A conversation with Javier Lorca Hernando, Project Manager for the RAN, Telefonica R&D
The operators’ view on C-RAN – Telefonica, Spain
Telefonica has been and continues to be an aggressive supporter on NFV and the drive towards network virtualization involves the RAN as well, initially through C-RAN and eventually through V-RAN.
“A completely new model has to emerge. The only way to be sustainable from an economic point of view is to change the actual topology of the networks and make them much more flexible, especially at the RAN level, because the RAN is one of the most expensive parts of the network.” Javier Lorca Hernando, Project Manager for the RAN at Telefonica talked to us about the need for mobile operators to move to a virtualized RAN to make growth in traffic sustainable.
“The ultimate goal is to have a mixture of dedicated hardware, general purpose hardware, also virtual network functions that you could activate or deactivate upon demand, without having to change the topology. That creates new requirements for the hardware, and also for the network links themselves.” Javier told us.
This conversation will be included in the Senza Fili report “Charting the path to RAN virtualization: C- RAN, fronthaul and HetNets” that will be published in February 2015. If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of the report, please click here and you will be among the first to receive the report when it is finalized.
