To bring Open RAN Massive MIMO portfolio
Mavenir and Xilinx formed a collaboration to accelerate the Open RAN ecosystem with leading Open RAN massive MIMO 5G portfolio. The partnership will result in successfully integrated Massive MIMO end-to-end using Open RAN principles, and it will introduce the first Massive MIMO 64TRX product expected in late 2021.
Mavenir is the industry’s only end-to-end cloud-native Network Software Provider and a leader in accelerating software network transformation for communications service providers (CSPs). The Mavenir and Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), known as the leader in adaptive computing, announced today the companies are collaborating to bring a unified 4G/5G O-RAN massive MIMO (mMIMO) portfolio to enable Open RAN deployments. The first mMIMO 64TRX joint solution is expected to be available in Q4 2021.
Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) is an abbreviation for industry-wide standards for RAN interfaces that support interoperation between vendors’ equipment.
Xilinx brings adaptability to 5G
Working together, the two companies have successfully completed end-to-end integration of a first-generation mMIMO solution using Open RAN principles. Held at the Mavenir Lab in Bangalore, India, the integration covered multiple deployment scenarios and was evaluated by six CSPs, all leading global operators. Mavenir delivered the Virtualized RAN (vRAN) support for mMIMO, including Core Network, CU, and DU, with Xilinx providing the Category B O-RAN Radio Unit.
Xilinx uses a mix of RFSoC DFE and Versal AI hardware to conquer the challenging pinnacle of beamforming mathematics calculation. Since 5G is just at the beginning of its journey and with time, it will evolve. 5G primarily deployed for the mobile customers, and fixed wireless 5G based internet is based on the Release 16 spec, and within next year it is expected to evolve to Release 17. Xilinx’s adaptability and the possibility to update the hardware and “harden “up the new algorithms in the chip gives a company a significant advantage over the traditional SoC approach.
Evolution of 5G made easier with Xilinx and Mavenir
Since parts of the 5G hardware stay deployed for years to come, Xilinx gives customers a chance to update and adapt to new needs, features and standards. Let us not forget that carriers will slowly have to change from non-SA (Stand Alone) that relies on the 4G to a Stand-Alone SA, a migration that is happening as we speak. Vodafone in Germany started the tradition a day ago.
“This integration demonstrates an efficient Open RAN massive MIMO solution to achieve diversification of the telecommunications supply chain,” says Pardeep Kohli, President, and CEO, Mavenir. “This is an important milestone in the delivery of open and interoperable interfaces enabling the deployment of mMIMO in high density, high mobile traffic metro areas.”
“We were early proponents of Open RAN technology along with Mavenir and actively led in standards development in the industry through many field trials around the world,” said Liam Madden, executive vice president and general manager, Wired and Wireless Group at Xilinx. “With the investment we have done on our market-leading wireless radio technology and massive MIMO R&D, we are excited to collaborate with Mavenir to bring our collective technology and radio system expertise together that will accelerate the deployment of market leading 5G O-RAN massive MIMO radio solutions.”
These products will leverage Xilinx’s technology platform including RFSoC DFE and Versal AI for advanced beamforming, delivering a fully integrated hardware and software O-RAN compliant mMIMO solution.
“5G Open RAN has significant momentum in the market with ABI Research forecasting network vendor spending to reach $10 billion by 2026-27 and then surpass traditional RAN at $30 billion by 2030,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, senior research director of 5G at ABI Research. “As Mavenir and Xilinx continue to work together to accelerate O-RAN-based massive MIMO adoption, their solutions will be well-timed to serve this high-growth market with the higher spectral efficiency, performance, power efficiency and cost needed as 5G demand intensifies.”
