Mavenir and Turkcell last week announced what they claim is the world’s first OpenRAN vRAN call fully containerized with O-RAN Split 7.2 architecture, in Turkey.
Running on Turkcell’s Telco Cloud environment, Mavenir’s OpenRAN vRAN is integrated with Turkcell Core, and is the first workload that will be going live on Turkcell’s Edge Cloud.
Mavenir’s OpenRAN vRAN solution centralizes baseband processing in cloud-native virtualized and containerized baseband units (vBBU) and exploits fronthaul over ethernet between vBBU and multiple remote radio units (RRU). The Mavenir vRAN architecture and platform supports 4G as well as both 5G NR NSA and SA. The vBBU is split into Central Unit (CU) and Distributed Unit (DU) and it features O-RAN standard interfaces.
The split between the DU and the RRU gives flexibility to the RAN system by enabling an efficient interface which can be run over Ethernet and allows concentration of the processing power either into data centers or onto edge platforms. Mavenir’s OpenRAN vRAN allows a very secure and transparent interface which is based on a single architecture that can accommodate several deployment scenarios.
With these open interfaces, as well as virtualization and web scale containerization, the solution has the flexibility to support various deployment scenarios – including Public Cloud, Private Cloud and at the RRU site. It can also support massive MIMO, mmWave, edge micro services and network slicing for 5G NR.
Turkcell is also transforming its LTE and 5G voice network into 100% virtual infrastructures. Mavenir was selected by Turkcell to deploy its cloud-native, NFV-based IMS solution, in Turkcell’s home country Turkey and other subsidiaries.
Mikael Rylander, Mavenir’s SVP/GM Radio Access Products
The standard O-RAN 7.2 interface will enable and boost the OpenRAN ecosystem significantly by allowing many RRU vendors to be deployed and to have very effective solutions in all possible frequency bands with great deployment flexibility and with automation and remote operations.
Gediz Sezgin, Turkcell CTO
Now with OpenRAN, we are entering a new era that offers us new ways of deploying Radio Networks and create a real distributed 5G network to fulfill the expectations that the industry has.
