transmit both 4G and 5G signals, which cannot run simultaneously but in 1 ms increments over the same spectrum.

Another FD start up Kumu Networks is working to filter out interference using special cancellation technology with the backing of Verizon Ventures and Cisco Investments. It’s now part of the 3GPP Release 16. IAB makes it possible for operators to use their existing 5G spectrum for backhaul as well as for customer access.

Full Duplex will be essential to integrated access backhaul (IAB) for 5G network operators that use millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, said Joel Brand, vice president of product management at Kumu Networks.

“What makes full duplex important now is that the mmWave signal doesn’t propagate very far and operators do not have access to backhaul for every mmWave cell site,” said Brand.

European operators will want to use IAB in conjunction with full duplex to make their backhaul more spectrally efficient. “No one wants to spend billions of dollars on spectrum and then use it for backhaul,” said Brand.

Full duplex technology say has come back into fashion because with 5G mobile operators have discovered that spectrum is a much more rare and precious asset.

Another FD start up, Lextrum, says it can suppress interference and dramatically improve throughput for LTE. Fine tuning LTE will be a priority for fixed wireless equipment makers, such as Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei, that produce both base station equipment and the end user device. 

Lextrum’s experimental license covers both 4G and 5G. Full Duplex may be covering a lot of European base stations in 2022. 

 

Project Vista investigates how 5G networks shape fan behaviour in stadiums

Nick Booth
-
0
Project Vista investigates how 5G networks shape fan behaviour in stadiums

When the fan hits the stands, 5G will have a plan, thanks to Vista 

It’s said that fanatical fans are part of the event, fair weather fans film it and the VIPs consume it as a side dish. 

Now new audience research is investigating the relationship between sports and music fans and how their mobile devices can play a part in enjoyment of events in stadia. The studies also reveal the challenges network designers will face when catering for shows in modern stadia. The GWS-led research is a work in progress that aims to help networks solve mass crowd logistics.

One aspect of the research found that sport and music fans show massive variation in their class of service expectations. Their use of mobile phones at events reflects a distinct clash of cultures. The VIP in the corporate boxes, for example, is more likely to have a smart phone and spend a lot more time watching the event through their phone cameras lens. At the other extreme are the die-hard fanatics, who are more likely to be in the cheap seats and inclined to leave their phones in their pocket while action takes place.     

One trend is that the majority of those who get tickets to live events are likely to use their smartphones at the event. This was a type of behaviour once frowned upon and seen as a trait of the fairweather fan or, at worst, corporate box culture. These days 76 per cent of music fans and 77 per cent of sports fans will ignore the game to look at their smart phone. Photography, messaging, filming and voice calls were the most used functions that users admitted to using during an event, GWS discovered.

5G Create rewards inventors

Network designers have to configure the cell coverage of entertainment arenas to cater for a massive variation in class of service expectations. Researcher Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) said its early research figures are part of a long term attempt at a definitive study. It conducted the research on behalf of Project VISTA (Video in stadia technical architecture) which is designed to provide ‘enhanced interactive viewing experiences’ direct to devices in stadia and at other select locations, using 5G FeMBMS technology (further enhanced multimedia broadcast multicast service).

The £2.3 million project has received £1.3 million from the Government as part of 5G Create, a competition to encourage inventors to find new uses for 5G. Any individual or start-up that thinks they can improve people’s lives and boost British businesses is invited to apply.

The study will help stadium designers to tailor their networks around the bandwidth needs of various type of fan in place around the complex. It also helps them to create more supportive services such as information about travel, local shops and even online match programmes.

Will 5G make us better sports or music fans? Will sports fans need to work on their network slicing? “New technologies give you a better way of delivering on what you are already doing,” said GWS CEO Paul Carter.

The research could still be shaped to deliver what the majority want, and it doesn’t have to be about creating extra bandwidth for the VIP consumer in the corporate boxes, said Carter. It could be about providing better information to the emergency services or travel updates to fans. “At this stage we are finding out what people want and how the vendors can deliver that,” Carter said.

UK mobile operators can use public property for 5G installations

Nick Booth
-
0
UK mobile operators can use public property for 5G installations

We will site kit on the streets, on the traffic lights and on the pavement furniture – and you could win £4 million 

The government has launched a £4m competition to find ways for mobile companies to use public buildings and street furniture to host 5G radio equipment.

The two-year project will ramp up the use of such as CCTV poles, traffic signals and other pavement fixtures to host 5G kit.

