Nokia said that the trial took place in an over-the-air environment utilizing 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2.1 GHz for 4G
Finnish vendor Nokia said it has successfully completed its first 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) cloud RAN trial with Indian telco Bharti Airtel in India.
The trial took place in an over-the-air environment utilizing 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2.1 GHz for 4G.
Nokia noted that data calls were successfully performed with commercial user devices over Airtel’s commercial network achieving a throughput of over 1.2 Gbps. The trial used Nokia’s RAN Software for virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU) and virtualized Centralized Unit (vCU) running on x86 Hardware with a CaaS layer.
The trial also used Nokia’s Layer 1 acceleration, which the vendor said enables enhanced power efficiency and supports Nokia’s “anyRAN” benefits of using common RAN software with the purpose-built part of the network.
Bharti Airtel explained that the trial supports its strategy of delivering a superior customer experience using high-performing networks, with the aim of delivering higher levels of service innovation and automation.
Randeep Sekhon, CTO at Bharti Airtel, said: “This successful cloud RAN trial is a significant step forward in our consistent efforts to integrate the latest and most efficient technologies into our network and leverage these to deliver brilliant customer experiences. This partnership with Nokia has enabled us to pioneer innovative solutions to upgrade our capabilities in 5G.”
“Nokia’s approach to Cloud RAN means that our customers can flexibly evolve to xloud RAN with choices in cloud infrastructure and data center hardware. This will drive efficiency, innovation, openness, and scale in their RAN evolution,” said Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia.
Airtel is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. The Indian operator had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a previous auction carried out by the Indian government in July 2022. Last month, the telco secured additional spectrum to expand its 5G offering.
In August 2023, Bharti Airtel announced that its 5G FWA offering, dubbed Airtel Xstream AirFiber, was available for its customers in Delhi and Mumbai. The operator said that the service, which offers internet to consumers in fiber dark areas, will address the last-mile connectivity issue in both rural and urban India where access to fiber infrastructure is a challenge.
Bharti Airtel previously said it aims to launch fixed wireless access (FWA) services for factories using 5G Standalone architecture (SA).
