SoftBank Corp., NEC and Broadcom Jointly Validate RAN Modernization with Virtualization by Unifying O-RAN Architecture and Telco Cloud
Broadcom News, Thursday, February 29th, 2024
VMware have jointly verified the virtualization of the radio access network ('RAN'), which is the front end of the mobile network. The companies confirmed the feasibility of RAN modernization by converging O-RAN architecture and Telco Cloud.
In this joint verification, a virtualized RAN ('vRAN') system consisted of a general-purpose common infrastructure defined by SoftBank, vRAN applications using O-RAN architecture by NEC, and a vRAN platform optimized for VMware's Telco Cloud platform.
The vRAN applications were virtualized using container technology by disaggregating the network function of the RAN into Central Units (CUs) and Distributed Units (DUs), which were conventionally handled by the Baseband Unit (BBU). By adopting the O-RAN architecture, the vRAN applications were deployed onto the vRAN platform O-Cloud as O-CU and O-DU. In addition, adopting the cloud-native technology for the Telco Cloud-optimized vRAN platform enabled advanced automate of the construction and optimization of RAN applications.