Altiostar confirmed that its O-RAN Alliance-compliant multi-vendor massive-multi-input, multi-output (mMIMO) 5G solution is in now in testing with with NEC Corporation and Rakuten Mobile.
Specifically, Altiostar is integrating the O-RAN distributed unit (O-DU) functionality of its virtual radio access network (vRAN) software with NEC’s O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) using fully compliant control, user, synchronization and management (C/U/S/M) plane protocols based on O-RAN Alliance guidelines. The 5G layer is built using container network functions (CNF) that leverage Rakuten Mobile’s cloud infrastructure platform that is part of its 4G network build out.
As part of management-plane integration, Altiostar is following a hierarchical model that allows the O-DU software to manage the NEC O-RU, including providing software upgrades, RU configuration, fault management and performance monitoring. This interoperability is being performed for 5G new radio (NR) sub-6 GHz massive MIMO O-RU and meets all the 3GPP downlink/uplink (DL/UL) requirements.
“Open RAN as a concept is one that the whole industry is now actively pursuing as a means to introduce supply chain diversity into mobile networks globally,” said Ashraf Dahod, CEO of Altiostar Networks. “Altiostar is leading the industry with this network transformation by ensuring interoperability, integration and most importantly extensive testing to ensure that we have a commercial, carrier-grade solution for both 4G and 5G while keeping the principles of Open RAN in place.”
“Rakuten Mobile is a big supporter of O-RAN principles and has seen the benefit of supply chain diversity in our own network,” said Tareq Amin, Representative Director, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Rakuten Mobile. “By combining the spectral efficiency of massive MIMO along with an advanced cloud-based RAN, we are leveraging and introducing advanced innovative technology from both NEC and Altiostar, who are specialists in these respective fields.”
Altiostar’s container-based 5G solution splits the baseband into the CU and DUs using micro-services to disaggregate these RAN workloads at a deep level. The DU provided by Altiostar is interoperable with, and uses, O-RAN compliant interfaces to work with third-party O-RUs. These workloads can be deployed flexibly to support different quality of service (QoS) and other requirements of the 5G network slice.
The Altiostar containerized architecture also intrinsically introduces Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS). Thus, containers that support IoT can be sized differently when compared to other workloads, such as enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) applications. Alternatively for ultra-reliable low latency communications (UrLLC) applications like V2x or augmented reality, the operator can dynamically deploy the user plane containers at far-edge locations.
NEC has designed its 5G Radio Unit (RU) as an active antenna array system (AAS) that consists of an RF front end and a massive-element antenna in order to minimize the system footprint and provide high-efficiency.
NEC’s AAS utilizes a fully digitized antenna beam control technology that improves the precision of beam forming. While transmitting beams to the target mobile handsets, it is capable of forming beams that counteract interfering signals using multi-path. It can also form beams that improve communication quality by efficiently combining the multi-path of its own signals with the direct waves.
The features of NEC’s AAS enable concurrent communication with several handsets, even though they are close to each other, while maintaining high communication quality. In the trials, NEC proved that use of the AAS can result in improved capacity and quality of communication between a base station and handsets, while confirming that spectral efficiency was reliably maintained at a level roughly eight times higher than that achieved by LTE in indoor environments.
https://www.altiostar.com/nec-rakuten-oran/
Altiostar raises $114 million for its open vRAN
Altiostar, a start-up based in Tewksbury, Mass., closed a $114 million Series C round of financing for its open virtualized RAN (open vRAN) technology.
Rakuten, which is preparing to launch a greenfield mobile network in Japan later this year, is coming on board as an investor. Rakuten is deploying the Altiostar solution in their mobile network and the companies are collaborating on the development of 5G solutions.
In early 2018, Qualcomm Ventures LLC and Tech Mahindra also participated in the C-round as investors. Qualcomm has entered into a development collaboration agreement with Altiostar. Tech Mahindra has signed a value-added-reseller/system integrator contract with Altiostar.
“A round of this magnitude, backed by global technology leaders like Rakuten, Qualcomm Ventures and Tech Mahindra, signifies the immense 5G opportunity we have in front of us as well as the progress we have made developing our virtualized RAN technology. Our unique open vRAN solution is designed to improve the quality of experience, enhance spectral efficiency and significantly reduce Total Cost of Ownership. With this funding, and these strategic partners, we’re excited about our ability to deliver this breakthrough software defined solution to network operators globally as they prepare for the 5G future,” said Ashraf M. Dahod, president and chief executive officer at Altiostar.
- Altiostar provides a 5G-ready virtualized RAN software solution that supports open interfaces and disaggregates the hardware from the software to build an open multi-vendor web-scale network. The Altiostar solution supports macro and small cells, indoor and outdoor, enabling interference management, carrier aggregation and dual reception.
