NEC , Arm , Qualcomm , Red Hat and HPE demonstrate Open vRAN and 5G Core UPF using Arm-based CPUs
NEC Corporation , together with Arm , Qualcomm Technologies , Red Hat and Hewlett Packard Enterprise ( HPE ) have successfully demonstrated end-to-end operation of NEC ’ s Open virtual Radio Access Network ( vRAN ) and 5G Core virtual User Plane Function ( vUPF ) products using the HPE ProLiant servers running Arm Neoverse-based CPUs and the Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card , with Red Hat OpenShift in conditions equivalent to a commercial environment .
The collaboration led to a successfully integrated and demonstrable solution that is optimised for Total Cost of Ownership ( TCO ) and power efficiency for both Edge and data centre .
NEC ’ s Open vRAN and the 5G Core vUPF deployed on the same server as the vCU are carrier-grade quality cloud-native applications , compliant to O-RAN Alliance and 3GPP standards . They support multiple servers and virtualisation platforms and are highly flexible and scalable for a variety of network scenarios and configurations .
The new solution includes the HPE ProLiant RL300 Gen11 powered by Ampere Altra Arm Neoverse-based processors with the Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card . The harnessing of an in-line accelerator is an example of Open RAN enabling a multi-vendor landscape using modern network equipment , and workload-optimised compute independent of CPU architecture , as opposed to all workload processing being done on legacy , single-vendor equipment .
“ Vodafone is keen to see the diversification of the ecosystem for silicon architecture with the demonstration of an ARMbased Open RAN platform , widening the choice of power efficient compute solutions ,” said Andy Dunkin , Open RAN RF & Digital Platform Development Manager , Vodafone . “ The maturity of Arm-based architecture , combined with high-quality NEC vRAN and acceleration from Qualcomm , shows the continuing progress made on the interoperability of Open RAN software and hardware .”
Eddie Ramirez , Vice President of Go-To-Market , Infrastructure Line of Business , Arm , said : “ Realising the full potential of 5G requires new thinking and new system architectures . Open RAN and virtualisation are making this possible by enabling new architectures and compute options for telcos . This demonstration is an incredible example of the power of the Arm ecosystem in enabling real-world deployments of Open RAN , proving TCO benefits for mobile networks by leveraging the performance-per-watt benefits of the Arm Neoverse platform .”
Katsumi Tanoue , General Manager , Global Mobile Solution Department at NEC , added : “ This demonstration is a proofpoint where the latest HW technologies , combined with carrier-grade Open RAN SW result in energy efficient , innovative and competitive RAN solutions . We at NEC are looking forward to accelerating collaboration within the Open RAN eco-system and promoting diversity and competition for the benefit of Network Operators .” �
By successfully demonstrating call processing and packet communication in conditions that are equivalent to a commercial environment and using Arm-based servers and X100 with enhanced power and space savings , the range of applications of Arm-based servers is now further expanded , confirming the potential to significantly reduce the TCO for mobile networks .
With this demonstration , NEC ’ s mobile virtualisation software suites ( Open vRAN and vUPF ) have also proven a high degree of flexibility and portability over various servers and virtualisation platforms .
Network sustainability continues to be a critical priority for service providers given the exponentially increasing traffic demands and associated processing power requirements . Therefore , innovation across leading technologies is important to help accelerate sustainability gains into the commercial network , which has been represented by this important milestone .
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