Nokia has completed a live network trial in Poland in association with Orange to validate the benefits of cloud-optimized radio access networks for shifting to 5G.
The trial of Cloud RAN technology in Poland during March-May was to assist Orange for the launch of a distributed cloud architecture for 5G.
Nokia’s AirScale Cloud RAN, a distributed, cloud-based radio access network architecture, provides capacity and prepares the network for the deployment of new 5G access technology as part of a multi-layered architecture.
Nokia conducted the trial in Poland, with radio sites in Chelm and the virtualized part of the baseband running in a data center in Lublin, around 70 km away. Nokia’s AirScale Cloud Base Station provided network performance on both Nokia’s reference cloud infrastructure and on Orange’s own cloud environment.
Nokia’s architecture splits baseband processing functionality across the radio cell sites and data center using its AirScale Cloud Base Station.
Nokia engineers have conducted time-critical functions at the cell site and connected via Ethernet fronthaul – allowing the operator to use its existing transport network – while centralized software hosted at the data center cost-efficiently performs non real-time functions.
Piotr Jaworski, CTO of Orange Poland, said: “Orange Poland has trialed virtualized RAN architectures and investigated the impact on network operations. The quality and performance observed during the trial give confidence on the RAN virtualization and is a critical step for us towards 5G.”
Orange is considering RAN virtualization as an enabler to deliver homogeneous customer experience on 4G and 5G networks, allowing multi-service networks to simultaneously handle various type of objects with different connectivity needs, said Arnaud Vamparys, VP Radio Access Networks and Microwaves of Orange Global.