Street furniture and government buildings are obvious choices as they are well connected. Tagging some extra kit on them creates less of an eye sore than a traditional phone mast. However, network operators often find it difficult to acquire the information needed to verify that a structure is suitable, such as its location, physical dimensions, proximity to the street or access to a power source.

In response, the government is investing in pilot schemes for new digital asset management systems. Local councils could easily share data with mobile companies to speed up the roll out of 5G – in theory. Many local authorities are experiencing massive absenteeism however.

“The lamp posts lining our streets have huge potential to accelerate the roll out of 5G and reduce the need to build new masts, but right now getting access to this infrastructure can be tricky,” said Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman. “That’s why we are investing millions to help local councils and mobile companies work together more effectively to bring people the incredible benefits of faster connectivity as we level up the UK.”

Hamish MacLeod, spokesman fothe UK’s mobile operator lobby group Mobile UK, welcomed the competition, as long as it can break down barriers and speed investment in 5G. Piloting new digital platforms to unite public bodies and mobile operators will make public-owned infrastructure more easily accessible, said MacLeod.

The Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator (DCIA) project is the latest in a number of measures announced by the government to level up the UK by busting the barriers holding back the roll out of lightning-fast digital connectivity. In another scheme, there are plans to try running fibre broadband cables through drinking water pipes announced last month, said the government’s Gov.uk web site.

The government is also considering giving broadband firms access to more than a million kilometres of underground utility ducts to boost the rollout of full fibre broadband – including electricity, gas and sewer networks – and will soon respond to a consultation on changing regulations to make infrastructure sharing easier.

The deadline for applications to the competition is 18 November.

Orange builds rural broadband network in Spain and smart cities in Poland

Nick Booth
-
0
Orange builds rural broadband network in Spain and smart cities in Poland

Orange is building intelligent infrastructure in towns and countrysides from Gdansk to Galicia

Orange Spain is working with Ericsson to build a rural network in Castro del Rey in Galicia that gets around the fibre shortage by using Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) as alternative to fibre. The collaborators are using a 5G node (gNodeB) co-located with an LTE node (eNodeB) to provide high-speed broadband services to local company Agroamb.

Meanwhile, in Poland resource management company Veolia and Orange claim they are creating a smarter water network. 

Veolia and Orange signed a Letter of Intent to roll-out Smart Water and other ‘intelligent city’ services across Poland as part of a national Smart City project.

The pledge to make water supply infrastructure management more efficient was one of many mooted projects announced at the 30th Economic Forum in Karpacz, Poland.

The Veolia/Orange pact propose to fight waste by monitoring water supply networks, balancing consumption and stemming water losses. The quality and security of water supply to customers is another targeted area for improvement with customers being promised a special tool that will help to engender more of an ecologically minded spirit in the consumers.

The tool could also empower the customers to monitor leaks and failures linked to the original internal installation. Orange and Veolia will jointly develop a system for remote reading of individual and supply meters as well as monitoring of fire hydrants.

Monitors smoke and the water 

Orange’s Smart City systems are already used in 80 Polish cities and towns, mainly as water meters, smoke detectors or city bike managers. It has already dabbled in Smart Water in 34 Polish cities and towns.

“We integrate services and technology into a single platform so we can manage the full range of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, communication and data. We want to develop our IoT-based services and our collaboration with Veolia is an important step in this direction,” said Julien Ducarroz, CEO at Orange Polska.

Joint activities will include the control of district heating substations, remote reading of heat and electricity meters, monitoring of heating network operations, managing the energy efficiency of buildings and using comms to develop an energy efficiency management platform for industry.

The first pilot project involves replacing 16, 000 water meters in the homes of 73,000 inhabitants in Miasteczko Śląskie, Tarnowskie Góry and the commune of Woźniki.

Veolia manages resources for 123 local governments in Poland and the heating networks for 78 cities and towns and supplies heat and water to almost 3 million customers. “Being smart means real time control, quick response, information without delays and complicated processes which we always optimise,” said Krzysztof Zamasz, Commercial Director, a member of the Board at Veolia in Poland.

European Commission block on Vodafone entry into Ethiopia lifted

Nick Booth
-
0
European Commission block on Vodafone entry into Ethiopia lifted

Frees Kenya’s largest telco Safaricom to start operations in the market of over 100 million people

The European Commission (EC) has cleared a joint venture between Safaricom and its parent firm Vodafone for Ethiopia entry after initially announcing plans to scrutinise it over competition concerns, reports The East African. A letter seen by The Business Daily, says that the EC sees no threat to fair competition from the consortium.

