Changing the radio access network for good

The industry initiative to open up the radio access network, known as open RAN, is changing how the mobile network is architected and is proving its detractors wrong.

So says a recent open RAN study by market research company, LightCounting.

Stéphane Téral

"The virtual RAN and open RAN sceptics are wrong," says Stéphane Téral, chief analyst at LightCounting.

Japan's mobile operators, Rakuten Mobile and NTT Docomo, lead the world with large-scale open RAN deployments.

Meanwhile, many leading communications service providers (CSPs) continue to trial the technology with substantial deployments planned around 2024-25.

Japan's fourth and newest mobile network operator, Rakuten Mobile, deployed 40,000 open RAN sites with 200,000 radio units by the start of 2022.

Meanwhile, NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile operator, deployed 10,000 sites in 2021 and will deploy another 10,000 this year.

NTT Docomo has shown that open RAN also benefits incumbent operators, not just new mobile entrants like Rakuten Mobile and Dish Networks in the US that can embrace the latest technologies as they roll out their networks.

Click to read more ...

Marvell's 50G PAM-4 DSP for 5G optical fronthaul

• Marvell has announced the first 50-gigabit 4-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM-4) physical layer (PHY) for 5G fronthaul.

• The chip completes Marvell’s comprehensive portfolio for 5G radio access network (RAN) and x-haul (fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul).

Marvell's wireless portfolio of ICs. Source: Marvell.

Marvell has announced what it claims is an industry-first: a 50-gigabit PHY for the 5G fronthaul market.

Dubbed the AtlasOne, the PAM-4 PHY chip also integrates the laser driver. Marvell claims this is another first: implementing the directly modulated laser (DML) driver in CMOS.

“The common thinking in the industry has been that you couldn’t do a DML driver in CMOS due to the current requirements,” says Matt Bolig, director, product marketing, optical connectivity at Marvell. “What we have shown is that we can build that into CMOS.”

Click to read more ...