Virgin Media O2 selects Mavenir for Open RAN rollout

Virgin Media O2 has chosen network software provider, Mavenir as its Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) vendor, with Mavenir providing its Open virtualised Radio Access Network (Open vRAN) solution for sites on Virgin Media O2’s network.

The partnership which sees Mavenir become Virgin Media O2’s prime integrator, is to roll out a scalable Open vRAN solution. It marks as part of the network’s evolution plans and aims to adopt a more flexible and cloud-native architecture.

Mavenir’s Open vRAN solution is built from the ground up to be cloud-native, with fully containerised microservices allowing it to be deployed easily on any cloud. Mavenir’s Open vRAN O-RAN compliant solution works on open interfaces supporting O-RAN Split 7.2x and Split 2.

It further disaggregates into Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralised Unit (CU). These entities work as containerised network functions running on Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) hardware containing Intel processors.

Designed to support multiple Fronthaul splits simultaneously, the vRAN solution provides a vendor-agnostic and future-proof architecture, leveraging Virgin Media O2’s network infrastructure assets.

Mavenir’s Open RAN system will consist of fully virtualised L1, L2 vRAN SW and will operate on Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, along with Intel vRAN Accelerator ACC100 and Intel 800 series Ethernet adapters. The delivery will also feature Mavenir’s OpenBeam™ Radios including massive MIMO, 3rd party O-RAN based Radio Units (O-RU) for open Fronthaul, network monitoring and optimisation.

Jeanie York, Virgin Media O2, CTO, said: “Through digitalising our networks, we’re seamlessly integrating our infrastructure to get more value from our existing assets. Extending our collaboration with Mavenir to the RAN for the first time will help us establish a future-proof Open vRAN architecture, unlocking the benefits of a multi-vendor open interface while allowing us to rapidly benefit from an end-to-end network solution.”

“Mavenir’s Open vRAN cloud-native approach presents new pathways for automated networks to deliver on the use cases and data demands of today and beyond – driving network elasticity, flexibility and best-in-class automation. The Mavenir OpenBeam radio portfolio fully complements Virgin Media O2’s full spectrum requirements and we look forward to playing an active role in unlocking network automation and openness in the RAN,” said Pardeep Kohli, President and CEO at Mavenir.