Beijing time August 7 news According to foreign media reports, Vodafone announced on Thursday that the company has activated its first live 4G Open RAN site in the UK. The site is located at the Royal Welsh Showground in the rural area of Powys, Wales, in order to provide a better network connection for the exhibition grounds and the wider community.
It is reported that the American company Mavenir provided it with 4G/5G OpenRAN software, which is compatible with 5G, but currently only supports 4G at this site.
According to John Baker, senior vice president of Mavenir, the architecture is based on remote radio units (RRU), distributed units (DU) and centralized units (CU). He pointed out that RRU and DU are located on cellular base stations, while CU is 180 miles away.
John Baker said:
“This is a further development of our cooperation with Vodafone to develop Open RAN and network virtualization. Mavenir has a long-term supply relationship with Vodafone, which shows our joint efforts in developing Open RAN.”
Some of the benefits of Open RAN mentioned by Vodafone include reduced costs and increased deployment flexibility to help roll out services to more rural areas faster.
The operator did not specify a detailed expansion plan, only that it is working to identify other areas in the UK where Open RAN technology can be used to introduce voice and high-speed data services cost-effectively.
5G network deployment has attracted a lot of attention, but Vodafone first focused on 4G Open RAN. The company has been testing pure 4G laboratory equipment and said that from an engineering perspective, it makes the most sense.
Vodafone UK design expert Daniel Shannon said in an article in June describing the operator’s views on Open RAN:
“As the old saying goes, before you can run, you must learn to walk.”
“Because 4G networks carry less data than 5G networks, and support fewer concurrent connections to mobile phones, the first step is to design, test, and use Open RAN for those 4G networks with less demand. It works.”
Vodafone emphasized that Open RAN enables it to introduce more vendors into the mobile network without relying too much on traditional equipment vendors.
“This new method allows us to reduce our dependence on existing large technology suppliers and find ways to reduce the cost of implementing mobile network coverage.
” Vodafone UK CTO Scott Petty said in a statement. “Open RAN also helps bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas in the UK.”
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