• Vodafone switches on the UK’s first OpenRAN site to carry live 5G traffic
• This switch-on is the first step in delivering OpenRAN at scale for the UK, supporting Government ambition to accelerate OpenRAN rollout
• Bath site is first of 2,500 in Vodafone’s current OpenRAN plan
• Site delivered in partnership with Samsung, Wind River, Dell, Intel, Keysight Technologies and Capgemini Engineering

Vodafone has switched on the UK’s first 5G OpenRAN. The site in Bath is the first of 2,500 5G and 4G OpenRAN sites that Vodafone has committed to, and a major step in supporting the Government’s ambition to accelerate the development of the OpenRAN ecosystem.

Last month, the UK Government and telecoms operators announced shared ambitions to expand support for the OpenRAN ecosystem. Vodafone has championed the OpenRAN ecosystem since its conception in 2016 and is actively using OpenRAN across many parts of the UK.

To celebrate the deployment of the site, the first 5G video call over OpenRAN infrastructure was made by Vodafone UK’s Chief Network Officer Andrea Dona to the Minister for Digital Infrastructure Julia Lopez on 11 January.

Julia Lopez, Digital Infrastructure Minister, the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: “This phone call, the first in the UK to be made using 5G OpenRAN infrastructure, marks a big step forward for innovation in UK telecoms.

“OpenRAN will have an important role to play in the future of our mobile networks and I congratulate Vodafone for being the first to make it happen.

“The government is investing in the technology through our £250 million diversification strategy so we can deliver the amazing benefits of 5G for people and businesses with more diverse, resilient and secure equipment in our networks.”

The installation of equipment at the site marks a number of firsts, including:

• The beginning of the first scaled OpenRAN project in Europe, with 2,500 sites committed by 2027
• The first 5G OpenRAN site
• The first time OpenRAN technology has been deployed on a UK macro site to carry live customer traffic

Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone UK, said: “This is the beginning of a new chapter for the mobile industry. Our team has been working tirelessly to take OpenRAN technology from a theory in our lab to our customers in the real world – it’s remarkable how much has been achieved in such a short period of time.

“OpenRAN as a concept is only five years old, and we’re already fundamentally changing how we deploy connectivity infrastructure. This is a watershed moment in the telecoms industry, and a catalyst for change and evolution.”

OpenRAN technology separates software from hardware, so there’s more flexibility for mobile operators. Where previously one vendor would have delivered the whole solution, OpenRAN enables telecoms operators to work with more specialist suppliers. Not only will this diversify the telecoms supply chain, adding resilience to Critical National Infrastructure, it will also act as a catalyst for innovation.

This could result in more energy-efficient telecoms equipment, as well as increasing the speed at which mobile operators can deploy next generation networks. The technology is widely seen as a disruptor for the telecommunications industry, and Vodafone is one of the leaders supporting the development of this vendor ecosystem.

As part of the First Site Installation (FSI), the following OpenRAN-compliant technology will be deployed:

• Samsung virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) Solutions, as well as technical, product and integration support
• Dell open hardware servers
• Intel technologies to enable optimized solutions, including Intel Xeon processors, workload acceleration and connectivity
• Wind River Studio for management of containerised OpenRAN CU/DU workloads, automation, orchestration, and lifecycle management of network functions

Capgemini Engineering and Keysight Technologies have provided testing and integration services in the Vodafone lab to ensure interoperability of the multi-vendor ecosystem. Once technologies and vendors have been verified as OpenRAN-compliant, deployment of equipment becomes a much simpler task.

OpenRAN 4G and 5G antennas from Samsung and NEC will be deployed from mid-2022. Once interoperability tests for these radio units have been completed in the lab, the units can be deployed in a ‘plug and play’ manner on the existing OpenRAN infrastructure.

Supporting quotes:

Thomas Riedel, Head of Samsung Networks Europe at Samsung Electronics, said: “As a global leader, we are proud to begin the UK’s first wide-scale OpenRAN commercial deployment, delivering carrier-grade 5G vRAN solutions to Vodafone. Based on our vRAN experience with tier-1 operators around the globe, this is another meaningful milestone for us, and we look forward to continue working with Vodafone.”

Dennis Hoffman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Dell Technologies Telecom Systems Business, said: “Vodafone’s commitment to pushing OpenRAN technologies forward will deliver new levels of innovation to its customers, partners and the open ecosystem. We look forward to reaching more milestones with Vodafone as we accelerate their OpenRAN deployment and offer new opportunities for businesses, communities and the telecommunications industry.”

Paul Miller, Chief Technology Officer, Wind River, said: “Vodafone’s OpenRAN leadership is game changing for the industry, and Wind River is proud to partner with Vodafone on this important milestone to realise the benefits of OpenRAN. As the de facto infrastructure for OpenRAN/5G vRAN and only 5G solution that is commercially deployed at scale, Wind River Studio enables flexible networks and offers validated architectures to help service providers quickly and reliably deploy new services with industry-leading total cost of ownership.”

Massimo Rocca, Global Account Director for Vodafone at Capgemini Engineering, said: “We are proud to continue our long-lasting relationship with Vodafone and we are excited to bring our expertise in engineering and system integration for this project, building the lab environment, supporting the integration of different vendors, and performing end-to-end testing. OpenRAN and network disaggregation are key challenges for telecom operator’s transformation towards sustainability and automation. Thanks to our dedicated teams we are helping Vodafone pioneer the OpenRAN transformation.”

Scott Bryden, Vice President and General Manager of Keysight’s Operator Industry Solutions Unit, said: “Keysight is delighted to support Vodafone with solutions that test and validate the capabilities essential to creating robust networks based on OpenRAN specifications. Keysight solutions leverage common software platforms with built-in test automation, which enable continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) for accelerated innovation.”

Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President and General Manager – Wireless Access Networking Division, Intel, said: “Vodafone has consistently brought to market advanced networking technologies, and this is another example of Vodafone helping propel the mobile industry forward. Intel is pleased to be among a diverse ecosystem of Open RAN partners supporting Vodafone’s innovative network launch.”