Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket
By Jason King
Senior Director, Content Strategy Rakuten Symphony
The use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers has been one of the pillars of the Open RAN revolution – delivering lower costs, vendor interoperability and, more recently, energy management.
But the performance of today’s Intel architecture COTS servers for Open RAN didn’t happen by chance. Intel and Rakuten Symphony have been working together since the earliest days of the industry when the technology was referred to as “extensible radio access network” (xRAN).
To explore the impact and future of this long partnership, I hosted a conversation between Raghunath Hariharan, CTO at Rakuten Symphony and Udayan Mukherjee, Senior Fellow and the Chief Architect of Wireless Product at Intel Network and Edge Group.
Here are the highlights of the conversation. I encourage you to watch the video of the conversation for the full context.
The History of the Collaboration
We started the discussion by taking a look at the history of the relationship which started in late 2016 with joint discussions on migrating the RAN from proprietary hardware that used expensive digital signal processors (DSPs) for layer 1 and layer 2 processing, to a more versatile processor-based platform.
“And with each generation of the Intel Xeon processors, we have evolved in adding more features, more functionality, more optimizations and better utilization of the CPU,” said Hariharan.
Tailor made for vRAN
In fact, 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost can be considered the crowning achievement of the collaboration to date. As Udayan put it: “This processor is tailor made for virtual RAN.”
One example of these innovations that make the latest Intel processor family ideal for vRAN can be seen in the evolution of the lookaside acceleration engine required for DU performance. This accelerator offloads compute-heavy channel coding processing from the main CPU. In the first iteration, the companies partnered on an FPGA design, then they used Intel’s structured ASIC innovation called Intel eASIC and now this accelerator is integrated into the Intel vRAN Boost that is part of the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor. With each step in this evolution, the companies are enhancing performance and integration.
Next-gen distributed unit
Much of the work between the companies focuses on the distributed unit (DU). Using Intel technology, Rakuten Symphony has designed the Symware next generation distributed unit platform, evolving from the Symware 1.0 server to Symware 2.0, a next-generation reference design for DU applications. “Symware 2.0 is a product design of a lot of years of innovation working together with Intel to solve a very complicated problem,” Hariharan said.
Symware 2.0 design makes full use of the 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost to deliver the performance needed but with a significant reduction in power, size and cost.
Boosting sustainability
Improving power management in a vRAN network starts with silicon. Intel plays a crucial role in supporting multiple power management states that can reduce the frequency on each compute core in a CPU when max performance is not needed due to reduced or off-peak network traffic levels. Additionally, emerging power management tools, such as advanced telemetry, provide valuable insights into CPU and system resource utilization.
Where to next?
Both executives emphasized the strength of their collaborative relationship, actively looking ahead at technology and standards developments. The companies are looking at new vRAN features for the next generation Intel Xeon-D Processor to bring more integrated functionality and instruction sets to boost the performance of this processor.
The companies are actively working on the next 5G standard - Release 18 from the 3GPP - to see what new functions will be part of the standards. In the marketplace, the Rakuten Symphony and Intel have teamed up for vRAN trials at major operators that are happening around the world.
Both companies also share the belief that the next generation of wireless networks will be driven by automation because networks will require a much larger number of small cell base stations making the complexity manageable only with automation.
The collective effort aims to ensure that advancements in CPU and system design directly benefit COTS platforms, enabling them to provide the required performance and feature set to stay ahead of evolving network demands and changes.
For a deeper dive into our conversation, we encourage you to explore the full session and discover more about our shared vision for the future.
https://symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...rd-open-and-virtualized-networks
Forecast suggests the majority of new cell deployment worldwide will be Open RAN from 2029 onwards.
These headline figures mask varying rates of progression towards full blown deployment among operators, both in terms of which interfaces have been deployed and whether multiple vendors are involved. Migration will not occur as a single decisive step for many operators, but through a series of iterations with only the end game being to deploy the whole stack and open it up to multiple vendors. The great majority of early deployments are or will be single vendor and only embrace some of the interfaces.
By 2030 a majority of Open RAN cells will only have deployed some of the possible interfaces. This underlines the technology as a direction of travel for operators, rather than a single jump, whether it is being deployed in a greenfield situation for a new network, as part of the 5G build out for legacy operators, or during migration of existing cells says the report, which breaks down the various Open RAN interface combinations is discussed, as well as divisions by frequency, active antenna types, 4G versus 5G, along with numbers of FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex).
Early adopters have been mostly greenfield sites, irrespective of geography. It is true that Japan has led the field, but that is because one of its major operators, Rakuten Mobile, has been building its 5G network from scratch. This in turn galvanized the country’s number one MNO, DoCoMo, but at least partly because this happened by happy coincidence to fit into its business cycle.
