Today, Samsung Electronics stated that Vodafone UK has chosen it as its major vendor of Open RAN (O-RAN) to supply virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) to the UK. Samsung will bring O-RAN compliant radios that feature mid-band and low-band spectrums, and commercial vRAN solutions for this alliance.
President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun stated:
We are proud that this collaboration with Vodafone—one of the premier carriers in the world—will be the first scaled deployment of our pioneering 5G technologies in Europe, including vRAN and O-RAN. This is a major step forward, as more operators are transitioning into new RAN technologies to prioritize user experience and efficiency. We look forward to continue leading the way in 5G innovation to meet our customer’s highest standards of performance, functionality and reliability.
Samsung's completely virtualized RAN operates on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers and is software-based. As its vRAN makes use of container-based and cloud-native architecture, it allows for efficiency and flexible deployments in network administration for mobile operators. Another advantage of this architecture centers around its automation potential.
Vodafone's Chief Technology Officer, Johan Wibergh stated:
Vodafone is committed to leading the next wave of digital transformation across Europe, ensuring fast and reliable connectivity for all. Open RAN, built on strong partnerships, is key to realizing this ambition. Samsung’s innovative solutions and expertise are part of the foundation that is creating this network of the future.
O-RAN and virtualized RAN technologies have the potential to play a key role in aiding the development of network architectures to support the upcoming generation of 5G services and applications. Recently, Samsung has also demonstrated its capacity to power the multi-gigabit speeds of Massive MIMO radios on COTS servers.
