Software-based cellular network deployment company Parallel Wireless announced that it's partnering with Intel to release end-to-end virtualized RAN reference designs. The technology is 3GPP-compliant and available for commercial deployment.
"The innovative designs integrate 3G, 4G/LTE, and Wi-Fi with real-time network orchestration and resource optimization to enable mobile operators [to] cost-effectively deploy multi-technology HetNets," Parallel said in a press release.
The reference design, known as the Parallel Wireless Converged Wireless System (CWS) base station, combines with Intel's Transcede T3150 dual-mode small cell system on chip in order to combine 3G, 4G/LTE and Wi-Fi footprints into one through shared network connectivity, power and backhaul. The company said the device would be deployable in under five months, reducing the price point for mobile operators significantly.
Parallel says the device runs gateway virtualized network functions (VNF) and C-RAN on HetNet Gateway. This includes OpenStack and Data Plane Development Kit using an Intel Xeon processor. The network deployment company also said its software-based approach with the CWS base station will prove useful in coming years as operators on a global scale look to software as a means of quickly and easily updating network capabilities.
"We all know that small cell deployments are being delayed by the lack of cost-effective reliable multi-mode base stations, backhaul challenges (our base station can create mesh, but this is not new) and need for real-time orchestration of licensed and unlicensed," said a Parallel spokesperson in an email to Fierce. "This functionality is now all in our orchestration software including gateway functionality with multi-technology SON (self-organizing network) as to effectively manage traffic across cellular and Wi-Fi (with Wi-Fi gateway). You need the real-time SON across those technologies as a part of the same solution. If Wi-Fi gateway doesn't have the visibility into what is going on in the licensed domain, the intelligent offload decisions as an example cannot be made."
According to Parallel, by combining these systems into one device, not only will mobile operators save money and time on installation, they will also eliminate the need to acquire more small cell solutions. Additionally, by combining all three, power consumption is reduced and backhaul infrastructure is simplified, according to the company.
Earlier this year, FierceWireless named Parallel as one of its Fierce 15 winners for its strategy regarding innovation in cellular network buildouts, which CEO Steve Papa said "ignores decades of legacy technologies and strategies and starts fresh with the latest in cutting-edge software and commodity hardware," a tenant the company is touting in the release of the CWS.
For more:
- see the release
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