How is the O-RU reference architecture driving 5G Radio Development?

Nitin Sharma

General Manager, Wireless Communications, Analog Devices, Inc (ADI)

Nitin Sharma is a technology executive with over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, primarily focused in wireless technology development. Nitin is passionate about identifying emerging market trends and creating innovative technologies to address market needs. He currently is the General Manager within the Communications Business Unit at Analog Devices where he is responsible for the defining technology and market growth strategies for the wireless infrastructure market. Nitin has held several positions in engineering, product development, marketing, and management with leading semiconductor and telecommunications companies. Nitin holds a MSEE from John Hopkins University and an Executive MBA from Boston University.

Mike Fitton

VP, Intel Programmable Solutions Network Business Division, Intel Corporation

Mike Fitton is vice president and general manager in the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG) and general manager of the Network Business Division at Intel Corporation. He sets the strategic direction of this group as well as operationally managing the Network Business which includes wireless and wireline infrastructure within PSG which services customers both internal and external to Intel. With over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications and semiconductor industries, Mike’s depth of technical, market and business acumen makes him a key part of Intel’s strategy to enable the key transitions that underpins the transformation of the Network.

Mike begun his engineering career in algorithmic design for 2G wireless handsets, and variously provided input to 3G standards definition/selection, capacity analyses for 3G spectrum auctions, as well as driving early adoption of Wireless Personal Area Networks, including serving as the chair of the Bluetooth Radio Working Group. Mike has previously held senior Engineering and Business leadership roles with Altera and Intel PSG’s Wireless and Access Business Unit, amongst other companies.

Mike received his bachelor’s and doctoral degree in Electronics and Communications from the University of Bristol, UK; his PhD thesis related to the air interface selection for 3G UMTS Radio Access Network and was funded under a UK EPSRC Research Grant.  He was a post-doc researcher with the British Telecom Virtual Universities Research Initiative during the ETSI evaluation of candidate radio access schemes for UMTS.  He is the author/co-author of 45 patents across networking, semiconductors and machine learning; he has had papers published in excess of 20 international conference and journals.

Rajesh Srinivasa

SVP and GM, Radio Business Unit , Mavenir

Rajesh heads the Radio Business Unit at Mavenir. He is responsible for creating a comprehensive O-RAN Radio portfolio through in-house development and external partnerships. Over the past 20 years, Rajesh has held many leadership roles at Ericsson, Nokia and Texas Instruments. He has led and delivered complex high volume products for mobile and base stations across 2G, 3G, LTE and 5G technologies.

Before joining Mavenir, Rajesh was heading the Radio Software for the global Radio portfolio at Ericsson, Sweden. In this role, he led 500+ people to define and evolve Radio software architecture for 5G and Massive MIMO products. He was also instrumental in driving Ericsson’s Radio ASIC definition and pre-silicon validation strategy. His team at Ericsson Mobiles, delivered 2G/3G/LTE Multi-standard mobile chipset solution – this was the industry’s first CAT-6 LTE solution. At Texas Instruments, he led the industry’s first single-chip 2.5G chipset development.

Rajesh has held leadership roles in India, USA, Sweden and Germany. He has a PhD in Computer Architecture from Indian Institute of Science.

Tero Kola

Vice President, System Product Management, Mobile Networks Business Group, Nokia

In January 2021, Tero took over the responsibilities to head Radio Access Networks System Product Management for Nokia’s Mobile Networks. Product management responsibilities cover 5G/4G/3G/2G hardware and software product management, including customer requirements management, feature screening, roadmapping, release planning and lifecycle management. In the job Tero is managing a team of +100 experienced product managers located in multiple continents and countries. The job includes planning and prioritizing R&D OPEX for demanding global market in highly competitive environment. Before current assignment in 2019-2020 Tero headed 5G Product Management for Nokia’s Mobile Network.

From 2016 to 2018 Tero was heading Portfolio Management and Strategy for Mobile Networks Product Business at Nokia, responsible for developing leading strategy and portfolio for Radio Networks and driving industry best roadmaps and cost structures for maximum return on investment. Responsibilities included also investment management according to short and long term business priorities, new growth business opportunity development and portfolio competitiveness development. Before that Tero was heading Portfolio Management in the Mobile Broadband Business Unit and also headed LTE product management at Nokia.

Over 25 years at Nokia, Tero has held various other positions in product management and R&D which ranged from GSM to WCDMA/HSPA, LTE and 5G, working in Finland, UK and Singapore.

Tero earned an MS in electrical engineering from Tampere University of Technology in Finland in 1999.

He is married, has a son and daughter and is living in Espoo, Finland.

Francisco (Paco) Martin

Group Head of OPEN RAN, Vodafone

Francisco (Paco) Martín Pignatelli is an Executive with over 20 years of Experience in Mobile Networks. He´s worked internationally most of his career, including positions based in the US (Vodafone/Verizon Collaboration) and the UK (Head of Planning), successfully performing across multiple domains such as Core, Transport and Radio, in both Strategic and operational roles. Paco is a 200% result oriented Manager that´s led various complex virtual teams and large organizations, normally in periods of deep transformation or at their start.

Paco´s main area of expertise is Radio, where, among other key Programs, he´s led Vodafone efforts in OPEN RAN since 2016, turning what was an idea at the time into one of the Company´s Strategic areas.

Guy Daniels

Director of Content, TelecomTV