Ericsson claims Telstra 5G-Advanced first
Ericsson revealed it deployed its latest purpose-built RAN compute platform with Australian operator Telstra earlier this month, paving the way for the rollout of 5G-Advanced in the nation.
Telstra deployed Ericsson’s RAN Processor 6672 in a baseband-pooling configuration, also known as a centralised RAN (C-RAN) set-up, which delivered more than three-times the capacity of previous iterations of the equipment-maker’s platform.
Ericsson stated Telstra is the first operator in the world to run commercial traffic over its latest compute platform in C-RAN hubs covering multiple radio sites.
“In a C-RAN configuration, the new RAN processors offer up to 60 per cent lower energy consumption compared to a distributed deployment”, Ericsson explained. The set-up “also enables more flexible operations”, removes “single points of failure” and provides “efficient scaling” when used with the vendor’s packet fronthaul technology.
In a nutshell, Ericsson asserts the platform prepares Telstra to deploy 5G-Advanced “and associated technologies”.
The platform is compatible with advanced automation, AI and ML capabilities.
Ericsson noted its latest RAN processors “can have up to 20-times more preloaded AI models with higher inference capacity”, a benefit for “various industries and applications”.
Sri Amirthalingam, executive for wireless network engineering at Telstra, said Ericsson’s platform “will unlock new capabilities and support increased capacity in the network”.
The executive expects a bump in customer service relating to mobile data use, branding the deployment “an important step in laying the foundations for 6G”.
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