Japan's NEC Corporation has partnered with Arm, Qualcomm, Red Hat, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to successfully demonstrate the end-to-end operation of NEC's Open virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) and 5G Core virtual User Plane Function (vUPF) products. This demonstration utilized HPE ProLiant servers powered by Arm Neoverse-based CPUs and the Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card, with Red Hat OpenShift in conditions equivalent to a commercial environment, NEC announced on Wednesday.
Also Read: NEC Launches New User Plane Function Product for the Beyond 5G, 6G Era
Optimized Network Solution
According to NEC, this collaboration has resulted in a successfully integrated solution that showcased optimized performance and sustainability for 5G networks, with a focus on the total cost of ownership (TCO) and power efficiency for both edge and data centers.
NEC's Open vRAN and 5G Core vUPF products, deployed on the same server as the vCU, were demonstrated to be carrier-grade cloud-native applications, compliant with O-RAN Alliance and 3GPP standards.
Also Read: NEC Develops RAN Autonomous Optimisation Technology
Expanded Applications with Arm-Based Servers
"They support multiple servers and virtualization platforms and are highly flexible and scalable for a variety of network scenarios and configurations," NEC said. The use of Arm-based servers and the Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card exemplifies the shift towards an open, multi-vendor landscape in network equipment.
"By successfully demonstrating call processing and packet communication in conditions equivalent to a commercial environment, the solution confirmed the potential to significantly reduce TCO for mobile networks."
Additionally, NEC's mobile virtualization software suites (Open vRAN and vUPF) demonstrated flexibility and portability across various servers and virtualization platforms, the company added.
