Nokia has announced that it will
launch an Open Innovation lab in Dubai, UAE, to drive regional innovation and
accelerate the adoption of new technologies such as AI/ML for network
automation and optimization in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.
The initiative will also increase the
regional focus of Nokia's established global strategic collaborations with Dell
Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
The lab will focus on
three important areas that will benefit operators and enterprises. The first
area aims to drive further innovation in the Cloud RAN space with Nokia's
technology partners, such as Dell and HPE, as well as working with
market-leading hyperscalers and other ecosystem players. The
Nokia anyRAN approach helps evolve Cloud RAN towards a solution,
which will work alongside purpose-built RAN with feature performance
consistency. This approach brings the flexibility of choice of technology suppliers
and operating environments, meeting the expectations of operators and
enterprises for openness and efficiency.
The second area of focus
will be on private wireless and industrial networks. The lab will showcase
innovative Industry 4.0 use cases and industrial edge applications on Nokia's
market-leading MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) platform to help enterprises
accelerate their transition to Industry 4.0 in the region.
The third area of focus
will be on network intelligence. Nokia aims to accelerate the adoption of
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions for network automation
and optimization. The Nokia MantaRay solution portfolio for
intelligent network management and automation will be showcased and used in
this lab.
In a remark, the Senior Vice President, Mobile Network at Nokia, MEA,
Mikko Lavanti said “We are excited to
launch our Open Innovation Lab in MEA, reaffiriming our commitement to drive
innovations with our partners in key future technology areas including Dell and
HPE. This collaboration will accelerate the adoption of new technologies in our
region. We can help operators and enterprises enhance network efficiency and
performance as well as unlock new monetization opportunities.”
The Senior Vice President, Product Development Engineering, Telecom
Systems Business, Dell Technologies, Tibor Fabry-Asztalos also said “The future of the telecommuications
industry is open, backed by an ecosystem of partners collaborating to help network operators digitally transform
and quickly bring innovative and revenue generating solutions to market.
Nokia's Cloud RAN capabilities, combined with Dell's cloud-native
infrastructure and software in the new Open Innovation Lab, will accelerate the
adoption and performance of open network architectures and create new
opportunities for network automation and efficiency."
Anna Granö, VP, Sales, Northern Western Europe for Top Accounts, Partner
Ecosystem and Business Development, HPE, said: "We have been working
together in testing the high density of the HPE ProLiant DL110 Telco server
that will support up to three of the Nokia RAN accelerator cards, all in a
short depth 1U platform. By combining our strengths, we are able
to offer a comprehensive and robust Cloud RAN solution that drives
efficiency, performance, openness, and scale. We're excited to work with Nokia
to bring this innovation into Nokia Open Innovation Lab to support operators
and enterprises in the region who are embracing Cloud RAN technology."