Verizon is planning to make investment in Cloud RAN architectures to ensure the flexibility for the operator’s future services and requirements for 4G, 5G and IoT.
Verizon, a leading telecom player in the U.S., conducted trial of Cloud RAN in Oklahoma City, using Verizon’s edge cloud infrastructure and the Nokia AirScale Cloud Base Station Server, featuring Intel Xeon Scalable Processor.
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The trial furthers the joint work between Nokia and Intel to develop the next technological step of Cloud RAN, Verizon’s vRAN 2.0 architecture, which will bring everything but the radio network in the cloud.
The Cloud strategy will enable Verizon to lower capital and operational expenditures for its mobile network, and increase the number of users per cell, leading to cut in costs per user. The development efforts also provide flexible and scalable capacity, plus continuous software delivery for Verizon’s customers.
Nokia’s engineers have built Cloud RAN software in Verizon’s cloud infrastructure using commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware, proving the software is not dependent on a custom environment for deployment.
Finland-based Nokia used its AirScale Cloud Base Station Server, a virtual base station running on Verizon’s Cloud Platform connected via Ethernet backhaul. This software defined and hardware agnostic solution retains benefits of cloud centralized RAN and edge cloud distributed RAN deployment models.
“Verizon’s Intelligent Edge Network, which maximizes this flexibility, will allow faster upgrades, allowing our customers access to the latest technology as quickly as possible,” Bill Stone, vice president, Technology Development & Planning, Verizon, said.
