vRAN is a 'mandatory step' for operators deploying open RAN

Deploying vRAN could be considered a natural progression on service providers' virtualization and disaggregation journey, says AMD's Gilles Garcia.

Kelsey Ziser, Phil Harvey

November 30, 2023

At a Glance

  • Using vRAN as a stepping stone to open RAN (03:51)
  • The difference between vRAN and cloud RAN (06:01)
  • What to expect from 3GPP's Release 17 (13:34)

Gilles Garcia, senior director and business lead for the Data Center and Communications Group at AMD, joins the podcast to explain why virtual radio access networks (vRAN) could be an important step for service providers to take on the way to deploying open RAN. Deploying vRAN could also be considered a natural progression on service providers' virtualization and disaggregation journey, says Garcia. 

For operators on the fence about open RAN, he says: "I think that vRAN is probably a mandatory step for those operators before embracing open RAN."

Garcia also examines what's driving momentum of vRAN and open RAN adoption including a different approach to security and the ability to support applications at the edge, closer to the end user.

Click on the caption button for a lightly edited transcript.

Here are a few topics we cover:

  • State of the open RAN market in North America (03:02)

  • Using vRAN as a stepping stone to open RAN (03:51)

  • The difference between vRAN and cloud RAN (06:01)

  • How new RAN approaches can provide telcos with more operational efficiency and new revenue sources (08:07)

  • What to expect from 3GPP's Release 17 (13:34)

  • Topics Garcia plans to discuss, such as vRAN and 6G, during his sessions at the Open RAN North America event in Dallas from Dec. 6-7 (17:03) 

About the Author(s)

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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