Strategic decision makers at telcos are caught up in something of a high-wire act: They must solve the problems of the present while positioning their companies for growth in the future. Forgive them if they don’t want to look down, because the risks of a misstep can bring only peril: Without adequately addressing the problems of the present — especially the high costs of operating networks tied to closed, monolithic stacks that undermine rapid change and stagnate innovation — it will be difficult to prepare themselves to meet their own publicly declared visions for the future.
It’s a balancing act precisely because there’s an interplay between two closely related but potentially opposing demands:
- Reducing the costs of operating a telecommunications network, including lifecycle management, to meet current goals now.
- Putting in place new systems or changing existing systems to lay the foundation for innovation to drive future goals later.
The first imperative, of course, contributes to increasing revenue now; the second, to driving commercial growth later. How can you succeed at both objectives at the same time? In a word: Disaggregation. Why? Because disaggregation lays the foundation for innovation.
Disaggregate to Innovate
The 4G/5G open virtualized radio access network (Open vRAN) solution from Mavenir, powered by VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN, helps you walk the high wire between reducing operating costs and implementing systems that drive innovation and growth, all while minimizing the risks associated with the transition to an open radio access network.
This innovative, operationally ready 4G/5G disaggregated networking solution addresses the challenges of deploying a non-standalone, Open vRAN in an existing environment — a solution honored at FutureNet World 2024 on April 16 as the winner of the Network Disaggregation Award.
The solution from VMware by Broadcom and Mavenir was judged to be the best example of a disaggregated networking solution in front of about 650 attendees with roughly 250 attendees from telcos from across the world, all gathered in London to envision a collective roadmap for the future. The event is focused on discussing network automation and AI as well as strategic and commercial priorities.
According to the judging criteria for the FutureNet Awards, successful entries will demonstrate one or more of the following:
- Substantial reductions to the lifecycle costs of operating a network
- Driving revenue or commercial growth or both
- Outstanding technical innovation
- Adding new dimensions to customer experience
The solution from VMware and Mavenir empowers you to deploy Open RAN with confidence by minimizing the risks associated with moving to an open radio access network, reducing costs through automation, and driving technical innovation with a cloud-native disaggregated network that lays the foundation for growth. Indeed, the solution from Mavenir and VMware gives you solid answers to at least three of the judging criteria.
Reducing the Lifecycle Costs of Operating a Network
The solution’s combination of automated lifecycle management with virtualization and cloud-native architectures substantially reduces the costs of operating a 4G/5G network and provides the basis for revenue growth. The solution includes lifecycle management, end-to-end automation, and vRAN assurance that can be deployed on commercial off the shelf (COTS) servers while supporting O-RAN compliant radio units from Mavenir as well as other vendors.
Driving Revenue or Commercial Growth
By using the end-to-end automation in the combined solution from Mavenir and VMware, you can confidently deploy Open vRAN sites with centralized management and orchestration. The combination of automated lifecycle management with virtualization and cloud-native architectures substantially reduces the costs of operating a 4G/5G network and provides the basis for revenue growth.
The recent deployment of thousands of open RAN sites in a live commercial network is a strong testament to how the solution reduces costs now and lays the groundwork for driving revenue:
- Proven scale: More than 10,000 live vRAN sites managing 60,000 open radios
- Commercial-off-the-shelf hardware is used in a cost-effective and sustainable way
- Automation-driven scalability: Deployments at a rapid pace of more than 100 sites per day
- Cost savings: Zero-touch provisioning, end-to-end automation, DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines with GitOps, and automated lifecycle management reduce costs
- Streamlined operations: Centralized operations simplifies the complexity of managing systems and sites
- Service assurance: Real-time monitoring eases operations
- Do more with less: Fewer servers reduce hardware management overhead and improve sustainability
Demonstrating Outstanding Technical Innovation
Mavenir and VMware have virtualized the LLS-C1 configuration, which eliminates the need for traditional cell site router hardware while generating and distributing the timing solution through virtualized Cell-Site Router (vCSR) CNF leveraging the clock distribution capabilities of VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN. This compact solution with integrated timing support decreases costly hardware footprints, minimizes points of failure, and reduces energy consumption compared with a traditional RAN site, enabling significant total cost of ownership (TCO) savings.
The combined 4G/5G non-standalone (NSA) solution runs Mavenir’s CNFs, including those for the vDU, vCU and vCSR, on VMware Telco Cloud Platform RAN. The solution reduces fragmentation and complexity in nascent 4G/5G open vRAN systems by delivering two fundamental open RAN building blocks in an integrated and validated way as a software-defined RAN solution.
Validation from a Commercial Deployment and the FutureNet Award
The combined solution is commercially proven at scale and operationally ready for deployment in a pre-integrated, reliable architecture. With the solution’s end-to-end automation, real-time monitoring, and assurance, you can deploy new open RAN sites at an unprecedented rate and then streamline their operations with lifecycle management, full-stack visibility, and closed-loop remediation. The recent deployment of thousands of open RAN sites in a live commercial network is a strong testament to the scalability and efficiency of the combined solution from VMware and Mavenir.
We’re honored to win the FutureNet Network Disaggregation Award. It further validates our vision for a telecommunications future in which disaggregation and automation come together to reduce costs, inspire innovation, and set the stage for future growth.
Interested in finding out more about how VMware is helping telcos thrive? Check out these resources and join us to talk about it all at FutureNet Middle East and North Africa in Dubai on May 14 and 15:
