Ericsson Open Lab, a virtual and physical space for “fast and interactive collaboration and co-creation with communications service providers and ecosystem partners,” was launched Wednesday, the company announced. The new lab supports Ericsson‘s global focus on “innovating virtualized 5G radio access networks technologies.” Ericsson customers can create new deployment/use-case scenarios, increase automation and reduce manual intervention, starting with a focus on Ericsson’s Cloud RAN products.

Ericsson Open Lab is virtually accessible to global customers, and is co-located with the company’s Cloud RAN expertise at Ericsson’s research and development site in Ottawa. The company will support these activities from its locations worldwide.

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Ericsson said it aims to help service providers pursue and realize new deployment and 5G use case scenarios, as well as create opportunities to increase automation and reduce manual intervention. The lab offers space to further explore Open RAN technologies, including aspects such as virtualization, management and orchestration.

Ericsson Open Lab collaboration will use Ericsson cloud-native infrastructure technology and RAN software advancements on commercial off-the-shelf servers and acceleration hardware, but will also foster greater cooperation in areas such as machine learning, network automation and optimization with communications service providers and industry partners. 

Service providers include KDDI, Ooredoo, Orange, Softbank Corp, Turkcell and ecosystem partners such as Intel, NVIDIA, Red Hat and Wind River. Additional customers and partners will be engaged as Cloud RAN network requirements evolve for collaborative activities.

“Open technology underpins the modern mobile miracle, which connects more than 8 billion devices today with one set of global operating standards,” said Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice president and head of business area networks at Ericsson. 

Ericsson Open Lab’s cloud native technology is supported by collaboration and virtual meeting applications for virtual users.

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“Working with Ericsson in the Open Lab will enable our design and engineering teams to collaborate in real time and co-develop new virtualized RAN technologies to accelerate the intelligence and agility of our 5G networks,” said Toshikazu Yokai, executive officer, chief director of mobile technology, KDDI.

“In the Open RAN journey, interoperability, cloudification and automation are key topics for Orange,” said Arnaud Vamparys, senior vice president, radio networks at ‎Orange. “The collaboration allows us to explore new flexible and innovative technologies like Cloud RAN on COTS hardware for mobile network evolution.”

At the Ottawa site, 100MHz of indoor mid-band spectrum and 60MHz of indoor/outdoor mid-band spectrum is available for testing and co-creation activities. This enables customers and partners to create and test Cloud RAN capabilities based on their own spectral holdings and use case requirements across indoor and outdoor networks.

“We have created this collaboration to develop architectures and common operating standards that complement existing 5G ready technology,” Jejdling said. “This initiative will help to test the limits of 5G connectivity, working closely with operators and enterprise customers globally, as the industry continues to adopt more open architectures.”

The Open Lab launch follows Ericsson’s announcement of its Cloud RAN product portfolio development. The lab will enable further development of Cloud RAN solutions on COTS hardware, for higher efficiency and flexibility to customer networks.

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