Intel will has begun work on 5G mMIMO Open RAN Radio Unit whitebox
Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and Intel have announced their joint effort to produce a 5G massive MIMO (mMIMO) Open RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) whitebox to address the capacity and intelligence needs for future metaverse applications. Conceived as a 32-antenna element wideband standalone radio unit, the whitebox solution will support O-RAN interfaces and advanced software applications.
Intel will be responsible for distribution of the product, which leverages the company’s Agilex product portfolio and advanced beamforming, a technology that uses multiple antennas to control the direction of a wave-front by appropriately weighting the magnitude and phase of individual antenna signals in an array of multiple antennas.
Analog Devices will also supply its RadioVerse System on Chip (SoC) software-defined transceiver, which the company’s Vice President of the Wireless Communications Business Unit Joe Barry said helps reduce overall system power consumption while improving performance.
“By using Intel’s Agilex-based whitebox as a reference solution, customers can customize their product to meet their unique needs, accelerating TTM and significantly reducing RnD efforts,” commented Intel VP & GM Mike Fitton. “For regional ODMs that are trying to deploy 5G equipment in a country where the government mandates ‘Made in Region’ 5G equipment, Intel’s whitebox model greatly helps the ODM to own the design and IP. For operators, they can connect more devices from a single radio, enabling an efficient deployment of base stations and fiber.”
Intel said the whitebox “opens the door to a wider playing field of system integrators” and will provide operators with more options.
According to Kristian Toivo at TIP, the partnership demonstrates that Intel is “taking a leading role in its commitment to Open RAN,” adding that “TIP supports the OpenRAN group initiative to define and build radio solutions based on general-purpose vendor-neutral hardware, open interfaces and software.”
The mMIMO O-RU whitebox will be exhibited at MWC 2023 Barcelona.
