Articles
Open vRAN Update: NETCONF/YANG Comes to 5G RAN!
One of the key principles of the Open vRAN ecosystem that Cisco and its ecosystem partners announced earlier this year, is to establish open, standard interfaces and management for vRAN. Recently the xRAN Forum has defined the use of IETF’s NETCONF/YANG standard for programmatically configuring and…
Realizing a Multi-Vendor Virtualized RAN
It’s now been over 6 months since Cisco announced that it had joined the Open Air Interface (OAI) software alliance, with the aim of accelerating open, multi-vendor, RAN splits and the first week of November marks a milestone in that co-operation. If you recall, back in February, Cisco open-sourced…
Cisco joins Open Air Interface to accelerate open multi-vendor RAN splits
Back in February we announced the open-nfapi project, a set of libraries and simulators that implement the Small Cell Forum’s nFAPI MAC/PHY split base station architecture. We described the need for many of the verticals identified as targets for new 5G use cases to be able to serve all employees, c…
Multi-Operator Essentials for 5G Success
5G needs to be architected to thrive in an environment where an increasingly higher percentage of overall mobile data is being consumed from indoor environments, and where the businesses that are responsible for those indoor environments are increasingly requiring wireless service be offered to all…
Heterogeneity as a New Network Normal
Three Keys to Success: Preparing your mobile network for 5G. Learn more: Download our new 5G ebook While much of the focus in the press on 5G has been around the definition of a new radio interface and the architecture to support such, it is increasingly evident that if 5G is going to deliver on it…
RAN Virtualization: On the Road to 5G
This week we saw an important milestone in the digital transformation of the Radio Access Network (RAN) with the publication of the Small Cell Forum’s nFAPI specification. Cisco has been instrumental in driving the small cell industry by championing the virtualization work stream within the Small Ce…
Click to Deploy Virtual HetNet Cuts Small Cell Deployment Time from Months to Minutes
There was significant Small Cells buzz during last months Mobile World Congress, where Cisco announced a range of innovative products and solutions that can be used to accelerate the market adoption of small cells. In particular, I spoke at the Small Cell Forum’s Small Cell Zone were I described how…
Are Small Cells and Wi-Fi Networks Complimentary or Competitive?
As an industry, we are starting to see a convergence of small cells and Wi-Fi to help solve coverage, capacity, and spectrum issues in our increasingly connected, mobile-dominated world. Today more than ever, mobile operators are increasingly realizing that Wi-Fi and small cells must be part of thei…
Bringing Licensed and Unlicensed Small Cells Together
The mobile market will be vastly different 10 years from today. We will see two and a half billion more people connected to the internet, but also 50 billion more devices. Those devices are going to have a totally different consumption profile compared with the smartphone or dongle user that we have…
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