etisalat by e& Achieves Milestone with Cloud RAN Trials, Pioneering 5G Network Innovation in MEA

As a pioneer in network technology and services, etisalat by e& successfully completed multiple cloud RAN (Radio Access Network) trials providing network innovation and agility to operators and enterprises to improve performance in the 5G ecosystem with ultra-reliable and low-latency communications.

With the evolution of 5G networks towards cloud-native architecture, one of the enablers of this evolution is the adoption of Cloud RAN. These trials conducted for the first time in Middle East and Africa (MEA) region are a major step in RAN innovation and openness allowing interoperation between cellular network equipment provided by different vendors.

We are excited to announce our successful proof of concepts of Cloud RAN solutions. This is a great milestone in the journey of innovation within our industry to leverage the inter-operability and tailored nature of Cloud RAN, as we further embrace our commitment to provide our customers with the latest in digital innovations and enhanced experiences. The Cloud RAN solution will allow us to further innovate our services to expand into different real time applications and provide the best solutions with high-speeds and lower latencies.

Marwan bin Shakar, Senior Vice President, Access Network Development, etisalat by e&

Cloud RAN, a new radio access technology based on centralised cloud computing benefits network operators and end users with the flexibility of the RAN deployment on the same infrastructure to run other cloud-based applications. This provides scalability with regards to the traffic demand, cost-efficiency with regards to capital and operational expenses in the long-term including power efficiency enabling innovation in the 5G eco-system.

Cloud RAN enables the use of open and interoperable RAN interfaces along with the cloud-based software solution for the baseband computing system. The baseband computing functionality is split into Distributed Unit (DU) and the Centralised Unit (CU) which is fully cloud-native enabling the use of “Commercial-off-the-Shelf” (COTS) server.

In addition, etisalat by e& was able to test and verify the performance of another critical element related to the Hardware Acceleration Technology used in CloudRAN dubbed as lookaside and in-line acceleration for the L1 physical layer processing.