With a Cloud RAN Deployment, Mobile Operators Can See 49% Savings in Capex and 31% Annual Savings in Opex, Reveals Mavenir Study

Mavenir, focused on accelerating software network transformation and redefining network economics for Communications Service Providers, today released the results of a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model.

The analysis finds that operators can save 37% in deployment and operational costs over a period of 5 years, due to a 49% reduction in Capex, and a 31% reduction in Opex.

Together with Monica Paolini of Senza Fili Consulting, Mavenir developed the TCO model for virtualized and distributed RAN to understand and quantify how much CSPs can save with a Cloud RAN. The TCO model looks at the cost savings an operator can expect in a Cloud RAN deployment over 5 years, as well as the specific financial benefits that macro, and indoor and outdoor small cells contribute to the overall network.

"Mavenir's Cloud RAN extends virtualization to the edge of the network and provides strategic differentiation by enabling the Remote Radio Units (RRUs) to interwork with the virtualized Cloud Base Band Unit (vBBU) over Ethernet Fronthaul (FH) at a tenth of the bandwidth that is currently required with proprietary solutions," said Ashok Khuntia, GM and EVP, Access Products for Mavenir. "Cloud RAN opens the door to using previously excluded Front Haul solutions and to processing of the radio interface on COTS Intel processors, all having a significant impact on the TCO."

"Virtualization opens new ways to architect, deploy and operate wireless networks including the radio access network (RAN), where Cloud RAN can bring substantial Capex and Opex savings to operators that move baseband processing away from the cell site to a remote location," said Monica Paolini, President, Senza Fili Consulting.

Standardization of an "OPEN" Fronthaul interface is currently underway in the xRAN Fronthaul project.

To learn more about this TCO model, contact us.

Mavenir's John Baker, Senior Vice President 5G/Cloud RAN Strategy, will be presenting more Cloud RAN TCO findings and strategies for thinking disruptively at RAN World in Barcelona on September 19th, at 2pm.