Earlier this week, Qualcomm announced new chipsets for Virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) and open networks, adding to its existing small cell chipset product line (Qualcomm 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) for small cells). Specifically, the announcement focused on the following domains:
- The Qualcomm Distributed Unit (QDU) consists of a baseband processor with integrated concurrent <6 Gigahertz (GHz) and mmWave support.
- The Qualcomm Radio Unit (QRU) is a System on Chip (SoC) that combines low physical layer processing with a Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver chain, RF Front End (RFFE), and antennas.
- The Qualcomm Distributed Radio Unit (QDRU) is a combination of the above chipsets for more compact use cases.
