How full is the parking lot today? Ericsson Cloud RAN sparks imagination in enterprise application
The first live use case at Ericsson’s North American headquarters demonstrates how virtualization of RAN enables a foundation for 5G innovation
Enterprises can now take advantage of real-time applications based on the flexibility and scalability of Ericsson’s Cloud RAN products, allowing service providers to address a variety of new 5G use cases and business opportunities. The company recently developed its first live use case through a parking lot application by enabling access to real-time actionable data at its North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, marking another significant achievement on its journey to virtualized radio access networks (vRAN) using recently announced Cloud RAN products.
“5G calls for new levels of flexibility in architecting and deploying networks,” said Erin Liao, Vice President, Head of End-to-End 5G Systems, Ericsson North America. “Through Cloud and trusted technologies in the RAN domain, we’ve delivered a new enterprise use case that could inspire more innovative applications that take advantage of the agility and scalability of the CloudRAN system with the optimized performance Ericsson always strives for.”
Using Ericsson Radios to provide over-the-air coverage from the parking lot’s light poles, as well as live-streaming video footage through a commercial 5G device, the company’s engineers demonstrated how video analytics and radio access technologies led to real-time analysis of available space in its visitors’ parking lot. Leveraging expertise across the company’s end-to-end portfolio, the project demonstrated the ability of Cloud RAN products to build flexible networks by running 5G radio access network (RAN) network functions on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers.
The use case is a result of the company expanding its 5G Distributed Innovation Network by adding new Cloud RAN products that feature RAN control functions running on COTS hardware and Ericsson radios and core in a 5G non-standalone (NSA) configuration. The COTS hardware leverages Intel’s most advanced processor to deliver the desired real-time performance.
“Our Distributed Innovation Network enables us to experiment with new use cases using the latest technology in real-life, real-time scenarios,” said Arvinder Anand, Vice President of Architecture, Technology & E2E Solutions Digital Services, Ericsson North America. “These learnings from a theoretical perspective to practical application, allow us to validate key concepts in commercial environments, which ultimately allow our customers to realize technology potential.”
Ericsson Cloud RAN is a cloud-native software solution that can increase versatility for network buildouts, serving as a complementary addition to a purpose-built 5G network. It is fully compatible with the Ericsson Radio System portfolio and supports both 5G standalone and non-standalone, which will help service providers evolve and future-proof their networks.
Cloud RAN will allow service providers to address a variety of new 5G use cases and business opportunities. Exploring how to build a flexible and agile Cloud RAN solution is one of several initiatives Ericsson is pursuing to ensure a successful 5G market.
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