Wind River, an edge software solutions company, recently announced a strategic collaboration with Rakuten Symphony to accelerate Open RAN adoption among communication service providers (CSPs). This partnership expands Rakuten’s Open RAN ecosystem for 4G and 5G solutions by integrating Wind River's Studio Operator and the newly launched eLxr Pro enterprise Linux solution.
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Expanding the Open RAN Ecosystem
The two companies recently completed a proof-of-concept, which included Rakuten Symphony's Open RAN 4G and 5G SA vDU and vCU running successfully on Wind River Studio Operator. Rakuten Symphony's Open RAN solution provides a software fabric that is field-hardened for performance and optimisation, supporting both LTE and 5G technologies. This enables a truly pre-proven Open RAN choice on selected common platforms, the companies said in a joint statement.
Additionally, the companies will collaborate further to strengthen each other's platforms. Rakuten Symphony will incorporate Wind River’s eLxr Pro into its cloud portfolio, offering enhanced edge capabilities. Wind River will integrate Rakuten Symphony’s Cloud Native Storage into Studio Operator, enabling powerful storage options for advanced applications, including AI.
Enhancing Flexibility and Choice for CSPs
"By expanding our partner ecosystem to Wind River, we deliver on the promise of providing additional choice to all customers as they accelerate their journey toward Open RAN. Our companies are ready and are looking forward to engaging in customer discussions and bringing our stack to market," said Raghunath Hariharan, chief technology officer, Rakuten Symphony.
Benefits for Communication Service Providers
"Together with Rakuten Symphony, we are delivering a powerful combined stack that offers increased flexibility and choice, streamlining the transition to cloud-based and open RAN architectures. This enables CSPs to unlock the full potential of open and cloud RAN, ensuring competitiveness and a fully programmable infrastructure across 4G and 5G, while opening new avenues for network monetisation," said Paul Miller, chief technology officer, Wind River.
"Further, the integration of eLxr Pro into the Rakuten Symphony cloud portfolio ensures users benefit from cutting-edge technology, combining open-source flexibility with innovation tailored to meet their unique cloud-to-edge deployment needs. By integrating Rakuten Cloud Native Storage solution into Studio Operator, our customers can benefit from running high-performance stateful workloads on our platform for edge and core use cases," Miller added.
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Cloud-Based and Open RAN Transformation
Wind River Studio Operator, based on the StarlingX project, provides a cloud-native framework for edge network deployment, while eLxr Pro—built on Debian-based technology—ensures secure, stable support for cloud-to-edge deployments. This combined platform is set to offer CSPs an efficient pathway to open and cloud RAN transformation.
