NEC Launches Open RAN cloud-native virtualized software suite to extend the NEC Open Networks best of breed ecosystem

Tokyo, September 28, 2022 — NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) introduces its open virtualized RAN software suite to the international market. NEC's vCU/vDU software suite leverages the company’s long history of technological leadership and commitment to improving Open Radio Access Networks (RAN). NEC Open Networks is an ecosystem that provides operators with choice in every category with best-of-breed solutions and services from both NEC and its partners in Open RAN radio units, software, open transport, converged packet core, automation, and orchestration. NEC will continue integrating, commercializing, and deploying multiple ecosystem partners in this vRAN software suite to meet its customers’ needs.

Drawing on NEC’s deep experience as a global leader in telecommunications, NEC will integrate this software suite with its existing and new partners. This new vCU/vDU software suite guarantees seamless migration from 4G to 5G and beyond. It also ensures standards based interfaces for integration with ORAN Radio Units (O-RUs) and other components of the multi-vendor ecosystem. The virtualized CU/DU features pre-integrated NEC radio units, core, and transport blueprints, and is also certified with a range of third-party RUs, allowing quick time to market.

"NEC is committed to being radically open, allowing customers to select the best solutions for their needs," said Patrick Lopez, NEC’s vice president of product management for 5G. "We’re giving our customers another option of a pre-integrated, automated vCU/vDU solution to define their RAN blueprints while benefiting from a virtualized Open RAN compliant system. The NEC OvRAN vCU/vDU software suite is built to bring operators into the cloud native world with no compromise on performance or quality."

NEC’s cloud-native vCU/vDU software suite is fully open and automated for deployment and consolidated operation, supporting 3GPP and O-RAN interfaces on private and public cloud infrastructure. It leverages the benefits of cloud-native architecture, including horizontal and vertical scaling, auto-healing, and redundancy; and is architected for mobile network evolution, including the next-generation radio technologies (i.e., 5G-Advanced and 6G). The high-performance, power-efficient system enables flexible control over resource allocation in the RAN and is designed for easy integration with the O-RAN defined near-Real Time RAN Intelligent Controller. This allows the embedded vCU/vDU control logic with Artificial Intelligent (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to dynamically optimize RAN network performance.

NEC’s advanced, customizable Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) feature-set complements NEC’s OvRAN offering with the NEC RAN Domain Orchestrator Suite. Its support for open, standardized interfaces and integrated non-Real Time RIC platform means that it can host use-cases developed by 3rd party application ecosystem vendors. NEC is also developing high value-add RIC Apps to complement its OvRAN vCU/vDU software suite such as dynamic mMIMO (massive multiple-input and multiple-output) resource and power optimization.