Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Enters Partnership With Brazil’s CPQD To Develop RAN-Based Solutions

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) has signed a partnership with the Brazilian research body, Telecommunications Research and Development Centre (CPQD), to jointly develop solutions and applications based on the Open RAN (O-RAN) compliant near-real-time RAN Intelligence Controller (RIC).

Nokia to leverage RAN for 5G use cases

The partnership will explore an Open RAN compliant RIC platform for the development of 5G use cases, with the use of Nokia’s Brazilian mobile operator clients. The use cases include IoT for industry 4.0, smart cities, critical networks, and fixed wireless access, which will be tailored for the Brazilian market. The partnership has been designed to create innovative use cases at the edge, which will leverage Nokia’s optimized Airframe open edge server solution. In the process, this will allow CPQD to explore 5G’s potential to offer enhanced network performance at lower energy usage but with greater security and reliability.

It is important to note that Nokia’s Service Enablement Platform permits innovative use cases at RAN edge. It operates on the far edge or edge datacentre, and most important it can share infrastructure with virtualized network functions or Cloud RAN using open API capabilities and enable a dynamic and agile edge cloud environment for security innovation with third parties and the ecosystem. Also, the edge-optimized AirFrame open edge server solution offers high-performance secured ultra-small footprint edge cloud infrastructure for outdoor and indoor environments.

RIC enables AI and Machine learning

Notably, RIC is a virtualized 5G optimization adding programmability to RAN and enables machine learning, artificial intelligence, and new service. It offers a framework for application deployment from different sources. Also, the near-real tome RIC platform offers interfaces and functions boosting automation, optimization, and quick, flexible service deployments.

Nokia Mobile Networks Had of Technology and Strategy Ari Kynasalhti said that this massive partnership for the company to explore the potential for innovative 5G use cases which will have real-world value in Brazil in different areas including fixed wireless assets and smart cities. Ari said that the RAN Intelligent Controller will be vital in research and helping people explore the latest cutting-edge use cases.