The foundation for innovation and programmability for Open RAN begins with the development of xApps and rApps for the VMware RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). At review film Mobile Word Congress 2023, VMware will highlight this innovation with its expanding ecosystem of rApp and xApp partners by hosting a rAppathon, an app development challenge. In concert with Intel, VMware is gathering developers from seven partners to pitch their xApp and rApp RAN applications developed on the VMware RIC platform to a panel of expert judges in the telecom industry that will declare a winner based on innovation, business and network impact and network sustainability.

Additionally, VMware continues to evolve its work with a broad range of RAN partners who provide solutions to make networks even smarter with VMware Telco Cloud Platform, including:

NTT DATA and VMware today announced an expanded partnership to help expedite CSPs’ ability to leverage best practices and Open RAN large scale deployment know-how, including instantiation, configuration, testing and operation of cloud native functions (CNFs) on either new or existing network deployments. Read the release for more details.
Samsung Electronics and VMware today announced their first virtual network launch, with the integration of Samsung’s virtualized RAN with VMware Telco Cloud Platform as a part of the DISH 5G network buildout. The two companies offer an advanced topology that is tested, more interoperable and allows CSPs to accelerate and streamline their RAN deployments at scale more efficiently. Read the release for more details.
VMware Enables Advanced Automation for Telco Cloud Platform, Introduces New Options for Far Edge Cell Sites

Today, VMware introduced new and enhanced offerings to help CSPs more quickly modernize their networks and monetize new services. Those offerings across RAN include:

VMware also introduced its vision for the Service Management and Orchestration framework, which follows the O-RAN alliance’s approach of simplifying, optimizing and automating the RAN and its applications. To achieve this, VMware is leveraging its suite of telco cloud management and orchestration solutions including VMware Centralized RIC (non-real-time RIC), VMware Telco Cloud Automation, and VMware Telco Cloud Service Assurance. Through this vision, CSPs can better streamline the deployments of a programmable 5G RAN network with end-to-end automation and optimization. Read the blog post for more details.
VMware today unveiled Project Kauai, a technical preview, to provide CSPs with more options for deploying a modern and disaggregated RAN. While CSPs continue to benefit from an architecture based on VMware ESXi, Project Kauai will complement the hypervisor by allowing them to run virtualized and disaggregated RAN functions directly on a bare metal server with VMware Tanzu. Project Kauai is expected to provide CSPs with greater choice and flexibility particularly in the most demanding areas of their RAN – far edge cell sites. Read the blog post for details.