Puerto Rican operator Liberty has partnered with Samsung Networks Latin America to test Samsung’s O-RAN compliant vRAN and radios in its mobile network in Puerto Rico.
According to Liberty, it is the first telecom operator in Puerto Rico and Latin America to introduce 5G vRAN and Open RAN technologies.
vRAN is a software-based network that virtualises the RAN functionalities that were traditionally performed on hardware, enabling operators to optimise RAN deployment and facilitate management.
Liberty says the new and agile architecture will result in high-performing and reliable mobile connectivity, and will enable it to expand its 5G mobile network easier and faster with less hardware equipment while maintaining the same high quality of service.
Samsung says its software-based vRAN will be used to help Liberty to virtualise the RAN processing and its functionalities in an elastic cloud environment.
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“The biggest advantage of vRAN and Open RAN is that it allows us to be more agile,” said Víctor Vera, senior director of RAN technology at Liberty.
"By having the cell site information processing centralised in Liberty’s cloud-native data centre and leveraging the latest software-centric solutions, the implementation, maintenance, and troubleshooting is a lot easier for operators to handle at a single location.
“This is especially valuable when it comes to recovery efforts during a natural disaster or emergency situations.”
Carlos Alberto Aguilar Palafox, Head of Samsung Networks Latin America, said vRAN and Open RAN are cutting-edge technologies that are driving innovation in commercial networks and further bolstering 5G capabilities.
"Samsung has long been a pioneer in the path towards next-generation networks," Palafox said.
“It’s an exciting step to introduce vRAN and Open RAN to Puerto Rico with Liberty and a meaningful collaboration that we hope to further build on in the future.”
The two companies say they have tested both vRAN and Open RAN technologies, validating the telco-grade performance and reliability of multi-vendor Open RAN technology, powered by Samsung’s vRAN solutions.