Japanese company NEC and Taiwanese company Microelectronics Technology (MTI), a network RF solutions provider, announced a collaboration focused on boosting the Open RAN (O-RAN) ecosystem.
The strategic partnership, the two companies said, is intended to provide a broader O-RAN product offering for telecommunications operators and enable various use cases ranging from rural to urban areas, with network configurations and performance profiles such as massive MIMO.
Under the terms of this agreement, NEC and MTI will jointly bring radio units to market, to meet the increasing need for more O-RAN radios.
NEC said it has implemented a variety of different options to increase its Open RAN and disaggregated product portfolio.
“NEC is an industry leader in open and disaggregated networks, demonstrating its capabilities in integrating end-to-end Open RAN solutions,” said Allen Yen, chairman and CEO of MTI. “MTI is excited to be one of NEC’s strategic partners to jointly address the need for open, high performance, high quality 5G radio products.”
“An open, disaggregated 5G network ecosystem promises to drive transformation throughout the industry,” said Shigeru Okuya, SVP of NEC. “With this firm and strategic partnership with MTI, NEC reinforces its commitment to accelerate commercial Open RAN deployments and to deliver more value to its customers.”
Microelectronics Technology Inc. (MTI) is a high-technology company that specializes in wireless communication product development and manufacturing. The firm mainly specializes in the fields of Remote Radio Heads (RRHs), microwave radios, satellite transceivers and ODUs, broadband wireless access products, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers and modules.
MTI is headquartered in the Hsinchu Science Park, in Taiwan and operates manufacturing facilities in Wuxi, China, and an R&D center in California.
Last week, NEC announced the joint development of RAN Intelligent Controllers (RIC) with Japanese operator NTT Docomo in support of intelligent Radio Access Networks (RAN).
The two companies said they are aiming to reduce RAN operational costs, improve performance and reduce power consumption through the use of RIC.
NEC said that the equipment conforming to O-RAN Fronthaul Interface Specifications enables interoperability with different vendors’ products as well as the deployment of an optimal and flexible network that meets the needs of various use cases and network technology requirements. Furthermore, the introduction of RIC utilizing AI allows more sophisticated and efficient control of networks, the Japanese tech company said.
Both companies plan to initiate joint development of RIC mainly aimed at reducing the operating costs of RAN, such as automating base station settings. As a next step, NEC and Docomo will improve the performance of RAN through measures that include reducing the power consumption of network equipment by automatically and autonomously optimizing radio resources.
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