Japanese company Fujitsu announced that its O-RAN-compatible 5G radio unit was selected by compatriot carrier KDDI for the construction of virtualized base stations for 5G commercial services in Japan.
The base stations will be delivered in the second half of fiscal year 2021, Fujitsu said.
The newly developed 5G Radio Unit uses O-RAN standard specifications for the fronthaul interface for communication with base station controllers. This makes it possible to establish a flexible network with an O-RAN configuration by connecting base station controllers between different vendors that comply with this specification, Fujitsu said.
Aiming to accelerate the delivery of 5G services, Fujitsu says it will make miniaturization and low power consumption a reality for radio units that utilize highly-efficient, wide-band power amplification technology. Mounting more antenna elements than conventional MIMO technologies will enhance the effects of beamforming and spatial multiplexing, the company added, and will ultimately help to deliver seamless, speedy mobile communications for users in places where many people gather.
In the future, Fujitsu said it will continue its contributions to the global development of O-RAN and support the development of KDDI’s 5G commercial services.
“KDDI aims to provide flexible end-to-end network slicing services with 5G network. We expect that Fujitsu’s Radio Unit that is O-RAN compliant will contribute significantly to the realization of this plan,” said Toshikazu Yokai, executive officer at KDDI.
In March, KDDI launched commercial 5G services in 15 prefectures across the country. KDDI also announced plans to install 10,000 base stations by the end of March 2021 and another 10,000 by the end of March 2022.
KDDI President Makoto Takahashi said that the company expects to attract over 2 million 5G users by the end of fiscal 2020,
In February, Fujitsu announced that it had received Japan’s first private 5G radio station provisional license from the Kanto Bureau of Telecommunications.
Fujitsu said it aimed to establish a radio station emitting private 5G radio waves in order to verify private 5G network systems at its Shin-Kawasaki Technology Square office in Kawasaki, Japan.
Fujitsu had also announced plans to open a Fujitsu Collaboration Lab, which will serve as a dedicated co-creation space for collaborating with customers and partners to workshop and verify use cases utilizing private 5G. Moving forward, Fujitsu said it would also continue to apply for private 5G licenses for its other office locations, plants, and group companies in Japan, offering support for customers in various industries to achieve their own digital transformation projects.
