Dell and Wind River are offering CSPs out-of-the-box Open RAN and VRAN deployments
Dell Technologies this week introduced Telecom Infrastructure Blocks, a new telco cloud infrastructure solution the company co-engineered with Wind River. The “blocks” offer Communication Service Providers (CSPs) with simplified telco cloud network deployment and management features by combining validated and pre-packaged hardware and software developed specifically for telecom workload requirements and use cases, Dell said. They will be available starting in November.
The solutions “provide foundational building blocks for virtual distributed units (vDUs), virtual centralized units (vCUs) and the site controller management cluster used in Dell Telecom MultiCloud Foundation,” according to Dell.
By going with an out-of-the-box, ready-to-scale solution, Dell says CSPs will reduce the amount of time they have to spend planning, designing, validating, procuring and upgrading. Dell provides 24-hour access to experts to help guarantee CSPs with response and restore times.
They also include the components of Wind River Studio needed to help build and scale out networks. Wind River Studio integrates with Dell’s own Bare Metal Orchestrator to help automate deployment and lifecycle management of the complete hardware and software stack, the companies said.
“Our collaboration with Dell will help address complex CSP challenges in deploying and managing a physically distributed, ultra-low-latency cloud-native infrastructure for intelligent edge networks,” said Kevin Dallas, Wind River president and CEO.
The vCU/vDU infrastructure block comprises Dell’s Poweredge XR11 server pre-configured with a third-gen Intel Xeon processor, RAM, Solid-State Drives (SSDs) and two quad-port 10/25 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) interfaces. Dell also includes detailed design guidance to configure the blocks to support vRAN and Open RAN systems, spanning from 8 to 15 radios across different frequency ranges and operating bandwidths.
“Setting up a system is simply a matter of adding more Infrastructure Blocks,” said Dell.
Dell will also be offering two different types of Site Controller Infrastructure Blocks: Worker Nodes and Controller Nodes. Each Site Controller requires one Worker Node, and two Controller Nodes. Site Controller Infrastructure Blocks are based on Dell PowerEdge R750 servers, and come equipped with Wind River Studio Cloud Platform, Wind River Studio Conductor and Wind River Studio Analytics installed from the factory.
While the solutions are intended to give CSPs easily deployable, manageable and scalable infrastructure, Dell also recognizes that the “one size fits all” often falls short in an industry where bespoke solutions have long been the norm.
“While Dell Telecom Infrastructure Blocks provide an engineered system that is ready for deployment out of the box, some operators may require custom configurations to meet specific outcomes,” the company said. “ Dell services can deliver custom configurations direct from Dell factories to streamline operator processes to meet unique requirements. Dell services can also provide tailored integration services from onsite racking and stacking of hardware and network integration to remote installation and support, to network design and validation.”
In August Dell COO Jeff Clarke talked about his company’s growing success in the telecom space with companies like T-Mobile US and Dish, during Dell’s Q2 earnings call. With T-Mobile US, Dell is supporting the operator’s expansion into private 5G for enterprise and government customers. T-Mo’s 5G Private Mobile Network combines the operator’s network with Dell’s VxRail infrastructure for localized, high-speed data processing delivered as an on-prem managed service.
Clarke said the combination “will bring customers the power of 5G connectivity on premise where they need it.”
“In June,” Clarke said, “Dish marked a major milestone in building the world’s most advanced cloud-native 5G Open RAN network. They now offer 5G broadband service to over 20% of the U.S. population on a cloud-native network built on Dell’s open IT infrastructure, software and services.”
Big picture, Clarke said: “You look at what’s happening on the infrastructure side, the world continues to digitize at a non-linear rate, data is being created at unprecedented levels, we had data gravity pulling the infrastructure resources out to the edge, the new digital highways being built with 5G. So we absolutely are very bullish and optimistic about the long-term characteristics of the marketplace.”
