vRAN WITH

ETHERNET FRONTHAUL
REDUCE COST | IMPROVE SPECTRAL EFFICIENCY
| PREPARE FOR 5G
 BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Increasing traffic demand, limited spectrum availability and mass
adoption of mobile broadband are challenging traditional ways of
building cellular networks. Mobile operators are continuously seeking
ways to increase network capacity and coverage while reducing time to
market for new services and have a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
To achieve this, cellular infrastructure must be flexible and support
simplified deployment and management of increasingly heterogeneous
radio access networks (RANs). Additionally, the bulk of the cost of
a mobile network lies in the large number of distributed base station
and antenna sites, as well as in the last-mile transport network links.
Consequently, the costs associated both with the central parts of the
network and its distributed elements must be taken into account for a
cost-effective network evolution.

Virtualized RAN (vRAN) or Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) offers a better user

experience by addressing capacity as well as coverage issues, while
supporting mobile xHaul (Front haul and Backhaul) solutions as well
as network self-optimization, self-configuration, self-adaptation
with software control and management through SDN and NFV. vRAN
also provides great benefits in controlling ongoing operational costs,
improving spectral efficiency, network security, network controllability,
network agility and flexibility.

OUR SOLUTION
3GPP has finalized specifications for LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) features such as Co-ordinated multipoint (CoMP), Carrier Aggregation (CA), etc. These
features are expected to yield better capacity per MHz of spectrum and better cell edge performance for the operators. It can only be achieved by
using software-intensive function to bring application intelligence at the eNodeB for smart LTE scheduling and through LTE-Advanced features such
as CoMP and inter-site Carrier Aggregation using the vRAN architecture. Incumbent wireless equipment vendors have developed C-RAN based
on CPRI front haul transport, which requires dark fiber for its connectivity. Dark fiber is not widely available in most part of the world and it is
prohibitively expensive and disruptive to install. Even If dark fiber is employed for C-RAN, changes in network topologies, e.g. relocation of a RRH
or deployment of HetNet are not possible without more expense and disruption.

Tech Mahindra has collaborated with a pioneer in vRAN technology, for industry leading vRAN solution. Altiostar’s LTE-Advanced capable NFVC-
RAN solution makes use of Ethernet for front haul transport, which is ubiquitous and economical. This unique architecture gives wireless network
operators the capability to provide LTE-Advanced features flexibly and rapidly with much lower cost compared to CPRI-based C-RAN solution.

SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE
Altiostar has been a firm proponent and pioneer in developing and deploying a split LTE protocol stack solution with Ethernet fronthaul. As part
of continued product and engineering vision, Altiostar has built on these principles to develop a fully x86 based vRAN solution leveraging flexible
eNB-DU options to enable vRAN deployment suitable for any operator’s transport network and operational capabilities.

A high level overview of the Altiostar solution is provided in the following solution diagram. Altiostar architecture supports a pure Option 2 High
Level Split (HLS) with DU embedded in RRU, and two cascaded split options, consisting of Option 2 Split between DU at Site or DU at a secondary
aggregation point, leveraging Low level Split (LLS) options 7 and 8 between DU and RRU.
Altiostar has aligned its solution architecture nomenclature for its split eNB/gNB solution with 3GPP TR 38.801 in the following way
• Altiostar eNB-CU: Centralized Unit Running PDCP and Above.
• Altiostar eNB-DU: Distributed Unit Running PHY/MAC/RLC.

We have partnered with CoTS server manufacturers for class-leading, flexible x86-based server options for both eNB-DU and eNB-CU elements.
For RRU hardware solutions, we are building a partner Ecosystem of “Whitebox” RRU manufacturers. Altiostar DU solutions interface to these
radios via CPRI or eCPRI, depending on the specific customer use case requirement. Our partner ecosystem, referred to as OpenRAN Ecosystem,
provides engineering capabilities for many different radio bands and configurations.

Altiostar’s Open vRAN business model enables RRU agnostic software, open interfaces based on 3GPP/xRAN standards for the benefits of agility,
flexibility, innovation velocity, time-to service-monetization, lower cost-per-user, all with full architectural support for 5G NR.

SOLUTION BENEFITS

FRONTHAUL ON CARRIER GRADE APPLICATION GAIN CAPACITY BETTER VIDEO CONNECTING

ANY TRANSPORT NFV PLATFORM INTELLIGENCE AND STREAMING PEOPLE WITH
PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE VIDEO CALLS

Full scale High availability Improved user QoE Implement LTE-A Integrated MEC Adapt to video
deployment on all and ultra low- features flows according to
parts of network latency Detect user’s radio conditions
streaming flows over LTE
Massive scalability
Improved video
quality
OUR VALUE PROPOSITION
Tech Mahindra provides an industry leading product offering and ensures a high interoperability with other components by the virtue of our VNF-
Xchange platform (www.VNFXchange.org ) which provides pre-integrated and certified solutions for functional and performance measures. In
addition, our vRAN solution also ensures the following benefits:

INTER-SITE MOBILE EDGE NFV+SDN FOUNDATION FOR

LTE –A ON IP TRANSPORT COMPUTING BASED RAN 5G

40% CAPACITY 10% CAPACITY 38% TCO NO FORKLIFT REQUIRED

FOR 5G
3X LTE-A COVERAGE 20% DATA RATE
30% FASTER

OUR OFFERING
With 30+ years of extensive RF experience and pioneering virtualized solutions with SDN/NFV for RAN, EPC, Tech Mahindra’s VRAN offerings
include the full spectrum of Systems Integration (SI) services from Planning and design to Testing and Implementation to Managed services and
operations.

PLANNING & DESIGN TESTING IMPLEMENTATION OPERATIONS

• vRAN Readiness Audit – • Interoperability testing • vBBU, RRH • VNF lifecycle

RAN and Transport • Use case realization • COTS, Openstack management
• Capacity Planning • E2E testing • VNF Orchestration • Versioning
• Radio Network Design • Integration with SDN • Release Management
• Fronthaul Design controller • Upgrade / Change
• SDN/NFV Orchestration • E2E System Integration Management
model design • Testing • Network Monitoring
• Fault Management
• Field Support
• Root Cause Analysis
• Optimization
• Network Analytics
MANAGED SERVICES • Consulting Services

TURNKEY SERVICES

connect@techmahindra.com
www.youtube.com/user/techmahindra09
www.facebook.com/techmahindra
www.twitter.com/tech_mahindra
www.linkedin.com/company/tech-mahindra
www.techmahindra.com
SUCCESS STORIES

TRIALS

COMMERCIAL DEPLOYMENTS

SUMMARY
• More than 22 lab and field trials (14 complete) with operators across the world
- Including commercial traffic including live events
• Commercial engagements with five operators
• Macro, micro, massive MIMO and AAS products across different bands
• Upcoming 30,000+-site deployment – FDD & TDD

CONTACT

Hemant Patil,
Competency Head – RAN and 5G
hpatil@techmahindra.com
Cell: +91 – 98208 43840

connect@techmahindra.com
www.youtube.com/user/techmahindra09
www.facebook.com/techmahindra
www.twitter.com/tech_mahindra
www.linkedin.com/company/tech-mahindra
www.techmahindra.com