Written by Andrew Wooden
Swedish kit vendor Ericsson has released a salvo of Open RAN and Cloud RAN related announcements in quick succession, one involving a collaboration with Spanish operator Telefónica.
First up, Ericsson and Telefónica have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ‘accelerate the adoption towards an increasingly open network built upon Ericsson’s Cloud RAN architecture’ – which seems to mean a series of joint Cloud RAN trial deployments in Europe.
The firms will also explore how to deploy Cloud RAN sites using lots of automation, including leveraging rApps in RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and service management and orchestration (SMO) architecture to enhance radio access network (RAN) solutions.
Ericsson Cloud RAN offers opportunities for operators to build macro networks as well as expand into enterprise applications, claims the release.
“We are excited to join forces with Ericsson,” said Enrique Blanco, Telefónica Global CTIO. “This collaboration brings together the best of both organizations, enabling us to leverage the latest advancements in virtualization and cloud technologies. The network’s transition to software-based operations and the evolution to open and disaggregated network architectures will increase flexibility, enable new network architectures and models, and boost innovation.”
