Nokia hails success of Europe’s first commercial 5G cloud RAN deployment

Nokia and Finnish telco provider Elise have carried out the first successful commercial deployment of a 5G Cloud RAN solution, with the help of Red Hat.

With Cloud RAN, Elisa can shift network computing power closer to its customers, whose network usage is transforming closer to the network edge.

Elisa said the deployment puts it in a strong position during a move towards the 6G era – which it expects to be increasingly cloud native. ‘Cloudification’ also plays a key role in Elisa’s work on self-driving and self-healing autonomous networks.

"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," said Kalle Lehtinen, Elisa's chief technology officer.

"We continue to pioneer new technologies in our journey towards autonomous operations helping us to continue innovating and delivering the best customer experience."

Nokia and Elisa previously carried out Europe’s first Cloud RAN trial in October 2023.

"This successful collaboration with Elisa confirms that our Cloud RAN solution is ready for commercial deployment," said Aji Ed, head of Cloud RAN at Nokia.

"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."

This 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.

The deployment verified areas such as capacity, performance, features, life cycle management, automation, and energy management.

Elisa used Dell XR8620 servers as well as hybrid cloud application platform Red Hat OpenShift to support cloud native RAN functions across the network. Red Hat OpenShift integration, the firms said, gives service providers the option to scale their 5G network footprint and quickly introduce new services.

"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," said Honoré LaBourdette, vice president, telco, media, entertainment and edge ecosystem, Red Hat.

"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."