By Anne Morris
Red Hat expands vendor ecosystem for 5G, vRAN
IBM-owned Red Hat unveiled a raft of new and extended partnership agreements at MWC23 Barcelona as it continues to drive forward its open-source agenda for 5G deployments.
For example, the company announced an extended collaboration with Samsung to develop a virtualised radio access network (vRAN) solution with enhanced integration and automation capabilities.
Red Hat argues the technology will help service providers better manage networks at scale while also addressing the demands of 5G through increased flexibility and operational efficiency.
Honore LaBourdette, VP, Telco, Media, Entertainment & Edge Ecosystem at Red Hat, noted as industries “continue to navigate 5G transformation, we’ve learned that no single vendor can meet the demand for RAN technologies on their own. By extending our collaboration with Samsung, a pioneer in the global vRAN market, we can equip service providers with the necessary scale and efficiency for any given radio network.”
Red Hat also flagged a collaboration with Arm on the development of more energy-efficient 5G and vRAN solutions. It noted that, as part of this collaboration, “we bring together a combined ecosystem of systems integrators, service providers and software vendors. For example, NEC, a long-time partner of both Red Hat and Arm, is optimising its RAN and 5G core network solutions for greater energy efficiency”.
Meanwhile, the company is addressing private 5G networking in partnership with Airspan and Druid, which are validating its cloud-native network functions on Red Hat OpenShift for interoperability and lifecycle management.
Red Hat also announced an expanded collaboration with Nvidia and a partnership with Japan-based Omron.