Nokia Siemens Networks Jumps into the "New RAN Architecture" Pool with Liquid Radio

| Mar 22, 2011 | Mobile Access Infrastructure | Analyst: Daryl Schoolar

Click here

Event Summary

March 21, 2011 – Nokia Siemens Networks announced the launch of its Liquid Radio solution. It is a new RAN architecture for the vendor. The solution has three main elements: baseband pooling using the recently announced Flexi Multiradio 10; a new Flexi Multiradio Antenna System that combines the base station radio and active antennas into a single unit; a single unified management solution for heterogeneous network support across multiple RAN technologies, including WiFi. The company says this solution should be fully commercially available by the end of 2011.

Quick Take

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Very positive on Nokia Siemens Networks’ Liquid Radio networking solution, because it not only gives the vendor a new network architecture that promises better network capacity allocation, greater deployment flexibility, and an active antenna solution, it also leverages existing Flexi Family portfolio elements that will allow commercial availability by the end of 2011. Liquid Radio should not be confused with a small cell solution, something the vendor recently addressed with Flexi Light. At the same time, with the Liquid Radio launch coming so close to ALU’s lightRadio, it runs a risk of being overlooked or being treated as a “me too” event.

• Vendor Importance: High to NSN as Liquid Radio promises a new network architecture style for the vendor; one that gives the vendor a stronger position in heterogeneous network space while it addresses operator concerns with multi-standard support, increased data traffic and ease of network deployment. Leveraging its existing Flexi Family portfolio, promise of seamless beamforming support, and 2011 commercial availability all make Liquid Radio standout from competing solutions. It also gives the vendor a response to Ericsson’s recently announced AIR and ALU’s lightRadio. However, while its SON solution, which is the key component of the network management, is being trialed by T-Mobile in Germany, many other elements of the Liquid Radio solution, such as the Flexi Multiradio 10 still need to be tested by operators..

• Market Impact: High on the wireless infrastructure market as the Liquid Radio announcement not only gives added credibility to ALU’s lightRadio, it also signals a continued migration in the vendor space to this style of architecture solution support. NSN’s announcement puts increased pressure on other major wireless infrastructure vendors to announce their own competing solutions. While it is unrealistic to expect a radical shift in current network deployments to happen overnight, Liquid Radio, along with lightRadio, indicate that over time a network architecture shift will take place.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

| Client access - Full report in Mobile Access Infrastructure | More information

Top

Top