NEC Establishes Open RAN laboratory in India

NEC Corporation has established an Open RAN laboratory in India as a complement to its Center of Excellence (CoE) in the U.K.

The facility will accelerate development of NEC's 5G open ecosystem by pre-integrating partner Open RAN components to form end-to-end commercial-ready solutions according to customer-specific needs.

The solutions will undergo end-to-end practical validations on functional/operational performance and quality assurance throughout all layers of the RAN, from network and cloud to service layers. The lab will also be responsible for post-deployment trouble-shooting, life cycle management as well as continuous integration (CI), and continuous delivery (CD) of solutions.

NEC is committed to developing highly reliable, high-quality end-to-end solutions leveraging its expertise accumulated through its long-term experience in the telecom industry and proven capabilities to develop, deliver and operate carrier-grade commercial products and networks across the globe.

NEC's capabilities are further enhanced by the orchestration, digital OSS, and automation technologies of its subsidiary Netcracker, resulting in more efficient operations and faster time to market.

NEC aims to maximize the value of its open ecosystem by combining the aforementioned competencies with its advanced products and solutions, and with best-of-breed products from various partners at the forefront of innovation.

Initial partners include Altiostar, GigaTera, and MTI, as NEC plans to expand its ecosystem with a broader group of partners in possession of cutting-edge technologies to accelerate operators' commercial adoption of Open RAN.

"Altiostar is excited to work with NEC on the CoE lab to promote and demonstrate the significance of Open RAN as operators transition their networks to 5G," said Pierre Kahhale, Vice President of Field Operations, Altiostar. "We have a strong and growing relationship with NEC, dating to our collaboration on the first cloud-native network at scale in Japan, and continuing with current trials and operator deployment plans across the globe."

"Partnering with NEC allows us to focus on the changing demands of the industry," said Daniel Kim, CEO of GigaTera Communications. "Our innovative approach to engineering new products and NEC's extensive knowledge and background will be an advantage in the ORAN market."

"As one of the leaders in the Open RAN ecosystem, NEC has shown its capabilities in integrating end-to-end O-RAN solutions. NEC's CoE provides the market a great way to demonstrate O-RAN, using components from different suppliers that conform with the O-RAN specifications," said Allen Yen, Chairman and CEO of MTI. "MTI is excited to be one of the initial partners of NEC's CoE lab, and will continue to supply O-RAN compliant radio units to the market."

"We are confident that our firm partnerships with the industry's best talents will enable us to advance the development of cutting-edge carrier grade ecosystems at full throttle," said Kazuhiko Harasaki, Deputy General Manager, Service Provider Solutions Division, NEC Corporation. "NEC will take leadership in curating pre-validated models and facilitating commercial, multi-vendor Open RAN deployment as a viable alternative 5G network for operators."