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    Home5G & BeyondHPE sets up new telco unit, launches Open RAN stack

    HPE sets up new telco unit, launches Open RAN stack

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    The firm claims it is paving the way for mass deployment of Open RAN in 5G networks with “industry-first” Open RAN Solution Stack.

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced its Open RAN Solution Stack that will be commercially available by July.

    It includes HPE’s orchestration and automation software, RAN infrastructure blueprints, and a server it says is optimised for 5G workloads.

    New market?

    HPE’s first move into Open RAN was last year with the launch of its 5G core stack. Now it has pulled all its telco-related software and hardware into a new business unit, the Communications Technology Group (CTG).

    The new Communications Technology Group (CTG) will be led by Phil Mottram as SVP and GM.

    The company says it serves more than 300 telco customers in 160 countries and 850 million mobile devices worldwide are connected to HPE’s software.

    HPE is working to address operators’ demands for disaggregated systems in the interests of lowering costs, enabling new market entrants and fostering innovation.

    At the same time, HPE’s CEO Antonio Neri said in a presentation that many operator customers want an integrated package of the services and components they need.

    The HPE Open RAN Solution Stack includes intent-based orchestration and AI-enabled automation to allow network operators “to manage thousands of virtual machines (VMs), hundreds of virtual network functions (VNFs) and containerised network functions (CNFs) across their respective network”.

    Enabling scale

    HPE stated that as Open RAN is in the early stage of deployment, today’s networks that use Open RAN rely on configurations that cannot easily be scaled.

    The firms says its Telco Infrastructure Blueprints will help overcome this sticking point by reducing risk and complexity.

    HPE said it is collaborating with Intel to develop a virtualised RAN (vRAN) reference: Intel has vRAN arrangements in place with VMware, Red Hat, Verizon, Dish, and most recently Google Cloud, among others.