This clears Vodafone to enter the Ethiopian mobile market with its partners, a Safaricom-led consortium including British development finance agency CDC Group and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation. In July Sumitomo was granted a telecoms operator licence for Ethiopia after it incorporated a local company.

Firms operating within the EU require mandatory clearance from the bloc’s watchdog for activities including business acquisition and even setting joint ventures in other markets they operate in, outside the EU.

US loans delayed by instability fears

Safaricom’s plans to expand to Ethiopia were also complicated by a US State financier threatening to recall its loans following escalation of armed conflict in the Horn of Africa nation. The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) says that the acts of violence against civilians in Ethiopia’s Tigray region could affect the release of $500 million loan to the consortium led by Safaricom.

The Safaricom consortium had agreed to take the $500 million from DFC to help with acquisition and development costs. “The board approval signified initial DFC willingness to consider a loan to the consortium in the event it wins a licence but does not obligate DFC to move forward with the transaction,” the US State development agency told the Business Daily.

The financing had earlier been thrown into doubt over US economic sanctions against Ethiopia related to the conflict in the northern Tigray region, which has killed thousands of people and displaced many more.

These clearances mean Kenya’s largest telco can start operations in an addressable market of 100 million people. The inward investment will also create a number of jobs in Ethiopia.

Now Safaricom is gearing up for Ethiopia commercial launch with a recruitment drive. By June next year, the company aims to build a team of 1,000 employees, Safaricom Ethiopia MD Anwar Soussa told a press briefing in Addis Ababa.

 

 

Ontix and Mavenir create pilot scheme for Open RAN neutral hosting

Nick Booth
-
0
Ontix and Mavenir create pilot scheme for Open RAN neutral hosting

Everyone from end users to enterprise customers despairs of getting decent indoor connection

Network software developer Mavenir and infrastructure service provider Ontix are testing an Open RAN system that offers neutral host in-building connectivity.

The system, which runs on Mavenir’s MAVair native cloud virtualisation system, will run at Ontix’s data centre in Central London while small cell units run at an Ontix customer building. The rationale is to let Ontix create indoor mobile connectivity options for multi-tenanted offices, shopping malls, stadiums, hospitals, enterprise buildings and hot spots. The objective is contiguous coverage and high-speed mobile connectivity for clients ranging from ‘enterprise customers to end consumers’.

High quality mobile connectivity continues to be an elusive quality indoors. The challenges for operators and building owners include large crowds of people in a building, impenetrable construction materials and remote locations, all of which will affect signal strengths. The objective of the Ontix-Mavenir joint venture is to provide quality of service for all users, irrespective of the carrier they subscribe to. The key to this is to use neutral host solutions.

Open RAN changes cell dynamics

Ontix and Mavenir will test the capacity for delivery from a neutral host in-building Open Virtualised Radio Access Network (Open vRAN). The tests will investigate the delivery and integration of Open RAN compatible, software upgradable small cells. Tests will concentrate on the in-building coverage and its capacity for data transport.

“Open RAN is changing the dynamics of how cellular solutions are designed and delivered and this deployment is at the cutting edge of the technology in the UK,” said Ontix CEO Patrick Bradd. Neutral host architecture could offer more flexibility, including the option to use any commoditised hardware. Which is exciting, said Bradd, as it can help to create the next generation of in-building networks.

Mavenir and Ontix are responding to massive demand from enterprises and consumers for mobile connectivity, especially in areas with poor indoor and in-building coverage, according to Stefano Cantarelli, Mavenir’s chief marketing officer.

Mavenir’s vRAN allows operators to build a virtualised network architecture with open standard interfaces so that hosting companies can build a neutral system from radio units made by different vendors. The vRAN platform saves clients time and money by using software running on commercial off the shelf hardware, which safeguards them from financially painful vendor lock in tactics.

 

 

 

 

 

1...367368369...1,639Page 368 of 1,639
- Advertisement -

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP

Subscribe to Our Daily Newsletter

It takes just one minute to register for the leading daily B2B newsletter for the telecoms industry, and it's free.

SIGN UP
DOWNLOAD OUR NEW REPORT

5G Advanced

Will 5G’s second wave deliver value?

DOWNLOAD REPORT