Canadian telecommunications company Telus has announced its collaboration with Samsung to build commercial virtualized and open radio access network (RAN) technology, which promises enhanced performance, flexibility, energy efficiency, and automation. Telus claims that it will be Canada's first to implement this technology, with the collaboration expanding from greenfield (new builds) to brownfield (existing infrastructure) deployments.
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Telus and Samsung Partnership
This move comes after Telus selected Samsung as its 5G Network vendor back in June 2020. "It is also one of the first truly virtualized Open RAN deployments within a complex, brownfield network environment," Telus said.
Virtualized and Open RAN Technology
With an Open RAN approach, Telus will be able to utilize components from different manufacturers that best suit its needs, while a virtualized radio access network (vRAN) allows the telco to use software instead of hardware. The company mentioned that this provides Telus with faster access to the latest technologies as they become available, thus enhancing customer experience and network innovation.
Commenting on the partnership, Telus said, "We are proud to be the first Canadian telecommunications company to integrate this cutting-edge technology, together with Samsung and our other partners."
"Telus and Samsung have been spearheading a meaningful transformation in mobile communications, and we look forward to continuing to unleash the full benefits of software-centric innovation by advancing our industry-leading vRAN and Open RAN," said Samsung.
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Reportedly, the companies have extensively tested both the vRAN and Open RAN rollout in select Canadian markets, powered by Samsung's vRAN solutions. Commercial deployment will commence in the first half of this year, with a large-scale network rollout expected to begin in mid-2024.
Samsung's solutions
Samsung's solutions include its vRAN 3.0 for 4G and 5G, which features enhanced capabilities for improved energy savings, optimized performance, and intelligent automation via Samsung's Service Management and Orchestration (SMO). Additionally, Samsung's AI-based SMO will aid Telus in accelerating vRAN rollouts at scale by enabling automated deployment of thousands of network sites simultaneously.
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In its approach toward multi-vendor Open RAN brownfield deployment, Telus will also leverage other ecosystem collaborations. Cloud infrastructure will be provided by Wind River, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise will deliver HPE ProLiant DL110 Gen11 servers featuring 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost.
