Nokia has announced that it will launch an Open Innovation lab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Particularly, it aims to drive regional innovation and accelerate the adoption of new technologies. These include AI/ML for network automation and optimization in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.

The initiative will also increase the regional focus of Nokia’s established global strategic collaborations with Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

Focus Areas

Primarily, the lab will focus on three important areas that will benefit operators and enterprises. First, it aims to drive further innovation in the Cloud RAN space with Nokia’s technology partners, such as Dell and HPE, as well as working with market-leading hyperscalers and other ecosystem players.

Accordingly, the Nokia anyRAN approach helps evolve Cloud RAN towards a solution, which will work alongside purpose-built RAN with feature performance consistency. This approach brings flexibility of choice of technology suppliers and operating environments, meeting the expectations of operators and enterprises for openness and efficiency.

The second area of focus will be on private wireless and industrial networks. The lab will showcase innovative Industry 4.0 use cases and industrial edge applications on Nokia’s market-leading MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) platform to help enterprises accelerate their transition to Industry 4.0 in the region.

The third area of focus will be on network intelligence. Nokia aims to accelerate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions for network automation and optimization. The Nokia MantaRay solution portfolio for intelligent network management and automation will be showcased and used in this lab.

Opportunities for Network Automation

Mikko Lavanti, Senior Vice President, Mobile Networks at Nokia, MEA, said: “Our Open Innovation Lab in MEA reaffirms our commitment to drive innovation with our partners in key future technology areas, including Dell and HPE. This collaboration will accelerate the adoption of new technologies in our region. Moreover, we can help both operators and enterprises enhance network efficiency and performance as well as unlock new monetization opportunities.”

Meanwhile, Tibor Fabry-Asztalos, Senior Vice President, Product Development Engineering, Telecom Systems Business, Dell Technologies, said: “The future of the telecommunications industry is open, backed by an ecosystem of partners collaborating to help network operators digitally transform and quickly bring innovative and revenue-generating solutions to market. Thus, Nokia’s Cloud RAN capabilities, combined with Dell’s cloud-native infrastructure and software in the new Open Innovation Lab, will accelerate the adoption and performance of open network architectures and create new opportunities for network automation and efficiency.”

In addition, Anna Granö, VP, Sales, Northern Western Europe for Top Accounts, Partner Ecosystem and Business Development, HPE, said: “By combining our strengths, we are able to offer a comprehensive and robust Cloud RAN solution that drives efficiency, performance, openness, and scale.”