By all accounts, 5G is off to a great start in 2021. Adoption has accelerated four times faster than previous LTE technology, resulting in 229 million 5G subscriptions worldwide as of December 2020. Yet even as users embrace the promise of 5G, the increasing complexity and cost of ownership involved in next-generation radio access network (RAN) deployments is vexing network operators.
In today’s mobile network, the RAN represents about 70% of the total infrastructure investment — a considerable amount. Virtualization of the network and its functions were considered to be a key strategy to reduce total cost of ownership for operators.
