Nokia and Elisa deploy Europe’s first commercial 5G Cloud RAN deployment with Red Hat OpenShift

• Nokia’s Cloud RAN solution ready for commercial deployment following a successful deployment with Elisa in Espoo, Finland powered by Red Hat OpenShift       
• Cloud RAN supports Elisa’s efforts to provide more agile network services to its customers, by transforming network usage closer to the network edge
• Nokia’s anyRAN approach offers customers more flexibility, openness, security, and choice in their selection of cloud infrastructure
• Piloting cloud-native models offers Elisa valuable insight moving toward the 6G era

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced that it has successfully completed a commercial Cloud RAN deployment with the Finnish telco and digital service provider, Elisa in Espoo, Finland. This means that Elisa is now able to deploy Nokia’s commercial Cloud RAN solution, which can co-exist with purpose-built networks in hybrid environments and evolve into full cloud-native networks, supporting the rising demand for RAN cloudification. Common Nokia RAN software ensures feature and performance consistency of Cloud RAN and purpose-built RAN across the entire commercial footprint. Both companies previously completed Europe’s first Cloud RAN trial in October 2023.

The commercial deployment completed end-to-end 5G voice and data calls with Nokia’s 5G Cloud RAN solution including its AirScale Massive MIMO radios, baseband software, and AI-powered MantaRay network management solution. Nokia’s high-performance, energy-efficient Cloud RAN architecture seamlessly integrates with all leading cloud or server infrastructures. Elisa utilized Dell XR8620 servers as well as Red Hat OpenShift, the industry's leading hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes, to support cloud-native RAN functions across the network. By integrating with Red Hat OpenShift, service providers have the option to scale their 5G network footprint and quickly introduce new services. The deployment verified areas such as capacity, performance, features, life cycle management, automation, and energy management.

As a pioneer of 5G services in Finland, Elisa is pursuing network cloudification and extending this transformation from the network core towards the access network. Cloudification plays a key role in the scalability of network services and allows the operator to meet customers’ changing needs. With Cloud RAN Elisa is able to shift the network computing power closer to the customers, whose network usage is transforming closer to the network edge. AI-powered applications are likely to accelerate the demand for edge computing in the future.

A benefit of the early adoption of Cloud RAN is trialing the new cloud-native production model, which differs significantly from earlier models, involves a whole new ecosystem. Deploying the first commercial 5G cloud network in Europe puts Elisa in a strong position while moving towards the 6G era – which is predicted to be increasingly cloud-native. Additionally, cloudification plays a key role in Elisa’s journey towards self-driving and self-healing autonomous networks.

Nokia is helping its global customers get their Cloud RAN networks up and running much faster, removing complexity, and ensuring openness and flexibility. Nokia has already completed numerous end-to-end 5G data calls in multi-supplier setups with hardware and software from its best-in-class ecosystem of leading industry partners. It is further evidence of Nokia's flexible anyRAN approach that provides the best choice of strategic options for communications service providers and enterprises for their RAN evolution with purpose-built, hybrid, or Cloud RAN solutions, enabling customers to monetize their networks.

Kalle Lehtinen, Chief Technology Officer, Elisa said: “This successful Cloud RAN deployment with Nokia is another important step on our cloudification which started with cloudifying the network core and edge, and now includes the radio access network. We continue to pioneer new technologies in our journey towards autonomous operations helping us to continue innovating and delivering best customer experience.”

Honoré LaBourdette, vice president, Telco, Media, Entertainment & Edge Ecosystem, Red Hat, commented: “Red Hat is excited to continue our partnership with Nokia by helping service providers implement RAN for full end-to-end cloudification and automation of next-generation networks. Cloud RAN’s significance lies not only in providing an efficient and flexible way to deploy applications and derive value at the edge but also in boosting collaboration and innovation across the ecosystem. With Red Hat OpenShift, we’re making this vision a reality by offering a consistent hybrid cloud foundation that empowers businesses to build and scale the applications of the future.”
    
Aji Ed, Head of Cloud RAN at Nokia, said: “This successful collaboration with Elisa confirms that our Cloud RAN solution is ready for commercial deployment. Under our anyRAN approach, we work very closely with strategic partners like Red Hat and bring together best-in-class partner solutions to offer true flexibility and scalability to operators and enterprises. For our customers, cloudification will enable new revenue models and monetization options.”