Nokia and UAE telco Etisalat have completed the first trial of cloud RAN in the Middle East with in-line acceleration over Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) ProLiant DL110 Gen11 server.

The trial aims to enable an enhanced 5G experience for end users and uses Etisalat’s existing mid-band carrier in the n78 3.5GHz band over its 5G standalone network.

The completion of an end-to-end cloud RAN L3 data call demonstrates the flexibility of Nokia’s cloud RAN offering using in-line accelerator architecture. It is evidence of Nokia’s AnyRAN approach, which ensures the feature performance consistency of cloud RAN with purpose-built RAN while enabling more choice for operators to build cloud RANs. The project also marks a milestone in Etisalat’s cloudification ambitions.

The trial saw Nokia’s virtualised distributed unit (vDU) and virtualised centralised unit (vCU) on the HPE ProLiant DL110 Gen11 (www.hpe.com/us/en/hpe-proliant-servers.html) using in-line acceleration that provides benefits in terms of power efficiency, scalability, flexibility, feature parity, cloud nativeness, lower TCO, and ease of integration into any server and cloud environment.

“We have been working with Nokia’s open innovation lab in Dubai to demonstrate HPE ProLiant DL110 high density telco server supporting up to three Nokia RAN accelerator cards, all in a short depth 1U platform,” said Fernando Castro Cristin, vice president at HPE. “By combining our strengths, we are able to offer a comprehensive and robust cloud RAN that drives efficiency, performance, openness and scale.”

The AnyRAN (www.nokia.com/networks/mobile-networks/anyran) approach offers the ability to create virtualised networks with specific performance characteristics. These are tailored to different applications that can enhance sustainability efforts for Industry 4.0, enterprise and private networks to enrich Etisalat’s portfolio and provide flexibility in its choice of cloud infrastructure software, hardware and technology suppliers.

“We are committed to technological innovations that directly impact our customers and pave the way for revolutionising the industry,” said Marwan Bin Shakar, senior vice president at Etisalat (www.etisalat.ae). “As part of our latest collaboration, Nokia’s cloud RAN will enhance our 5G mobile broadband network by combining the power of cloud computing with the flexibility of radio access networks. It’s the first in the region and paves the way for enhanced connectivity and service delivery, ultimately providing end-users with a more robust and responsive 5G experience.”

Mark Atkinson, head of RAN at Nokia, added: “This important trial with Etisalat highlights the maturity of our AnyRAN approach using cloud RAN with in-line accelerator architecture. Nokia’s approach ensures performance consistency between cloud RAN and purpose-built RAN and provides our customers with more choice and flexibility. It will empower Etisalat to meet diverse market demands swiftly, delivering a future-proof 5G network that will enable innovative services through dynamic network slicing and automation.”