Orange Poland preparing for 5G

Orange Poland in collaboration with Nokia has validated the benefits of cloud-optimized radio access networks for the smooth evolution to next-generation 5G technologies.

The two companies trialed Cloud RAN technology to prepare for the eventual introduction of a distributed cloud architecture for 5G by Orange. A distributed, cloud-based radio access network architecture like Nokia’s AirScale Cloud RAN provides capacity where needed and prepares the network for the deployment of new 5G access technology as part of a multi-layered architecture.

The trial took place from March to the beginning of May in Poland, with radio sites in the city of Chelm and the virtualized part of the baseband running in a data center in Lublin, around 70 km away. As a result, Nokia’s AirScale Cloud Base Station provided equally strong network performance on both Nokia’s reference cloud infrastructure and on Orange’s own cloud environment.

Nokia AirScale Cloud RAN provides the flexibility needed for future services and requirements for 5G, Internet of Things, low latency services and end-to-end slicing.

Piotr Jaworski, CTO, Orange Poland said, “During this trial, Orange Poland has successfully trialed virtualized RAN architectures in collaboration with Nokia and investigated the impact on network operations. The quality and performance observed during the trial give confidence on the RAN virtualization and is a critical step for us towards 5G.”

Arnaud Vamparys, VP Radio Access Networks and Microwaves of Orange Global said, “The positive outcome of this trial is an important step towards the implementation of this enabler inside our networks in Europe and Africa.”

Alain Biston, Head, Mobile Network Business Management, Nokia said, “We have demonstrated that Nokia AirScale Cloud RAN is ready for commercial deployments, helping Orange and other customers to start deploying flexible and agile cloud-based networks.”