Nokia and etisalat by e& (Etisalat) announced that they have successfully completed the first trial of Cloud RAN in the MEA region with In-Line acceleration over Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) ProLiant DL110 Gen11. The trial aims to enable an enhanced 5G experience for end users and utilizes etisalat by e&’s existing mid-band carrier in the n78 (3.5GHz) band over its 5G standalone network.
The successful completion of an end-to-end Cloud RAN L3 data call demonstrates the flexibility of Nokia’s Cloud RAN solution using In-Line accelerator architecture. It is further evidence of Nokia’s anyRAN approach which ensures the feature performance consistency of Cloud RAN with purpose-built RAN while enabling more choice for operators to build Cloud RAN networks. The project also marks a significant milestone in etisalat by e&’s cloudification ambitions.
The trial saw Nokia’s virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU) and virtualized Centralized Unit (vCU) on the HPE ProLiant DL110 Gen11 server utilizing In-Line acceleration that provides unique benefits in terms of power efficiency, scalability, flexibility, feature parity, cloud nativeness, lower TCO as well as ease of integration into any server and cloud environment.
The Nokia any RAN approach offers the ability to create virtualized networks with specific performance characteristics tailored to different applications’ needs that will play a pivotal role in enhancing sustainability efforts for Industry 4.0, Enterprise and Private Networks to enrich Etisalat’s portfolio offering and further provide flexibility in their choice of cloud infrastructure software, hardware, and technology suppliers.
Marwan Bin Shakar, Senior Vice President of Access Network Development at etisalat by e&, said: “We are committed to technological innovations that directly impact our customers and pave the way for revolutionizing the industry. As part of our latest collaboration, Nokia’s Cloud RAN solution will enhance our 5G mobile broadband network by combining the power of cloud computing with the flexibility of radio access networks. It’s the first in the region and paves the way for enhanced connectivity and service delivery, ultimately providing end-users with a more robust and responsive 5G experience.”
Fernando Castro Cristin, VP and GM, Service Providers, OEM, and Telco at HPE, said: “We have been working with Nokia’s Open Innovation Lab in Dubai to demonstrate HPE ProLiant DL110 high density Telco server supporting up to three Nokia RAN accelerator cards, all in a short depth 1U platform. By combining our strengths, we are able to offer a comprehensive and robust Cloud RAN solution that drives efficiency, performance, openness, and scale.”
Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia, said: “This important trial with etisalat by e& highlights the maturity of our anyRAN approach using Cloud RAN with In-Line accelerator architecture. Nokia’s approach ensures performance consistency between Cloud RAN and purpose-built RAN and provides our customers with more choice and flexibility. Our solution will empower etisalat by e& to meet diverse market demands swiftly, delivering a future-proof 5G network that will enable innovative services through dynamic network slicing and automation.”
