Nokia, the Finnish B2B technology company, has announced signing agreements with leading cloud infrastructure and server providers, giving mobile network operators and companies the flexibility to choose hardware, cloud infrastructure and data center solutions for running CloudRAN. Furthermore, to align with this initiative and support the same, Nokia also announced anyRAN, a concept to help give telcos and enterprises multiple options for building Radio Access Networks.
Also Read: Nokia Launches Habrok Massive MIMO AirScale 5G Radios
Nokia launches anyRAN
Nokia says, "The software can run on any partner's Cloud and Server infrastructure in addition to Nokia AirScale base stations and Nokia AirFrame servers. This approach removes the complexity from deployments by allowing a mix of purpose-built, hybrid, and fully Cloud-based RAN solutions, enabling deep multi-level disaggregation at the Cloud Infrastructure layer and data center (server) hardware layer."
Cloud RAN SmartNIC for anyRAN
The support for these solutions is the Nokia Cloud RAN SmartNIC, a Layer 1 (fronthaul) in-line acceleration card designed, which seamlessly integrates with all major cloud or server infrastructures. To achieve Layer 1 (L1) acceleration, specialized silicon with exceptional computing power is required, which general-purpose processors cannot provide. The Nokia Cloud RAN SmartNIC employs optimized silicon technology that is dedicated, more energy-efficient, and delivers higher performance. Nokia and its partners have already conducted successful end-to-end 5G data calls (Layer 3 calls) using Nokia's solution in multi-vendor setups.
Also Read: Nokia and Globalconnect Achieve 1.2 Tbps Over Single Wavelength Using PSE-6s
Nokia 5G Cloud RAN
Benefitting from the SmartNIC, the enhanced AirFrame Open Edge server delivers a 50 per cent performance boost, said Nokia in its release.
You can learn more about Nokia's anyRAN, SmartNIC, and enhanced AirFrame Open Edge Server at MWC 2023.