Page 52 - SAMENA Trends - Oct-Nov 2023

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Nokia Bell Labs and Aramco Announce R&D Collaboration to Support Priority
Industries

Nokia’s research arm, Nokia Bell Labs and Aramco, the world’s larg- to foster a culture of innovation, pushing the boundaries of what's
est energy company, have signed a non-binding R&D collaboration possible in our industrial sectors during this Industry 4.0 era." Thi-
agreement to support Industry 4.0/4IR digital use-case creation erry E. Klein, President of Bell Labs Solutions Research at Nokia,
and proof of concept development for priority industrial sectors in said: “This collaboration with Aramco reflects our commitment to
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and beyond. Building on the vision of driving innovation and jointly developing advanced industrial use
the recently launched Aramco Digital Company, this Memorandum cases with world-leading ecosystem partners. Together, we will
of Understanding (MoU) is envisioned to accelerate digital trans- accelerate the digital transformation of industries providing new
formation within the Kingdom, the Middle East, and North Africa technologies for a safer, more productive and more sustainable
(MENA) region and globally. The collaboration seeks to leverage future. We look forward to co-creating ground-breaking solutions
cutting-edge research and technologies from both companies to that can unlock new business opportunities for industrial opera-
advance digital use-cases for a diverse range of industries, includ- tions in Saudi Arabia and globally.”
ing oil and gas, utilities, mining, manufacturing and logistics. The
companies are expected to collaborate on research and develop-
ment efforts, develop joint proof-of-concept solutions, and validate
technologies in real-world deployments to expand enterprise in-
dustrial automation applications, thereby unlocking new potential
for industrial operations. The collaboration will also aim to focus
on fostering a comprehensive ecosystem for 5G and emerging
technologies to integrate cutting-edge technologies that will help
shape the future of industrial sectors. Nabil Nuaim, Sr. VP of Aram-
co Digital & Information Technology, said: "We are thrilled to col-
laborate with Nokia’s award-winning research arm Nokia Bell Labs.
This MoU signifies a major step towards digitalizing our industries
and transforming our national talent capabilities. Together, we aim

Nokia Partners with Mavenir to Prove Open RAN System Performance

Nokia announced that they have successfully completed interop- combine purpose-built, hybrid, and Cloud RAN architectures with
erability testing with a Mavenir radio using the O-RAN Alliance 7-2x common software. Nokia is supporting Open Fronthaul features
interface at Nokia’s Open RAN Innovation Center in Dallas, Texas. on top of its high-performance RAN software which ensures mo-
During the trial, both companies validated the interoperability of bile operators have performance parity with their existing RAN.
Mavenir’s CBRS Radio Unit and Nokia AirScale Baseband support- Nokia and Mavenir are long-term supporters of open networks and
ing the O-RAN compliant 7-2x interface. The testing was performed have invested heavily to advance the goals of the O-RAN Alliance
according to O-RAN Alliance specifications, demonstrating end-to- to build open, interoperable, and intelligent networks. This industry
end configurations with 5G user devices. Nokia and Mavenir are milestone highlights both parties' ongoing commitment to open in-
able to demonstrate 5G peak performance by activating 4CC Car- terfaces as well as their investment in R&D in the U.S. market. John
rier Aggregation using TDD and FDD spectrum in a 5G Standalone Baker, SVP, Business Development at Mavenir, commented: “This
configuration. Nokia's anyRAN approach is designed to give mobile solution demonstrates a full circle of O-RAN interoperability where-
operators and enterprises more flexibility in building networks that by our industry-leading RAN portfolio integrates and interoperates
in both directions with products from other RAN suppliers. This is
real Open RAN – not the version where one supplier only connects
their own products to each other. It is a great credit to both teams
that they could integrate our Radio with Nokia’s Baseband in record
time.” Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia, said: “Our technology
collaboration with Mavenir is further evidence of our commitment
to Open RAN. We have developed our baseband software in a way
that ensures that multi-supplier O-RAN systems can be deployed
without compromises in performance, energy efficiency, security,
or resiliency. This is key when people depend on wireless connec-
tivity in all aspects of their daily lives. We have now completed op-
erability with Radios from four different suppliers using the O-RAN
compliant 7-2x interface.”

52 OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2023