With vRAN becoming a reality, CSPs now have the most cost-effective solution for 5G deployment: Sanjay Bakaya, RVP, Mavenir

Mavenir, the company that provides end-to-end software solutions for Communication Service Providers (CSPs), is focused on delivering technologies that can put an end to the rule of Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia in the mobile market. Mavenir is pushing the kind of open and virtualized technologies that might appeal to a new entrant without old networks to maintain.

With an absolute focus  on India, Mavenir has planned, in the next 12 to 18 months, to be one of the most preferred partners of operators for the transformation of network infrastructure economics. Voice&Data interacted with Sanjay Bakaya, Regional Vice President, India and South Asia, Mavenir to understand more about the company’s network infrastructure economics that it has planned for Indian CSPs.

Sanjay Bakaya is currently spearheading Mavenir’s strategic plan to enhance the efforts on localization to enable the growth of the Indian telecom industry in both software and manufacturing. Mavenir’s India center at Bangalore acts as a global hub for R&D and the company is constantly working on cost-effective solutions that can be delivered to its network operator clients.

Strategy for the Indian market

While the Indian market, post-consolidation, has resulted in 3-4 global mega-carriers, the data growth in India over the last 18 months has catapulted the country to one of the highest mobile data consumption markets in the world. Understanding the operators’ current situation, Sanjay Bakaya, begins the interaction with an opinion saying, “Low ARPUs despite large volume base is putting pressure on the operator’s bottom lines since the last 6-8 quarters. Market disruption has happened and operators need to move even faster by unshackling past engagement and procurement norms to lower their TCO to stay competitive and relevant. Legacy technology and partnerships may not be able to break the ice and bold decision making by CXOs are required.”

Mavenir has clearly drafted a ‘Go-to-Market’ strategy that is out to transform the mobile network economics of operators in India

In this backdrop, Bakaya says that Mavenir has clearly drafted a ‘Go-to-Market’ strategy that is out to transform the mobile network economics of operators in India through cost reduction, revenue protection, and revenue generation opportunities.

In a situation where operators are giving a big push to enterprise business, Bakaya says that Mavenir is helping them increase their ARPU through Rich Business Messaging (RBM), NBIOT, AR, VR, Security, and many other related applications. Bakaya indicates that Mavenir has designed a comprehensive end-to-end solution for 4G & 5G in voice and date core, messaging and open RAN solutions.

“Mavenir's system is 100% virtualized software-based offering. These offerings enable disaggregation of hardware and software leading to unparalleled cost economics redefining network cost per Gbps,” stresses Bakaya.

The two-stage approach to digital transformation

Digital transformation has become a pre-requisite to succeed in the new world order where data is the new currency. The transformation encompasses the entire value chain from end customer experience to the internal organization fulfillment processes. Mavenir here, says Bakaya, has enabled end-to-end 100% open platform for hardware and virtualized software solution for network Infrastructure to Indian telecom operators.

Mavenir here, says Bakaya, has enabled end-to-end 100% open platform for hardware and virtualized software solution for network Infrastructure to Indian telecom operators.

Explaining further, Bakaya, says, “Indian Communication Service providers have already commenced Digital Transformation across their operations in IT & Networks domain. This transformation approach is potentially of two stages. The digital transformation towards the end consumer experience & connect points is the first step. This journey aims to have a seamless digital experience for subscribers for their services needs across multiple offerings of mobile services, DTH, Fixed & Broadband Services. OSS, BSS & analytics platforms play a significant role in realizing various aspects of this first step.”

“The second step, which typically also goes in parallel, involves the transformation of network & fulfillment of subscriber demands. Software-Defined Networking, elastic capacity with scale-in & scale-out and software-centric virtualized solutions are key building blocks for this step,” guides Bakaya.

5G-ready virtualized solution to aid quick roll-out in India

There are no doubts that 5G means higher bandwidth, lower latency, and more network capacity. It also means a considerable increase in capital expenditure, which in the current business landscape seems challenging. This economics is unlikely to be viable for most of the mobile operators, particularly when current levels of capital expenditure are already constraining profitability and holding operators back from participating in new service revenues. Mavenir has worked out the economics for network operators and are aware of technologies that renders cost effective 5G deployment opportunities.

The good news for the operators is that Virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) is now a reality and is ready to generate opportunities for the network operators to have more offerings at a lower cost. 

“Network economics clearly needs to change. At the heart of this shift are software-based technologies for end-to-end network virtualization. In today’s mobile networks, the core was the first to be virtualized and enable cost-savings, but the more expensive layer, the Radio Access Network (RAN), is still using traditional proprietary technology. The good news for the operators is that Virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) is now a reality and is ready to generate opportunities for the network operators to have more offerings at a lower cost,” explains Bakaya.

Bakaya clearly expresses that there is no 5G without end-to-end virtualization because new capabilities like network-slicing are simply not possible. The 5G architecture will need processing to be distributed and for capabilities to be deployed close to users at the edge. The shift to containerization is fundamental in evolving from virtualization to Network Function Virtualization (NFV) infrastructure and finally to web-scale agility, enabling major differentiation in the market, as well as lowering operational costs through automation and orchestration.

Mavenir has virtualized core network and RAN functions on open-interfaces and standard hardware platforms to bring solutions to the market that meet the 5G standard and provide real options for operators.

“Mavenir has virtualized core network and RAN functions on open-interfaces and standard hardware platforms to bring solutions to the market that meet the 5G standard and provide real options for operators. The company is embracing mobile edge computing to enable the ability to scale in the 5G era and provides all the capabilities at the same cost as operators currently pay. This means they can avoid the legacy pricing traditional equipment providers try to protect and instead utilize a more transparent license system. As an end-to-end network software provider, Mavenir integrates the whole components, guaranteeing the solution works and performs as it should,” says Bakaya.

Bakaya also revealed that Mavenir has developed a total cost of ownership model which demonstrates that vRANs will save operators approximately 30 percent in deployment and operational costs over a five-year period. These savings will allow mobile operators to not only embrace the 5G network but to turn it into an engine of growth for their business, while still leveraging the 4G network.