Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile have conducted a field trial of a virtualised radio access network-based architecture based on network functions virtualisation (NFV) technology.The trial – carried out at Beijing’s Tisinghua University – demonstrated the flexibility, scalability, cost and energy-efficiency of Alcatel-Lucent’s vRAN and NFV technologies for meeting the dynamically changing demands for access from an ever increasing number of applications and devices, people and machines. This is also an important step in the path towards 5G networks.
In the trial Alcatel-Lucent’s vRAN technology was deployed throughout the 442 hectares of Beijing’s Tisinghua University campus, one of the leading universities in China with approximately 57,000 students and teachers. The trial provided both indoor and outdoor coverage and demonstrated the flexibility of the vRAN network, including its ability to dynamically scale network resources in response to traffic demands by the users across the campus.
Dr. Chih-Lin I, the chief scientist of the China Mobile Research Institute, said: “The vRAN technology will allow us to deliver new efficiencies across our network as our customers’ data demands change and more devices connect to our network. We are interested to see how the deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s vRAN will help us to smoothly evolve our networks to meet these demands.”
Glenn Booth, the senior vice president and general manger of Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE Business Unit, added: “Alcatel-Lucent is committed to delivering the latest innovations that enable our customers to get the most out of their LTE networks and enable a smooth path to 5G. This trial is a prime example of how we are working with customers to develop, test and deploy networks with the highest performance and efficiencies and the lowest costs.”
