AWS, HPE demo Orange experimental 5G SA network at MWC

Orange is participating in two demonstrations of its experimental ‘Pikeo’ network project for visitors to the MWC event in Barcelona. The demos will take place at the stands of two partners in the project, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). ‘Pikeo’ is the name given by Orange to its cloud-native mobile private network featuring end-to-end 5G standalone infrastructure. First unveiled in June 2021, the project is currently running in two test locations in France, with a third trial soon starting in a new site in Spain, with group employees.

On the AWS stand, visitors will be shown how the network performs in the distribution of high-quality video, in the contest of sporting event broadcasting, while the HPE stand will host a demonstration of the network’s end-to-end orchestration of 5G slicing.

Orange said its B2B arm, Orange Business, is working on a Mobile Private Network experimental offer, building on the successful implementation of the ‘Pikeo’ trials. It also revealed that customers will be given the choice to have the network deployed in a multi-cloud environment using an AWS Region or a hybrid architecture, where enterprise customers will be able to take advantage of AWS Outposts close to Orange locations. Alternatively, deployment will also be possible on an on-premises Orange Telco Cloud infrastructure, operated by Orange.

The trials carried out so far have highlighted the capabilities of this experimental network, for example in detecting anomalies much fast faster and on an automated basis. Speed of redeployment is another main advantage, said Orange, as the 5G network (core and RAN) can be automatically redeployed in less than one hour, rather than days or weeks. Other benefits already tested include zero-trust security and dynamic end-to-end slice management. Customers will also be able to cut energy consumption, choosing to switch off the network when not in use.