Intel announces Symware — a collaboration Open RAN solution

Intel Corporation, Juniper Networks and Rakuten Symphony are collaborating to develop Symware, a carrier-grade Open RAN (radio access network) solution for mobile network operators to modernise radio cell sites by leveraging the latest cloud-native architecture. This Symware multipurpose edge appliance provides operators with the flexibility to densify their network, accommodate various network topologies and support new features while reducing the required hardware per site.

The Symware multipurpose edge appliance combines the containerised cell site routing functionality and a containerised distributed unit on a single general-purpose server platform, which significantly reduces the capital and operating expenditures for an operator. Offering consistent carrier-grade routing stack across both physical and virtual RAN, the solution readily enables 5G network slicing features both in RAN and transport domains including slice isolation, slice monitoring and dynamic traffic steering through segment routing. The solution supports automation with zero-touch provisioning, rolling updates, telemetry and analytics for all the components and is based on the Kubernetes ecosystem for orchestration and networking.

Symware is targeted for availability the first half of 2022 through Rakuten Symphony.