First-ever Virtualized Radio Network Goes Online in China

Mobile networks as they stand today face a big challenge from the IoT in that they are woefully under prepared. In China, however, this might be changing thanks to a test now underway in that country.

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile, the biggest mobile communications service provider in the world, together have conducted the IoT industry’s first field trial of a virtualized radio access network-based architecture based on network functions virtualization (NFV) technology.

The trial was carried out at Beijing's Tisinghua University (TU) and was designed to demonstrate Alcatel-Lucent's vRAN and NFV technologies and how they could meet the changing demands for access from an ever increasing number of applications and devices, people and machines. In addition, the test was an important proof of concept test leading to the establishment of 5G networks.

“The vRAN technology will allow us to deliver new efficiencies across our network as our customers' data demands change and more devices connect to our network,” said Dr. Chih-Lin I, Chief Scientist, China Mobile Research Institute. “We are interested to see how the deployment of Alcatel-Lucent's vRAN will help us to smoothly evolve our networks to meet these demands.”

To manage the expected explosion of network coverage demand, China Mobile is preparing to evolve to 5G, which promises greater network convergence, better spectral efficiency, support for more users, higher data rates and a more consistent user experience.

During the trial, Alcatel-Lucent's vRAN technology was deployed all over the 442 hectares of the TU campus, where it interacted with about 57,000 students and teachers. The trial provided both indoor and outdoor coverage and tested the system’s ability to dynamically scale network resources in response to traffic demands. Alcatel-Lucent first demonstrated its vRAN solution at Mobile World Congress 2015.

“Alcatel-Lucent is committed to delivering the latest innovations that enable our customers to get the most out of their LTE networks and enable a smooth path to 5G,” said Glenn Booth, SVP and GM, LTE Business Unit, Alcatel-Lucent. “This trial is a prime example of how we are working with customers to develop, test and deploy networks with the highest performance and efficiencies and the lowest costs.”

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