Mavenir has a new campus network in Dallas where it’s demonstrating open virtualized radio access network (Open vRAN) capabilities with a CBRS-enabled suite and interoperability with third-party vendors.
Texas-based Mavenir has more than five vendor partners in the lab already, according to SVP John Baker, including publicly announced MTI, Fujitsu, Dell, Kontron, and NEC.
Launched recently, the private network deployment will expand the software vendor’s open RAN portfolio to include end-to-end Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) products certified by OnGo (a seal of approval branded by former CBRS Alliance, now known as OnGo Alliance) for both indoor and outdoor applications.
IoT sensor and device capabilities, radios and antennas are deployed showing off indoor and outdoor interoperability. They span a variety of use cases, such as smart light poles. Smart poles are part of Mavenir’s Private Network suite for CBRS, and include features like electric vehicle charging, LED display unit for ads, camera, street lights and weather station or environmental sensors.
The suit also involves 4G/5G FCC and OnGo-certified CBRS Devices (CBRSDs) for indoor and outdoor use cases, along with CBRS Open vRAN, which Mavenir said is designed to allow the RAN to adapt based on usage and coverage. A 4G/5G evolved packet core (EPC) is delivered on premises, with hybrid and cloud hosted CBRS as a service.
The campus also shows throughput, handover, and full carrier aggregation for CBRS general authorized access (GAA) and priority access license (PAL) spectrum. The FCC auctioned county-sized PAL licenses in 2020, offering 70 MHz in total. Major carriers, cable companies, WISPs, and some utilities were among winners, and are working to utilize mid-band 3.5 GHz airwaves for different deployment scenarios, including private networks.
“Mavenir is committed to driving interoperability by growing the CBRS/OnGo ecosystem with device vendors, application providers and network connectivity players”, said Aniruddho Basu, Mavenir SVP and GM of Emerging Business, in a statement. “The Mavenir 4G/5G Campus offers a network showcase Open vRAN and demonstrates open interoperability, test and implementation of end-to-end user applications, including IoT sensor and device connectivity. Putting Mavenir on the map for municipalities, enterprises and Communication Service Providers (CSP) looking to explore the possibilities available by operating a private network.”
In the coming months, the campus will support 5G sub-6 GHz and 5G millimeter wave network testing capabilities.
Mavenir said it wrapped up interoperability testing with third-party vendors, including multiple CPEs to validate and show a successful Open vRAN-based private network deployment.
Terms like open and virtualized are sometimes used together, but Baker noted all products used are O-RAN compliant – meaning open interfaces as specified by the O-RAN Alliance.
And while the campus demo shows off Mavenir’s new product portfolio, it’s also meant for further interoperability testing with vendors, he told Fierce.
Finnish vendor Nokia on Wednesday, announced the debut of a new O-RAN collaboration and testing center also in Dallas – initially focused on open fronthaul interoperability and testing xApps with its real-time RAN Intelligent Controller.