VMware and Cohere Technologies are developing an O-RAN solution to help CSPs improve network and spectrum efficiencies and deliver new and differentiated services and experiences for their customers.

The solution will bring together VMware’s RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) Platform and Cohere’s Spectrum Multiplier and Cloud Scheduler xApps.

The RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) is a new function introduced by the O-RAN Alliance that enables CSPs to deploy cloud-native control and management apps in the RAN. Essentially, it virtualizes the RAN Centralized Units (CUs) and Distributed Units (DUs), where complex RAN intelligence was previously embedded.

VMware has designed its RIC platform keeping developer experience at the center and offers a RIC Software Developer Kit (SDK) to any third-party developer to build apps that can be deployed in the RAN. Today most of these apps are geared toward making the network faster, including Cohere’s Spectrum Multiplier xApp.

Cohere’s Spectrum Multiplier and Cloud Scheduler xApps improve spectral efficiency for CSPs by as much as 2x by enabling existing mobile networks to communicate with multiple users simultaneously on the same time and frequency resources. This is achieved by using dynamic and smart pairing as well as precoding techniques.

The result is improved spectral efficiency and network latency that helps CSPs deliver a better user experience and ease capacity bottlenecks when demand is high. It makes their network better equipped to deliver bandwidth-sensitive services like AR/VR streaming, 360/4K videos, and immersive gaming, among others.

The solution is likely to be available by the end of the calendar year.