AfricaCom 2015: Nokia Networks shows the components for building 5G

At the 18th annual AfricaCom exhibition and conference holding November 17 - 19 in Cape Town, South Africa, Nokia Networks is showcasing innovations in data centers and telco cloud, LTE-Advanced, Self Organizing Networks (SON) and public safety. These fundamental building blocks will enable operators worldwide to evolve to 5G, while also improving the efficiency of today's network technologies.

Aji Ed, Head of Technology, Middle East and Africa, Nokia Networks, said: "We are closely working with operators in Africa to boost the continent's ever-growing communications networks so its people can enjoy the latest traffic-intense applications. Our solutions and services help operators provide secure, reliable mobile broadband connectivity with better coverage and higher speed. In addition, Nokia Networks' innovative technology and services capabilities enable operators to implement a comprehensive telco cloud architecture in an efficient, smooth way so they can reap the benefits of added scalability, flexibility and business agility."

The new Nokia AirFrame Data Center Solution provides an open platform for merging telco, IT and IoT applications. An industry-first, it combines IT best practice with the stringent needs of the telco domain, using centralized and distributed resources capabilities to deliver telco networking and service delivery, including 5G. The demo at AfricaCom shows how high-performance Nokia AirFrame Cloud Servers and Switches are interworking to help operators run demanding Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) in the most efficient way.

With Nokia cloud-based radio, processing capacity is allocated from almost anywhere in the network to where it is needed most for coordination and capacity. Its multi-layer architecture supports distributed and centralized deployments using multiple fronthaul types. Thus, it uses an operator's existing radio access and transport asset more efficiently, avoiding incremental costs to build new infrastructure. In the scope of the architecture demo, LTE and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) capabilities are running as VNFs on Nokia AirFrame servers, using Ethernet fronthaul.


Nokia's LTE-Advanced 4X4 MIMO technology doubles download speeds using four transmit and four receive antennas for communication between a mobile device and the base station. The demo shows how operators can use LTE-Advanced capabilities with 4x4 MIMO in a scaled approach to meet future traffic demands with hundreds of thousands of data applications sharing the same network, each with its own requirements. As part of the demo, 600 Mbps peak downlink data transmission rates are being achieved using only 40 MHz of spectrum.

Due to its best-in-class SON capabilities, the Nokia Eden-NET solution provides automated optimization of heterogenous networks in a multivendor environment. The Nokia Eden-NET demo shows how operators can use the industry's largest toolbox of SON modules to customize existing and create new SON modules for their specific needs. Nokia Eden-NET's main functionalities such as configuring the execution of SON modules and running a module as being demonstrated at the show.

Nokia LTE Network in a Box can provide complete LTE network coverage in minutes thus enabling reliable LTE-based public safety communications in areas without cellular network coverage. Nokia Networks is showing the compact and rapidly deployable miniature LTE network with integrated IP connectivity and communication services.