The business world never stops moving, and companies have no choice but to keep up if they don’t want to fall behind the competition. It’s the same with network communications. Enterprises and consumers expect their service providers to be agile, nimble, and deliver the latest technology and services. The loyalty factors are diminishing, and consumers (individual or enterprise) don’t wait long to turn their business over to an operator that provides what they need.
One of the latest tools in the hands of service providers is the virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN). vRAN takes what used to be a hardware implementation on vendor-specific equipment and transforms it into software on off-the-shelf third-party servers. New services that used to take years to launch, waiting for the hardware to be upgraded, now are performed remotely, in hours, with a simple software update. Doubling site capacity with purpose-built BBUs can take 3-4 years but can be done in 12-18 months using vRAN hardware, while using vRAN software on off-the-shelf servers can drive capital expenditure savings.
vRAN offers numerous benefits to operators. For example, vRAN allows far greater flexibility in network planning, using virtualized Distributed Units and virtualized Centralized Units. However, the most substantial benefits that vRAN enables are network slicing and automation.
Network slicing allows service providers to create and run multiple virtual networks on the same physical equipment, decreasing hardware costs. Each slice can have a customized set of properties for a specific group of users that cannot be guaranteed by a public network, such as lower latency, higher throughput, peak data rate, or specific security requirements. Slicing allows operators to maximize the capacity of their networks, providing consumer, private network, and enterprise customers with the exact specifications needed for their chosen applications and services. This differentiation of services can further monetize the service provider’s systems, for example, by deploying a private network to an enterprise customer. Furthermore, with each slice isolated from the public network and other slices, security is increased with devices authenticated on a per slice basis and data for one slice shielded from sight from other slices.
Automation of network functions also significantly benefits operators using a virtual RAN. For example, automating the network slicing lifecycle will be essential, as the creation, scaling, and dissolution of slices happen continuously. Dynamic scaling is an automated method that allows networks to add processing power, memory, and connection resources on the fly when new slices and functionality need to be instantiated. Dynamic scaling is also used to add resources when traffic spikes occur and automatically uses those same resources for mundane tasks such as generating reports when not otherwise required or even powering down temporarily, saving energy costs. vRAN reduces operational personnel costs with increased automation efficiency in workflows and troubleshooting.
The software-based virtualization of the RAN will continue to progress at a faster pace than hardware-centric networks. The ease of software upgrades and a large number of vendors in the vRAN ecosystem guarantee that the new network approach will evolve rapidly. With numerous and prominent companies worldwide participating in the vRAN ecosystem, it won’t take long for vRAN architectures to completely dominate vendor-specific hardware in performance metrics.
Samsung’s vRAN is the premier choice for operators who want to switch to Open RAN. Samsung is a member of the Open RAN Alliance and is committed to virtualized and fully interoperable networks.
Samsung takes virtualization to the next level with its cloud-native, containerized vRAN, using CNF-based (Containerized Network Function) Distributed Units and a CNF based Centralized Units. Samsung’s vRAN has a proven track record in commercial deployment on a wide scale by Tier 1 operators in Europe, Asia, and North America. With all of these commercial achievements, Samsung’s 5G vRAN was recognized with two awards, including the CTO’s Choice and the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough at the GLOMO Awards at Mobile World Congress 2022. The CTO Choice is the highest recognition in that the selection is comprised of a panel of 21 CTOs from network operators around the globe, and they acknowledged Samsung's leadership in vRAN as the ‘best of the best.’
Recently, Samsung reinforced its technical and commercial leadership in vRAN thanks to the company’s selection by DISH Wireless to supply its 5G RAN network solutions. Samsung will support DISH Wireless’ 5G target architecture with its fully virtualized and O-RAN compliant 5G solutions, which have been proven in Tier 1 operators’ networks.
Samsung was the first to bring vRAN to market and, as the global leader in vRAN, continues to work with customers, partners, and standards bodies to help the vRAN ecosystem evolve. Samsung’s ability to bring all these players together ensures that new functionality and services operate as part of a cohesive whole, providing end-to-end success. Operators who embrace a vRAN architecture will find themselves with an accelerated pace of innovation. They can flexibly manage their networks and deploy new services quickly by using network slicing and running their 5G network on the same equipment as their existing LTE components. On the contrary, service providers who stay with the status quo, the hardware-based monoliths of yesterday, deploying new functionality long after the competition, may soon find themselves driving in the exit lane.