Samsung Electronics recently announced the company will deploy its cloud-native fully virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) solutions for mid-band spectrum in KDDI’s 5G network.
Samsung and KDDI have been collaborating on advanced research on vRAN, to drive 5G innovation for KDDI’s network. Most recently, the companies successfully completed the first 5G Standalone (SA) call using Samsung’s vRAN and another vendor’s 5G Massive MIMO radios, which are O-RAN compliant. Powered by Samsung’s vRAN, KDDI’s 5G network will deliver exceptional performance, enabling KDDI users to experience the full potential of 5G.
With its latest 5G vRAN technology, Samsung brings a range of improvements to KDDI’s network. By replacing dedicated baseband hardware with software elements, vRAN offers more deployment flexibility, greater scalability and improved resource efficiency in network operation. With its cloud-native, container-based architecture, Samsung’s vRAN also simplifies end-to-end network management through automation, allowing operators to quickly introduce new services with minimal impact on deployment.
Virtualized networks will play a key role in supporting KDDI’s pursuit of new 5G use cases and next-generation capabilities. Last year, for instance, Samsung and KDDI demonstrated how 5G end-to-end network slicing could play a key role for mobile operators by enabling the creation of multiple virtual networks within a single physical network infrastructure.
Samsung and KDDI will begin trials in Q1 of 2022, and will start commercial deployment in the second half of 2022.
Kazuyuki Yoshimura, Chief Technology Officer of KDDI
We believe in the power of virtualization, and this collaboration serves as a meaningful catalyst for driving the next phase of 5G innovation, and advancing our networks to offer best-in-class 5G services.
Woojune Kim, EVP, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics
With commercially-proven performance and reliability, our vRAN is an attractive technology option for operators—from both the deployment and operational perspectives. We are excited to mark another milestone with KDDI, following prior network collaborations that include the commercialization of 5G in 2020, and the rollout of 700MHz 5G in 2021.
