Cohere Technologies and VMware recently announced they are developing an O-RAN solution to help CSPs improve network and spectrum efficiencies and deliver new and differentiated services and experiences for their customers.
The RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) is a new function introduced by the O-RAN Alliance that enables CSPs to deploy cloud-native control and management apps in the RAN. Essentially, it virtualizes the RAN Centralized Units (CUs) and Distributed Units (DUs), where complex RAN intelligence was previously embedded.
VMware has designed its RIC platform keeping developer experience at the center and offers a RIC Software Developer Kit (SDK) to any third-party developer to build apps that can be deployed in the RAN. Today most of these apps are geared toward making the network faster, including Cohere’s Spectrum Multiplier xApp.
Cohere claims that its Spectrum Multiplier and Cloud Scheduler xApps improve spectral efficiency for CSPs by as much as 2x by enabling existing mobile networks to communicate with multiple users simultaneously on the same time and frequency resources. This is achieved by using dynamic and smart pairing as well as precoding techniques. The result is improved spectral efficiency and network latency that helps CSPs deliver a better user experience and ease capacity bottlenecks when demand is high. It makes their network better equipped to deliver bandwidth-sensitive services like AR/VR streaming, 360/4K videos, and immersive gaming, among others.
Stephen Spellicy, VP of Product Marketing and Solutions, Service Provider and Edge, VMware
Our solution is designed to help accelerate RAN automation, optimization, and monetization by enabling CSPs to deploy intelligent, cloud-native RAN applications created by a growing xApp developer community.
Ray Dolan, Chairman and CEO of Cohere Technologies
Our software, when running on VMware’s RIC platform, provides CSPs with a powerful solution to extend spectral efficiency and deliver a great user experience to customers accessing 5G services.
