Parallel Wireless, Türk Telekom and Juniper Networks Announce Open RAN Initiative in Turkey

Parallel Wireless, Inc. announced a collaboration with Türk Telekom and Juniper Networks on a multivendor Open RAN initiative. Türk Telekom will deploy Open RAN technology utilizing the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). Deployments will occur across trial sites after completing tests in the Türk Telekom Innovation Center.

Parallel Wireless, Türk Telekom, and Juniper Networks Collaborate for Open RAN

Incidentally, Türk Telekom remains one of the early adopters of the Open RAN technology. The Turkish telco uses a broad vendor ecosystem to build more flexible, efficient, and secure mobile networks, meeting the demands of the 5G era. The telco also has partnered with Juniper before to productive the RIC. Notably, a RIC is a critical part of the Open RAN architecture. The RIC allows telcos to automate networks, enable efficient resource utilization, and provide an optimal customer experience.

Within the scope of this new initiative, Türk Telekom will utilize Parallel Wireless Open RAN software and Juniper’s RIC.

Parallel Wireless will provide an end-to-end Open RAN solution utilizing Band 1, 3, 7, 8, 20 radios and DU, CU software for 2G, 3G, and 4G and band 78 radios and DU, CU software for 5G.

• It has completed the first phase of the lab trial utilizing the RIC. This allows for admission control over 4G. More phases will follow shortly.
• Juniper Networks will be working alongside Türk Telekom and Parallel Wireless to provide its extensive RIC platform. Juniper will be deploying both the near-real-time (near-RT) and the non-real-time (non-RT) RIC and demonstrating the capabilities of various xApps/rApps. This will enable Türk Telekom to deliver differentiated services faster to their customers.

This Open RAN initiative will be trialed in both Türk Telekom’s Innovation Center and in field environments by:

• Building a cloud-native, Open RAN world-class network solution based on a high-performance, distributed architecture.
• Improving service agility and reducing overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) with the introduction of RAN automation.
• Providing a turnkey solution that optimizes high traffic capacity requirements.
• This leading-edge network will help to enable services such as 8k video streaming, IoT, e-Health, e-Education, and more.

Yusuf Kirac, CTO, Türk Telekom, said, "as a result of our cooperation with Juniper Networks for the RIC solution last year, we now export our new technology solutions globally".

Kirac added, "our collaboration with Parallel Wireless and Juniper Networks on this initiative is extremely important throughout our Open RAN journey and we are confident that this collaboration will be an important step towards enabling state-of-the-art 4G and 5G broadband communications and new applications".

Constantine Polychronopoulos, VP, 5G and Telco Cloud at Juniper Networks, said, “Collaborative efforts by technology vendors and service providers are critical to demonstrate real-world interoperability in this exciting and emerging space. Juniper’s ability to provide an open SDK and network-based APIs facilitates seamless portability of x/rApps on its RIC in multivendor environments and underscores the potential for all operators.”

Keith Johnson, President of Parallel Wireless, said, “Parallel Wireless is proud to partner with Türk Telekom, the first integrated telecommunications operator in Turkey, providing our leading-edge, next-generation Open RAN software platform, enabling All G - 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G broadband communications and new state-of-the-art digital applications.”