A new, joint white paper reviews the future prospects of vRAN base station equipment for use by telecommunications operators

Japanese operator NTT Docomo and South Korean carrier SK Telecom have released a white paper summarizing the technical outlook for base station equipment using virtualization technology.

The two Asian carriers said that this white paper is the latest result of their ongoing technical cooperation.

The white paper reviews the future prospects of virtualized RAN (vRAN) base station equipment for use by telecommunications operators, drawing on the two companies’ combined experience in the fields of network construction and operation. In addition to outlining expectations for base station equipment vendors, the white paper also discusses technical insights targeted at telecom carriers.

One of the two main themes of the white paper is the direction of technological advancements that are critical to the introduction of vRAN base station equipment, including three future requirements:

-Increased processing capacity and reduced power consumption.

-Early implementation of key virtualization capabilities, including resource pooling, scaling, and auto-healing.

-Enhanced integration technology and tools for vRAN base station equipment.

Both operators also highlighted that the other main theme focuses on accelerator technologies for signal processing required to implement vRAN base station equipment, including technical analysis on capacity, power consumption and complexity according to different accelerator structures and network architectures based on proprietary studies.

 “This white paper represents a significant milestone based on the strong collaboration between our two companies, building upon our joint publication last year on Green Mobile Networks and 6G Requirements white papers. We will continue our collaboration with global leading operators like Docomo to prepare for the evolution towards future networks.” said Yu Takki, VP and head of SK Telecom’s Infra Tech Office.

Docomo and SK Telecom signed a cooperation agreement in November 2022 to advance technology studies of next-generation telecommunications infrastructure for 5G Evolution and 6G. As part of this deal, NTT Docomo and SK Telecom had said they plan to align their “concepts and timelines” for the early deployment of future 6G systems, through joint research and development as well as standardization.

In February 2023, they jointly released two white papers on power-saving technologies for mobile networks and related technologies, as well as 6G requirements.

Going forward, the pair said they will continue their technical cooperation in various fields, including improving the competitiveness and operational efficiency of 5G and international standardization and technology verification for future 6G systems.