Parsippany, New Jersey, USA – February 22, 2022 – Wireless Telecom Group announced today that its CommAgility brand is partnering with GENEViSiO, an advanced open network pioneer in telecom infrastructure, to deliver 5G Open RAN (O-RAN) Distributed Unit (DU) products to system integrators, operators and value-added resellers. The Open RAN sector is growing rapidly, with more than 300 members (including CommAgility) of the O-RAN ALLIANCE.
CommAgility and GENEViSiO have created a cost-effective, high-performance solution for mobile operators seeking the flexibility and cost efficiency of Open RAN networks. The solution uses CommAgility's 5G New Radio (NR) software for NXP Layerscape® and Layerscape Access devices, running on GENEViSiO's PAC-010 DU Inline Accelerator card. By using the industry-standard PCIe form factor, the PAC-010 offers 'plug and play' capabilities, saving time in development and deployment.
Edward Young, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at CommAgility, said: “GENEViSiO’s PAC-010 combines efficient design with the convenient PCIe form factor, based around the industry-leading performance of the NXP devices. This enables us to re-use CommAgility's investment in 5G NR PHY and protocol stack software for small cells, to create a flexible, powerful Open-RAN solution.”
Byron Lin, CEO at GENEViSiO, said: “We’re excited to partner with a strong developer such as CommAgility, whose proven software can bring out the maximum performance of the NXP processors.”
The O-RAN architecture defines several key functional blocks, including the Distributed Unit (DU), Radio Unit (RU) and Central Unit (CU). The physical layer (PHY) is split across the DU and RU, with the DU hosting the PHY-high (and other software layers). CommAgility's PHY-high software with optional layer 2 protocol stack offers customers the flexibility for a full DU board, or to put the entire L2/L3 functionality on general purpose hardware.
The PAC-01x series is the world's first ASIC-based PCIe DU solution, and leverages NXP's Layerscape Access family of programmable baseband processors providing multiple 25GbE eCPRI interfaces and maximum support for four 4T4R 100MHz RRH/RU. For higher bandwidth Open RAN applications, full L1 processing offload may be required, and in this case, an inline hardware accelerator such as the PAC-010 is likely to deliver the best results with lowest latency and minimum cores required.
At MWC Barcelona 2022, CommAgility will be at Hall 7, Booth 7B20. It will be showcasing its hardware, software, and integrated, pre-tested reference designs. The company’s solutions are targeted at specialized, high-performance 5G and LTE global applications, including private networks, and satellite and air-to-ground communications.