Virgin Media O2 has selected Mavenir as its Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) vendor. Mavenir will also be the prime integrator, providing its Open virtualised Radio Access Network (Open vRAN) solution for sites on Virgin Media O2’s network.

Virgin Media O2 will work with Mavenir to roll out an Open vRAN solution as part of its network evolution plans and adopt a more flexible and cloud-native architecture.

Mavenir’s Open vRAN solution is built from the ground up to be cloud-native, with fully containerised microservices allowing it to be deployed easily on any cloud. Mavenir’s Open vRAN O-RAN compliant solution works on open interfaces supporting O-RAN Split 7.2x and Split 2.

It further disaggregates into Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralised Unit (CU). These entities work as containerised network functions running on Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) hardware containing Intel processors.

Mavenir’s Open RAN system will consist of virtualised L1, L2 vRAN SW and will operate on Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, along with Intel vRAN Accelerator ACC100 and Intel 800 series Ethernet adapters. The delivery will also feature Mavenir’s OpenBeam Radios including massive MIMO, 3rd party O-RAN based Radio Units (O-RU) for open Fronthaul, network monitoring and optimisation.

Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “Extending our collaboration with Mavenir to the RAN for the first time will help us establish a future-proof Open vRAN architecture, unlocking the benefits of a multi-vendor open interface while allowing us to rapidly benefit from an end-to-end network solution.”

Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President Network and Edge Group at Intel, said: “Open and virtualised RAN represents the future: a flexible and scalable software-defined network.”