Altiostar Intros vRAN

Startup Altiostar introduced its first virtual RAN product, saying that it has already been tried out by several carriers.

Virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) products are regarded as one of the starting blocks for future 5G netwoks. Virtualized RAN products map the baseband controller functions of traditional basestations so that they can be run on "white box" servers in a central location or closer to the edge of the network. This allows operators to pool or adjust radio resources, depending on traffic.

Altiostar has video about the new product offering:

The product is available now. Kuntal Chowdhury, VP of Marketing at Altiostar, says that some carriers have already been checking the product out. "Several tier-1 operators have tested the vRAN product and the tests passed successfully," he told Light Reading Monday.

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Tewksbury, Mass.-based Altiostar debuted last year with a Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) offering that connected radios with controllers with Ethernet, rather than dark fiber. "The vRAN product supplants the C-RAN product," Chowdhury notes.

Altiostar, which is backed by Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), among others, has scored over $140 million in funding since 2012.

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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading