Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia has expanded its mobile fronthaul solution with new 1830 Versatile WDM Module (VWM) optical platforms, allowing operators to accelerate the deployment of centralized RAN architectures to satisfy growing consumer demand for streaming video and downloading high-definition movies on mobile devices, as well as traffic demand from IoT-connected objects. Operators can meet surging data traffic on their networks and offer consumers higher-speed mobile broadband services profitably by moving to a centralized RAN architecture, the company said.
In centralized RAN architectures, baseband processing is separated from RF (radio frequency) equipment such as remote radio heads (RRHs) and run in a single location, allowing faster mobile broadband, increased capacity and lower operating costs.
“Recognizing the need of mobile operators to move to centralized RAN architectures, we have been collaborating with some of the largest operators in the world to expand the 1830 VWM portfolio. Through 30-plus customer engagements, we've been able to develop a toolkit that will successfully tailor our fronthaul solution to fit any number of deployment scenarios. With this expansion of the 1830 family of optical products, Nokia further solidifies its Mobile Transport leadership with the industry's most comprehensive fronthaul and backhaul solutions,” Sam Bucci, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Optical Networking at Nokia, said.
Adoption of centralized RAN has been hindered by an inability to deploy fronthaul networks in a cost-effective, easy to operate and scalable way, with high enough performance to quickly transfer massive amounts of traffic between the remote radio heads and centralized baseband equipment. Nokia said that its 1830 VWM portfolio removes these barriers with a cost-effective platform able to deliver the scale, ease of operation and performance needed to make fronthaul networks viable in large centralized RAN deployments.
