Nokia, Etisalat Achieve MEA’s Cloud RAN Milestone

Nokia and etisalat by e& (Etisalat) have announced the successful completion of the inaugural trial of Cloud RAN in the MEA region, incorporating In-Line acceleration on Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) ProLiant DL110 Gen11. The objective of the trial is to enhance the 5G user experience, utilizing etisalat by e&’s existing mid-band carrier in the n78 (3.5GHz) band over its 5G standalone network.

The accomplishment of an end-to-end Cloud RAN L3 data call underscores the adaptability of Nokia’s Cloud RAN solution, employing In-Line accelerator architecture. This achievement further underscores Nokia’s anyRAN strategy, ensuring consistent feature performance of Cloud RAN with purpose-built RAN, thereby providing operators with increased options for building Cloud RAN networks. Additionally, this project signifies a significant milestone in etisalat by e&’s pursuit of cloudification ambitions.

The trial involved Nokia’s virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU) and virtualized Centralized Unit (vCU) on the HPE ProLiant DL110 Gen11 server, leveraging In-Line acceleration. This technology offers distinctive advantages in terms of power efficiency, scalability, flexibility, feature parity, cloud nativeness, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and ease of integration into diverse server and cloud environments.

Nokia’s anyRAN approach allows the creation of virtualized networks with tailored performance characteristics, catering to the specific needs of different applications. This approach is anticipated to play a pivotal role in advancing sustainability efforts for Industry 4.0, Enterprise, and Private Networks, enriching Etisalat’s portfolio and offering flexibility in choosing cloud infrastructure software, hardware, and technology suppliers.

Marwan Bin Shakar, Senior Vice President of Access Network Development at etisalat by e&, stated, “We are committed to technological innovations that directly impact our customers and pave the way for revolutionizing the industry. As part of our latest collaboration, Nokia’s Cloud RAN solution 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.”

Fernando Castro Cristin, VP and GM, Service Providers, OEM, and Telco at HPE, commented, “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. By combining our strengths, we are able to offer a comprehensive and robust Cloud RAN solution that drives efficiency, performance, openness, and scale.”

Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia, added, “This important trial with etisalat by e& 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. Our solution will empower etisalat by e& to meet diverse market demands swiftly, delivering a future-proof 5G network that will enable innovative services through dynamic network slicing and automation.”