NTT DoCoMo has announced new market packages for its OREX (Open RAN Ecosystem) services, marking a new stage in the commercialisation of its Open RAN ecosystem play.
OREX RAN types – combining disaggregated base station and RUs from different vendors.
The company said that OREX will now provide services under three headings – OREX RAN, OREX SMO, and OREX Services.
OREX (previously known as OREC) is NTT DoCoMo’s attempt to commercialise the ecosystem blueprints it has assembled for Open RAN deployments. So it integrates – and then provides a service to deploy – the hardware, cloud environment, vRAN and RU providers into set groupings that are intended to meet certain use cases.
OREX RAN, as it sounds, is where operators can go to get hold of different disaggregated base stations made up of combinations of the 13 existing vendors in the ecosystem.
DoCoMo also said that it has added seven new RU providers to OREX RAN. These are DENGYO, DKK, Fujitsu, HFR, Mavenir, NEC, and SOLiD.
OREX SMO provides O-RAN compliant Service Management & Orchestration, while OREX Services provides procurement, integration, deployment and operational support.
New vendors and a commercial deployment at home
Finally, the operator said that on September 22 it had started the deployment and operation of OREX RAN and OREX SMO in its domestic 5G network, incorporating base station software from Fujitsu, a cloud platform from Wind River, hardware acceleration from NVIDIA, running on a COTS server with Intel processors. (*You can read Nvidia’s take on this deployment here. And there’s a release from Fujitsu here.)
A statement said, “Building on the operational experience they have accumulated within DOCOMO’s network, these companies plan to enhance OREX Open RAN services and expand their product combinations, striving to offer improved cost-effectiveness and reliability.”‘
NTT DoCoMo launched OREX (then known as OREC) in February 2021, having launched its own multi-vendor RAN network in March 2020.