Elsewhere, Dish Network in the USA is also a strong early adopter largely because it is also building a new 5G network. In such cases risks associated with early Open RAN adoption are less, with no legacy to accommodate.
https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/...uipment-market-forecast-2023-2030/
Published: 27 Sep 2023
https://facts.net/science/technology/...cinating-facts-about-rakuten/
https://movableink-marketing.s3.amazonaws.com/...-Viki-Case-Study.pdf
PayPay, Rakuten Pay, d-pay, and au PAY can be used at McDonald's in-store and drive-through!
Previously available only for "Mobile Order" and "McDelivery Service", "d-pay", "Rakuten Pay", "PayPay" and "au PAY" will now be available for payment at in-store cash registers and drive-through.
From now on, customers at McDonald's restaurants will be able to earn and spend "d-points" by paying with "d-payment" and "Rakuten Points" by paying with "Rakuten Pay". In addition, a special redemption campaign for those who use "d-payment" and "Rakuten Pay" at McDonald's stores is scheduled to start on October 18.
The handling of "d-points" and "Rakuten Points" services (to save and spend by presenting point cards and point apps) at McDonald's stores nationwide will end on January 14, 2024.
https://entabe.com/55632/...pay-are-now-available-at-mcdonalds-stores
Tokyo, Oct. 3 Rakuten Mobile Inc. is expected to be allocated new 700-megahertz frequency slots in the so-called platinum band as it was the only company to file an application to the Japanese communications ministry.
The Radio Regulatory Council, an advisory panel to the communications minister, will discuss the application starting on Oct. 23.
The ministry will grant approval swiftly once the panel gives the go-ahead, communications minister Junji Suzuki said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Rakuten Mobile plans to launch platinum band wireless services sometime between late this year and early next year.
https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2023100300382/...equency-slots.html
3.10.2023, 05:31:14
Highlights: Rakuten Mobile has applied for a new allocation of radio wave bands called the platinum band. The platinum band is a frequency band for mobile phones that is easy to reach indoors and underground. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will review the contents of the base station development plan and future funding plan submitted along with the application and decide whether to allocate it. Only one company applied, and the Ministry will review its plans and decide if it should be allocated. The band has not been used until now to prevent interference of radio waves to terrestrial digital broadcasting.
At a press conference after the Cabinet meeting on March 3, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Suzuki clarified that Rakuten Mobile had applied for the application, stating, "We will conduct fair and appropriate examinations of applications based on the screening criteria, in Only one company applied, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will review the contents of the base station development plan and future funding plan submitted along with the application and decide whether to allocate it.
As the mobile phone business continues to lose money, the company hopes to improve the quality of communications and increase subscribers by acquiring the platinum band, which is already used by the other three major mobile phone companies.cluding area development, safety and reliability of facilities, and ensuring finances."
https://www.tellerreport.com/business/...latinum-band.BkrqZsWFe6.html
Published: Sept. 25, 2023 at 9:24 a.m. ET
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/...ut%2520the%2520expenses.
What is the revenue of Cabify?
Cabify, an international multi-mobility company, ended 2022 with results 32% higher than in 2021 globally, reaching €626 million in terms of gross revenue.
The company currently has over 42 million registered users and 1.2 million drivers across eight markets that include cities in Spain such as Madrid and Barcelona as well as cities in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.
https://www.google.de/...QIRgVwgIHECEYoAEYCg&sclient=gws-wiz#ip=1
SEPTEMBER 29, 2023
Rakuten Ichiba is currently promoting the vitalization of different industries in order to achieve its domestic e-commerce GMS (gross merchandise sales) target of 10 trillion yen by 2030. This time we take a look at two new strategies Rakuten Ichiba is using in the outdoor/DIY industry: promoting e-commerce transition and offering branding support.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eAvPnnWPgM
SHOKO SAIKI, Nikkei staff writer October 4, 2023 06:43 JST
TOKYO -- Rakuten Group's mobile communications unit is a step closer to accessing high-frequency bands that it hopes will improve service as it seeks to generate cash on years of network investments.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced Tuesday that it had received a request for band allocation from Rakuten Mobile. A decision is expected as early as Oct. 23.
Access to so-called platinum spectrum in the 700 Mhz-to-900 MHz range has long been a goal for Rakuten. These frequencies allow improved mobile service, especially inside buildings, and Rakuten is the only one of Japan's four major wireless carriers to not have access.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/...-bands-for-struggling-mobile-unit
"Meanwhile, Rakuten faces a rise in bond payments ahead -- 78 billion yen in 2023, followed by a jump to 300 billion yen in 2024 and 400 billion yen in 2025.
