Radisys invests in early 5G initiative with MobilityEngine
Radisys Corporation introduced a new platform that it says will allow disaggregated mobile networks to meet 5G demands. Radisys MobilityEngine, an evolution of its CellEngine product line, is a portfolio of disaggregated Radio Access Network (RAN) solutions and services, intended to help mobile service providers transform their access networks from LTE-Advanced to 5G.
Radisys’ MobilityEngine is an open 5G RAN platform and services offering, which supports modern-day LTE-Advanced network deployments with a path toward 5G. In particular, it takes a phased 5G rollout approach to ready mobile service providers for widescale 5G deployments within the foreseeable future.
Although LTE and LTE-Advanced deployments are still in progress, mobile operators and vendors have started to pursue R&D initiatives to develop 5G technologies in hopes of making them a consumer reality by 2020. 5G is essentially a wireless connection designed to manage the surge of devices that require mobile internet connection. According to a recent report from Market Reports Center, the 5G network structure market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 70% between 2019 to 2025, constituting $28 billion in annual spending by the end of 2025.
MobilityEngine can be deployed in a Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD) architecture. It disaggregates the access technology from the core network, supporting open standard application program interfaces (APIs) and the decoupling of software from hardware.
“The advent of 5G service delivery and the corresponding transformation of mobile service providers’ access networks has led to a watershed moment for the industry as a whole, as vertical proprietary systems are replaced with open components from multiple vendors,” said Monica Paolini, principal analyst, Senza Fili Consulting. “This opens the door for companies such as Radisys without legacy infrastructure deployed to deliver 5G platforms based on open standards and APIs to meet service providers’ needs.”
MobilityEngine supports burgeoning 5G services at the network edge and enables network slicing as part of a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) architecture, which could give rise to new use cases. Network slicing is a type of virtual network architecture based on the same principles responsible for software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV). It enables multiple virtual networks to run on top of single, physical infrastructure. When it comes to 5G, a single physical network is sliced into multiple virtual networks capable of supporting various RANs, or multiple services running across an individual RAN. By investing early in these sorts of network ventures, Radisys hopes to gain a competitive edge in the market as 5G services are commercialized.
“Radisys has long been the recognized leader in delivering RAN solutions to meet mobile service providers’ evolving network requirements,” said Neeraj Patel, vice president and general manager, MobilityEngine, Radisys. “MobilityEngine is the evolution of our award-winning CellEngine portfolio. While CellEngine enabled mobile service providers’ small cell deployments for added network capacity and coverage, MobilityEngine delivers broader support for their access technology requirements in open architectures, while delivering much needed reductions in TCO. I am proud to introduce MobilityEngine to continue our rich heritage of delivering disruptive enabling technology solutions to power the 5G era.”
