Arm has opened a virtual ‘5G solutions lab’ with India-based system integrator Tech Mahindra. The setup will provide a live test environment for Arm’s customers in chip production, network design, network operation, and enterprise fields to demo 5G network solutions, it said. In particular, it will offer a crucible to mix developments in the private 5G and open radio networking (RAN) spaces.
The lab is accessible to partners remotely, said Arm; the physical lab, where the technologies will be housed, is to be maintained and serviced by Tech Mahindra at its facility in New Jersey. The likes of Google Cloud, Marvell, NVIDIA, NXP, Qualcomm, DISH, Vodafone, Accelleran, Mavenir, Parallel Wireless, and Radisys have all said they will make use of the facility.
Chris Bergey, senior vice president of infrastructure at Arm, said: “We see a need to enable operators and enterprises looking to deploy private networks to gain easy access to multi-vendor platforms. The lab will provide secure access to partners and operators to validate solutions and gain confidence in new technologies across a range of critical use-cases such as small cells, macro cells, private 5G, cloud RAN, RAN intelligent controllers (RIC), and core networks.”
He added: “The lab serves as a confluence where software and hardware developers, operators, and cloud service providers can come together to define KPIs, blueprints and deployment guides to help bring innovations in 5G alive and ultimately, generate revenue faster. We envision the lab as a catalyst for the Arm ecosystem to develop and deploy a 5G network infrastructure that leverages the inherent benefits of the Arm architecture.”
A raft of customer quotes were supplied with the release. The best of them are below.
Sandeep Phadke, senior vice president at Tech Mahindra, said: “We must put tools in the hands of developers to see the full promise of 5G come to life… We are committed to providing the best-in-class 5G and open RAN engineering experience and scalable 5G lab infrastructure so that developers can build and test new ideas, and do so in a secure and collaborative space alongside key players in the industry.”
Ankur Jain, head of engineering for Google Cloud for telecom, said: “5G networks can bring unprecedented value to enterprises and consumers, and this will require new partnerships across the broad ecosystem of hardware suppliers, software providers, and telecom operators. Google Cloud is excited to be partnering with Arm on its 5G Solutions Lab to build innovative approaches that will accelerate 5G technology development and deployment.”
Andy Dunkin, development manager in Vodafone’s network architecture group, commented: “[This] is a positive move for the industry. It will help accelerate the development and introduction of Arm-based solutions to benefit the overall open RAN ecosystem and broaden the range of solutions available to mobile operators.”
