Nokia, global leader in 5G, networks and phones, announces its partnership with Google Cloud to develop new, cloud-based 5G radio solutions. In the aftermath of the partnership, the two companies will collaborate to co-develop solutions combining Nokia’s Radio Access Network (RAN), Open RAN, Cloud RAN (vRAN) and edge cloud technologies, with Google’s edge computing platform and applications ecosystem.

According to the company, the initial phase of collaboration, which is already underway at Nokia’s Espoo headquarters, will pursue a number of different workstreams. The first, which will focus on Cloud RAN, will integrate Nokia’s 5G vDU (virtualized distributed unit) and 5G vCU (virtualized centralized unit) with Google’s edge computing platform, running on Anthos. Nokia’s 5G standalone network with vCU and 5G core will also be tested on Google Cloud Anthos platform as a cloud-native deployment.

Recognizing the performance demands of a 5G network, Nokia will also work to certify its Nokia AirFrame Open Edge hardware with Anthos. Nokia AirFrame Open Edge distributes computing capacity into the edge of the network and drives the implementation of Cloud RAN, Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC), as well as 5G.

Commenting on the occasion, George Nazi, Global VP, Telco, Media & Entertainment Industry Solutions at Google Cloud, said: “In the 5G era, we’re committed to delivering solutions underpinned by world-class engineering that support our customers’ requirements and help them to take advantage of 5G.”

Bikash Koley, VP, Google Global Network and Head of Technology for Telecom Products at Google Cloud, said: “This partnership with Nokia will combine both of our decades of mobile communications expertise to deliver new solutions that help CSPs enable business transformation at the network edge.”

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “We are excited to develop new 5G solutions at the network edge with Google Cloud. Our service provider customers will benefit greatly from this collaboration with more choice and flexibility to efficiently deploy and orchestrate 5G networks. This will ultimately help our customers deliver 5G services on the network edge and having multiple options of cloud-based solutions will pave the way forward.”