The partnership to deliver O-RAN-compliant, energy-efficient, virtualised, cloud-native 5G solutions to simplify network deployments
The headquarters of Qualcomm in the La Jolla area of San Diego, California. (Credit: Coolcaesar/Wikipedia)
Qualcomm Technologies has partnered with Japanese IT and electronics company NEC to develop a 5G open and virtualised distributed unit (DU).
To be powered by Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card, the solution is aimed at driving the transition towards modern networks.
It will be developed under NTT DOCOMO-led the 5G Open RAN Ecosystem (OREC) initiative, which was launched to speed up open RAN globally.
NTT DOCOMO radio access network development department general manager Sadayuki Abeta said: “We are excited about Qualcomm Technologies and NEC Corporation partnering to develop new generation cloud-native 5G RAN technology.
“The development of 5G open and virtualized DU solutions will help drive our OREC activities to make 5G RAN deployment more open and flexible with industry leaders.”
The partnership between Qualcomm and NEC is formed to provide high-performance, O-RAN-compliant, energy-efficient, virtualised, cloud-native 5G solutions to simplify network deployments.
The solutions are expected to address the demands of next-generation networks, simplify deployments and lower the total cost of ownership.
Under the partnership, the two companies will combine their capabilities to redefine the way mobile networks are designed.
The combined capabilities will be used to develop high performance and low power Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) 5G solutions for device and infrastructure products.
NEC Corporation 2nd wireless access solutions division general manager Katsumi Tanoue said: “With the growth in open and virtualized networks, the integration of Qualcomm 5G RAN Platforms within NEC O-RAN products will provide a tremendous advantage to our customers, who demand high performance and power-efficient solutions for nearly any application.
“The Qualcomm X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card aims to deliver lower power and best in class performance to meet the performance demands at the edge and capture new revenue opportunities. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies.”
In July this year, Qualcomm partnered with French IT services company Capgemini to drive 5G private network implementations for industries.