Nokia, in collaboration with StarHub and Dell Technologies, has successfully completed Southeast Asia’s first 5G Cloud Radio Access Network (RAN) trial. This significant milestone supports StarHub’s Cloud Infinity programme, which aims to leverage cloud infrastructure to enhance digital experiences for enterprise customers. The trial demonstrated the flexibility of Nokia’s anyRAN approach, seamlessly integrating with leading cloud and server infrastructures.
The adoption of Cloud RAN is pivotal for the future evolution of mobile networks, setting the foundation for AI-RAN infrastructure. This technology supports AI workload management, allowing mobile network operators like StarHub to scale network resources more efficiently. With Cloud RAN, StarHub can support use cases such as time-of-day services and ultra-low-latency applications, opening new revenue streams and enhancing network performance.
Nokia’s commercial 5G Cloud RAN solution was used to place a carrier-grade call during the trial, showcasing feature consistency with existing purpose-built RAN. The solution integrates seamlessly with all leading cloud infrastructures, utilising Nokia’s virtualised Distributed Units and Centralised Units on Dell PowerEdge servers. StarHub also employed Red Hat OpenShift to support cloud-native RAN functions.
Ayush Sharma, Chief Technology Officer at StarHub, stated, “This partnership will enhance our network’s performance, efficiency, and resilience, whilst future-proofing it for emerging technologies.” Andrew Vaz, Vice President at Dell Technologies, added, “By combining our strengths, we can deliver a comprehensive Cloud RAN solution that improves efficiency, performance and scalability.”
This successful trial marks a crucial step in StarHub’s journey towards advanced 5G and 6G, preparing its network for future AI-RAN capabilities.
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