First commercial Cloud RAN offering in Middle East and Africa claimed by Nokia and du

The commercial 5G Cloud RAN site was deployed in Abu Dhabi and based on Nokia's anyRAN approach, including its virtualised Distributed Units (vDU) and Centralized Units (vCU) running on Dell PowerEdge XR8620 servers, and Red Hat OpenShift, a hybrid cloud application platform powered by Kubernetes.

It also used Nokia’s AirScale Massive MIMO Radios operating in the 3.6 GHz (n78) spectrum frequency, using 5G Standalone architecture.

The partnership highlights du’s hybrid RAN strategy that is based on both purpose-built and cloud-native infrastructures, we’re told, and the deployment supports “the UAE’s evolving digital requirements” as well as things such as AI, machine learning, and industry-specific applications in manufacturing, energy, and logistics.

Red Hat OpenShift meanwhile allows operators to have the option to “better scale their 5G network footprint and quickly introduce new services,” we’re told.

“Our collaboration with Nokia represents a major leap forward in du’s mission to deliver exceptional network performance and innovative services,” said Saleem Alblooshi, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of du. “Leveraging 5G Cloud RAN will not only enhance our network's efficiency and flexibility but also enable us to explore new opportunities and services that can deliver genuine value to our customers and society at large.”

Mark Atkinson, Head of RAN at Nokia added: “This strategic partnership with du is much more than an infrastructure deployment. Both companies are committed to driving innovation by developing pioneering use cases that leverage the transformative power of AI and private wireless networks. Under our anyRAN approach, we bring together Nokia’s expertise, trusted performance, and innovation in radio networks with best-in-class partner solutions to offer true flexibility and scalability to operators and enterprises. This collaboration will enable the development of innovative services that empower businesses and individuals alike.”

Last month, the Nokia and du completed a network slicing trial which they said is the UAE’s first live transport slicing deployment. du will subsequently plug into Nokia’s slicing technology with the Network Service Platform (NSP) and deliver services such as ‘ultra-reliable low-latency’ communications for gaming and video streaming, and massive machine-type communications that can be used for IoT devices, we were told in the release.