Intel and VMware today formalized a collaborative effort that’s already in full swing to develop a more integrated and interoperable platform for open and virtualized radio access networks (RAN). 

The primary goal is to create a pre-integrated framework that removes complexity for RAN vendors like Altiostar, Mavenir, and Parallel Wireless, and allows for a more efficient provisioning of their software with operators. Other vendors, operators, equipment manufacturers, and RAN software providers are working with Intel and VMware to improve interoperability within the context of this project. 

VMware’s significant 5G win with Dish Network last week, which calls for the vendor to provide the underlying cloud platform and infrastructure to power its open RAN 5G network, is an early example of the collaborative work VMware and Intel are doing on this front, Sachin Katti, VP of strategy, telco, and edge cloud at VMware, told SDxCentral. 

Trials underway with Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone

Deutsche Telekom is also testing a vRAN framework designed by VMware and Intel for low-latency workloads, and Vodafone Group is working with VMware to deliver virtual network functions (VNFs) across its global footprint. 

Intel and VMware are building programmable open interfaces that further integrate and improve the combined performance of Intel’s FlexRAN software reference architecture and VMware’s RAN Intelligent Controller.

Collectively, the companies are seeking to deliver some key features, including integration with VMware’s cloud infrastructure and telco cloud automation platform, the RAN Intelligent Controller, and deeper interoperability for radio units paired with Intel’s FlexRAN software. Beyond that, VMware and Intel are working to make sure all of the O-RAN Alliance interfaces are supported by the platform. 

The goal is to build a repeatable platform that will foster a healthier ecosystem for vRAN and open RAN, thereby encouraging more mobile network operators to deploy these technologies at scale in large urban networks, said Caroline Chan, VP and GM of 5G infrastructure in Intel’s Network Platform Group.

“If we can find a way to do this recipe together very well, which we are on the way to doing soon, it will eliminate a lot of the growing pains, a lot of the hurdles that Mavenir, Altiostar, and Parallel Wireless are confronting," she explained.

Early developments underpin recent deals

While integration work with VMware’s cloud and automation software is already underway, the RAN Intelligent Controller and radio unit interoperability work is ongoing on a trial basis, Katti said. “A lot of the background work is already showing up,” he added.

Intel’s FlexRAN software reference architecture has been the “de facto standard for all of the vRAN solutions out there in the market. So anyone who wants to build an open RAN solution starts with the FlexRAN reference platform,” but then faces a heavy lift to integrate with open RAN vendors like Altiostar, Mavenir, and Parallel Wireless, Katti explained. 

Currently, after one of those vendors makes use of FlexRAN in an operator deployment, it has to do significant interoperability work to integrate the radio hardware, confirm proper connections with servers for cloud virtualization, and make sure it interacts with the orchestration platform to fully unlock the benefits of a cloud-native architecture, Katti said. 

“What we, VMware and Intel, are really trying to do here is take away all of the other headaches that [service providers] and operators have to deal with, which is cloud integration, radio unit interoperability, automation, orchestration,” he said. 

Instead of requiring software vendors to independently replicate that work, VMWare and Intel want to make that part of a pre-packaged platform, according to Katti. “Then they can focus on what truly differentiates them, which is delivering the best possible network performance, and not have to worry about all these other things."