KDDI has said it will expand its Open RAN deployment during 2025, using vRAN software from Samsung.
The deployment will use servers from HPE and Red Hat’s OpenShift cloud environment for the vRAN software. Samsung will also provide its RAN management software, CognitiV Networks Operations Suite.
One obvious aspect missing from KDDI and Samsung’s release is the expected scale of the rollout. Samsung would only say in comments to TMN that it is a “large scale deployment.” Red Hat told us that the deployment would “scale Open RAN into production.”
We also know that the deployment is a brown field rollout, according to notes from Samsung.
The releases also says Samsung is “a” main vendor for 4G and 5G open vRAN, so are there other RAN vendors involved in this expansion of the Open RAN by KDDI?
Samsung told us, “Samsung is the main vendor for this deployment, it is providing the RUs and DUs as well as offering third-party integration support. At this stage, Samsung is providing the DUs and RUs, and in the longer term, Samsung will support third-party RU integration in alignment with KDDI’s future plan and strategy.”
Notable also in the release is the use of Red Hat as the cloud environment provider. In rollouts with Vodafone, Verizon and Telus, the Samsung vRAN software has been integrated with Wind River Studio. Just this week a Wind River executive told us that Red Hat was “nowhere” in the telco far edge, specifically in supporting the DU. However, in this instance, Red Hat wins the business although we don’t have specifics on how centralised the DUs will be in the architecture.
In comments it attributed to Ian Hood, Chief Strategist – Global Industries, Red Hat told us: “Red Hat and KDDI share a common vision to accelerate 5G and edge workloads across any network landscape by collaborating through a diverse partner ecosystem. KDDI recognises Red Hat’s position as an open source leader and the interoperability of Red Hat’s solutions. Red Hat is the common thread for both 5G core and vRAN, providing consistent operational experience for functional efficiency.
“KDDI is already deploying Red Hat OpenShift for its 5G core and is now collaborating with Samsung and Red Hat to scale open RAN into production. This expanded deployment will add capabilities and features such as improved energy efficiency, intelligent RAN optimisation and zero-touch automation.
“Together with Samsung, Red Hat continues supporting KDDI to standardize on Red Hat OpenShift for its vRAN workloads, acting as a common cloud platform from core to RAN and edge, with consistent operational life cycle management.”
