On-Demand: December 14th - Operators Adopting vRAN

Objective:

vRAN technology has evolved to underpin the networks of the future. The first large-scale commercial 5G vRAN deployments rolled out a year ago and 5G Ultra Wideband Expansion using C Band Spectrum is well underway, driving the industry to large scale virtualization using advanced architecture built into the network, from the Core to the Far Edge with Tier 1 Operators.

Executive Speakers:

Derek Johnston - Head of Marketing & 5G Business Development, Samsung Networks
Will Townsend - Vice President & Principal Analyst, MOOR Insights & Strategy

Transcription

Abe: And vRAN technology has evolved to underpin the networks of the future in the first large scale commercial 5G vRAN deployments rolled out just a year ago, and 5G ultra wideband expansion, they're using C-Band Spectrum is well underway that's driving the industry to large scale virtualization using advanced architecture built into the network. That's from the core to the far edge, and that's with tier one operators. Joining this session are Derek Johnston. He's head of marketing and 5G business development that at Samsung Networks. And we also have Will Townsend, he's vice president and principal analyst that at More Insights and Strategy and gentlemen, welcome to the program.

Will: Thanks for having me on.

Derek: Yeah, thanks Abe. Good to be here.

Abe: Thanks for being here. It's good to have both of you on the show at the same time. Will, if you don't mind, I'm going to start with you. So we're hearing a lot about vRAN these days. Why has there been such an increased interest in this technology?

Will: Well, it's a great question, Abe, and I think there are two things in play here. One, it's the ability to really increase operator agility to get those RAN sites deployed even faster with a software defined architecture. And I think number two, and it's equally important, vRAN brings an opportunity to help domesticate the 5G supply chain, that's been a big focus in the US and where companies excel from the United States perspective isn't software defined. Again, architectures and that sort of thing, so it plays very well to domesticating the supply chain.

Abe: And Derek, anything to respond as far as the emphasis on this particular technology?

Derek: Yeah, I think the gentleman made some great points. I think in addition to that, what we see is with every evolution or new network technology, there's a driver for network operators to increase their operational efficiency, scalability and have more flexibility into their networks. And I think ultimately moving to a software defined network as Will mentioned, gives network operators that. And so I think there was for quite some time a belief that you could only achieve these high levels performance with dedicated hardware. But I think when we've started to push the bounds of fully virtualizing vRAN and showed that you can drive those performance levels and have that flexibility, then that's where the interest is coming from.

Abe: So Derek, I'm going to stay with you. So with various operators around the globe, like KDDI, Vodafone and also Verizon really choosing this virtualized approach, what are the real tangible benefits that operators are really seeing today?

Derek: Sure. So I think the initial benefits that some of the customers that we have that you mentioned are seeing are really on the operational side in terms of the go-to market. So we're talking about as you roll out networks. One of the bigger challenges is the planning installation and the site light up. And with vRAN, software based networking, you really get enhanced capabilities on the software side. So I think they've seen a lot with tools like cloud orchestration, where again, you can light up multiple cell sites at a time. You don't have to have as many truck roll resources at sites. And so I think we've seen a really rapid, an ability to scale.

And again, it's taking time. It's a new technology. So initially the first hundred sites are challenging, but then as operators have scaled, they've figured out really quickly. And I think one of the prime examples is just this week Verizon announced that they hit 10,000 vRAN sites. And the majority of those sites are frankly with Samsung. They lit up one site with their other network provider. And so very quickly from when we made an announcement back in September, I think late September of 8,000 sites, we put up 2000 sites in the last eight weeks or so. And so you can really scale it very quickly. And then I think the second area that I would mention that you're seeing benefits on is where it's kind of the scaling and pooling resources that you can use with things like a virtual DU or baseband.

And so, again a virtual brand network can provide the operators with that compute power at the edge where kind of VDU, that one site that's being underutilized, can provide processing resources to help another site that has a high traffic load. And so I think there are certainly benefits in terms of the architectural approach and the technology that provide resource efficiencies for the operators on operational perspective.

Abe: Will, I wanted to go to you next on a futurist question, but before I do, is there anything you want to add to Derek?

Will: I think Derek touched on edge computing and edge computing is going to be able to supercharge 5G use cases. And I think automation becomes key as well in making this all work. And with a virtualized infrastructure, automation is easier to achieve. Again, it delivers that agility and it allows mobile network operator to focus on things that are really going to monetize those billions of dollars and billions of euros that are invested and building out these next generation of 5G networks.

Abe: So will, on to the futurist question. So by embracing a vRAN approach, how will the networks be better positioned really in the future?

Will: Well, from my perspective, it comes down to lower CapEx and lower OpEx and mobile network operators are challenged with ballooning cost for licensed spectrum, as well as just the equipment to deploy these next generation networks. So that savings and OpEx and CapEx that comes from a vRAN architecture, I think is huge. And then what that moves into is the ability for operators like Verizon that are in the midst of deploying their C-band, mid-band spectrum assets to be able to deploy those sites more quickly. Also, one of the challenges with C-band is just the profile of that mid-band spectrum does require densification. So a virtualized ran infrastructure allows you to more affordably densify the network and get that ubiquitous propagation in good performance.

Abe: So, Derek I'm going to go ahead and wrap the segment with you. So what is Samsung's position on vRAN at this point?

Derek: Sure. So I think we took a deliberate leadership position with vRAN. And part of that was driven by the fact that we believed that one, in terms of our competency in the space that we could deliver on the performance level, that many in the industry didn't think we're capable in terms of doing this in a software-based approach. But more importantly, I think we have a fundamental approach which is customer-centric. And we've heard from our voice of our customer that at least with the top network operators in the world that have some of the most dense data-driven networks that they want to move to this software-based architecture and the approach because again, due to service agility and flexibility, that is going to provide to them in terms of new, being able to introduce new services, whether it's network slicing. The edge services that will had mentioned, you take for example KDDI who we lid up, the first 5G standalone vRAN network that was in an ORAN implementation.

So again, three brand new technologies, extremely bold and risky move and approach that they're taking. But again, in some of the belief that as one of the more dense challenged network operators in the world, they want that capability to be able to offer those edge services for those businesses and consumers. And we believe that from our position, meaning whether or not you want a traditional network, that's hardware centric. If you want an ORAN or vRAN or some sort of a hybrid approach, that we believe that we're the only kind of global operator, I mean network technology provider that has the scale and the capability to deliver it. So that's kind of our position in terms of virtualized ran.

Abe: Hmm. It's always good to talk about operators adopting new technologies and talking about vRAN. I think the idea is next time we have both of you on a session like this, we'll have one of those tier one operators join us and illustrate sort of the real use case of virtualized ran. And possibly over the pond in Spain in just a few months we will all be under one roof. So that'll be an opportunity there. Derek, or actually let me start with Will. Will, thanks for being part of this. I know this is your first time doing this with us anyway, so we appreciate your time. And Derek, as always you've done this with us for the last several years. But we want to give a special thanks to Samsung Networks for making this possible today. And to our audience out there, thank you again. To our speakers on operators adopting vRAN for this session on demand, please go to the Networkmediagroup.com. So long.

For any inquiries, please email anejad@thenetworkmediagroup.com

Abe NejadDecember 2, 20225G RAN