Accelerates delivery of O-RAN compliant cloud-native Mavenir software

Mavenir is a networking software provider focused on building the future of networking with cloud-native software that can run on any cloud and change the way the world connects. The company announced a strategic partnership with HCL Technologies (HCL), a leading global technology company focused on network systems testing. This collaboration helps to accelerate the market availability of Remote Radio Head Units (RRUs) compliant with the O-RAN Split 7.2 architecture, while also creating a business model to meet the growing demand and changing demands for O-RAN RRUs requirements.

Today’s RRU ecosystem has grown to offer communications service providers (CSPs) significantly more choices, including 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, massive antenna technology (mMIMO), millimeter wave (mmWave), small cells and Indoor radio. The number of RRU partners working with Mavenir has also continued to grow, with each partner releasing new complex radios with new software, involving different radio technologies, output power, antenna sizes and spectrum to satisfy O-RAN customers development needs.

The collaboration combines HCL’s third-party RRU testbed with Mavenir’s fully centralized unit (CU) and distributed unit (DU) RAN software stacks. As a result, RRU vendors will have the ability to work directly with HCL to evaluate their O-RAN interfaces and integrate with Mavenir’s O-RAN compliant cloud-native CU/DU software.

The collaboration will also simplify testing and validation across multiple O-RAN interoperability profiles, helping vendors quickly validate frequency variants and the increasingly diverse RRU offerings required by the O-RAN market.

The collaboration will also benefit both RRU vendors and CSPs by supporting the continued expansion of the radio ecosystem and helping to build a self-sufficient RRU business model:

Vendors will be able to quickly validate their O-RAN compliant RRUs while developing product portfolios for different deployment use cases.

CSPs will be able to more easily identify available O-RAN compatible RRU options for specific use cases and locations.

Puneet Sethi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, RAN Business Unit, Mavenir, said: “We will directly meet customer and partner requests to accelerate the integration of new RRU products. The O-RAN industry is growing, and such a model is needed now. Thanks to O-RAN and open interfaces, new players like HCL are able to enter the market and efficiently meet market demands. As more and more O-RAN RRU products flood the market and RRU partners can respond quickly to them global CSPs will be able to leverage their full spectrum assets and benefit from the rapidly growing RRU ecosystem.”

Rajiv Shesh, Corporate Vice President, Engineering and R&D Services at HCL, said: “This collaboration between Mavenir and HCL will help accelerate the O-RAN market, bringing a new range of product portfolios to CSPs and enterprises alike. Laying the foundation to accelerate future innovation in key verticals on a global scale. With decades of network testing experience, 5G expertise, state-of-the-art lab facilities and advanced automation tools, HCL is fully capable of validating between Mavenir and RRU partners interoperability. HCL also has the necessary visibility and reporting capabilities to enable operators and enterprises to deploy best-in-class Mavenir O-RAN solutions.”