Nokia’s 5G AirScale Cloud RAN: The Next Evolution, Right Now
Picture this: Nokia has just announced that its brand‑new next‑generation 5G AirScale Cloud RAN—powered by the shiny vRAN 2.0—will be hitting the market this year. In fact, the plan is to roll it out to the public by 2021, all after a string of headline‑making trials have proven it works like a charm.
1. From 2019 to today: A Brief Quick‑Look
- vRAN 1.0 launched in 2019 – a real-world, cloud‑based mmWave network in the U.S. featuring a virtualized Central Unit (vCU). It made its debut on commercial towers, proving the concept works.
- Fast forward to vRAN 2.0 – now we’ve added a virtualized Distributed Unit (vDU) plus a Fronthaul Gateway. The result? A fully disaggregated, cloud‑native 5G base station that’s scalable, ultra‑fast, and ready to jam it into any architecture grid.
2. Google‑sized Benefits for Operators
What does this mean for network operators? A basket of goodies:
- New revenue streams – from extra 5G services to monetising network slicing.
- Low‑latency and rock‑solid performance – perfect for IoT, gaming, AR/VR, and any mission‑critical use.
- Cloud perks – pooling, elasticity, automation, and a plain old “turn‑it‑on‑and‑go” approach that mirrors what you see in core IT.
3. Real‑World Trials That Actually Worked
Hey, it’s not just theory. Nokia ran an end‑to‑end 5G data call using:
- Nokia Cloud Packet Core
- The vRAN 2.0 AirScale Cloud RAN with full baseband in the Cloud
- Fronthaul Gateway
- A brand‑new commercial 5G handset
All this was executed on x86‑based AirFrame Open Edge and Rackmount Servers, using Intel Vista Creek hardware acceleration for the real‑time‑sensitive Layer‑1 computations. On top of that, Nokia Bell Labs is looking into GPU acceleration for future vRAN 3.0 releases, expected to hit markets in 2022.
4. Backwards Compatibility
Concern about legacy gear? Not a problem. The Fronthaul Gateway lets operators upgrade existing CPRI radios to eCPRI‑based AirScale 5G Cloud RAN. It can run independently or glued together with the vDU on an optimized AirFrame Open Edge Server – the first x86‑based product worldwide tuned for edge and far‑edge cloud deployments.
5. Flexibility: The Holy Trinity of Deployment Options
Operators can choose their bliss:
- vDU and vCU at a central or regional edge cloud
- vDU decentralised to an edge or far‑edge cloud
- vDU right at the cell site
All the while, the software runs on Nokia CloudBand or any other cloud stack, giving you total freedom over transport, topology, and bandwidth.
6. AI, ML, and the O‑RAN Dream
Ready for the future? Nokia’s Open RAN (O‑RAN) design splits the base station into:
- Radio Unit (RU)
- Distributed Unit (DU)
- Radio Access Point (RAP) – a hybrid of RU & DU
- Centralized Unit (CU)
- O‑RAN compliant interfaces between them
Plus a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), letting AI & ML tune the radio for the ultimate performance.
7. What the Experts Say
- Ed Gubbins (GlobalData Analyst): “Nokia’s Cloud RAN could reshape mobile networks, opening a Pandora’s box of agility and revenue. They’re consistently pushing the tech faster than the competition.”
- Tommi Uitto (Nokia Mobile Networks President): “The next‑gen AirScale Cloud RAN is pure game‑changing. It arms operators with the flexibility to hit speed, coverage, capacity, and low latency all at once.