To shore up its capital, Rakuten raised 300 billion yen in May by issuing new shares and making a private placement of stock to investors including billionaire Chairman and President Hiroshi Mikitani's asset management company. It also aims to cut capital spending by about 300 billion yen from 2023 to 2025 thanks to the new roaming agreement with KDDI."
300 Billionen Yen hat man sich allein schon in diesem Jahr aus der Kapitalerhöhung beschafft. Und Unternehmen tilgen fällige Anleihen üblicherweise überwiegend durch die Ausgabe von neuen Anleihen - denn man fährt ja bei der Fälligkeit von Anleihen durch deren komplette Tilgung den Eigenkapital nicht auf 100% hoch.
Rakuten Mobile has expressed its intent to initiate services over the platinum band (900 MHz) from March 2024. The deployment of services in the 900 MHz band will be achieved at an extremely low cost, according to Rakuten’s Chief Executive Officer, Tareq Amin. He informed investors during a conference call that the deployment could be done by utilizing and reusing their existing base stations and all existing infrastructure, which would significantly reduce capital expenditure (capex).
https://bnn.network/world/vietnam/...20Officer%2C%2520Tareq%2520Amin.
05 Oct 2023 00:30
Oshadhi has highlighted this Insight as a Top Pick
https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/...-be-churning-profits-next-year
October 04, 2023, 17:29 GMT
The global mobile VOIP market was valued at USD 49.2 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach USD 327.5 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 21.1% from 2022 to 2031.
The key players profiled in the mobile VoIP market analysis are Cisco Systems, Inc, Microsoft Corporation, Citrix System, Inc, Rakuten, Facebook, Inc, Zoom Video Communications, Inc, Ribbon Communications Operating Company, Inc, 8x8, Inc, 3Cx, Mitel Networks Corp, Jive Software.
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/659664190/...h-as-8x8-3cx-and-rakuten
The future of the RAN is open. An open RAN is more than Open RAN, and benefits all operators and the entire RAN ecosystem, even those who are still on the sidelines. Openness in the RAN starts with open interfaces and disaggregation but goes beyond this.
An open RAN has to be an energy-efficient RAN.
Energy efficiency has become a key requirement for new RAN deployments. Opening the RAN cannot be done by sacrificing sustainability. On the contrary, energy efficiency has to continue to improve as the RAN becomes more automated, disaggregated and virtualized. We looked at energy efficiency in Open RAN in the context of wireless networks in the report “Energy efficiency in wireless: RAN and beyond” on how sustainability is an opportunity to decrease costs without compromising network performance. See also “Is Open RAN more energy efficient than traditional RAN?”, “Energy efficiency in 6G”, and “Will Open RAN increase power efficiency in the RAN?” a Sparring Partners with Deutsche Telekom
Open RAN needs a new ecosystem. It is here.
Read our Deep Dive report “The Open RAN ecosystem gathers steam. The future RAN is open” where we tried to address many of the outstanding questions, with the help of eleven vendors and operators: NEC, Vodafone, Ciena, Analog, Fujitsu, Rakuten Symphony, Picocom, Dish, Verizon, TIP, and Radisys. You can get the report for free, and read or watch the conversations here.
Is there a business model?
We also looked at the topology and deployment options that optimize the TCO. There is no single path to Open RAN. How can operators pick the one that optimizes their TCO? Each operator has different spectrum assets, demand distribution, transport and site costs, and technology strategies, and these are crucial factors in choosing the path to Open RAN that leads to the largest cost savings.
We built a detailed TCO model to explore different scenarios that mobile operators may face and published two papers to present some of our analysis.
The first paper, “Which Open RAN is best for you? TCO tradeoffs: transport versus location”, looks at the impact of transport costs in choosing the RAN topology. Should an operator put the DU at the cell site, in a data center at the edge, or in a centralized location with the CU? If the operator has high transport costs, it is more cost effective to deploy the DU at the cell site. As transport costs go down, a centralized DU becomes the best option.
In the second paper, “What’s the best way to get to Open RAN? Optimizing pooling gains can reduce TCO by up to 42%”, we went one step further to see how operators facing different transport costs can maximize pooling gains for different 5G cell profiles. There are pooling gains for operators that deploy DUs at the cell site, and for those that co-locate DUs and CUs in remote data centers, but they come from different sources.
https://senzafili.com/open-ran/
Oct 5, 2023 16:10 (JST)
Mizuho Securities Co. and Rakuten Securities Inc. said Thursday that they will establish a joint venture to offer financial instrument intermediary services.
Mizuho Securities employees with experiences in sales will be sent on loan to the new company, slated to start operations in spring 2024, to offer asset management consultations to individual customers of Rakuten Securities, which has more than nine million accounts.
The joint company will be owned 95 pct by Mizuho Securities and 5 pct by Rakuten Securities.
They aim to meet the needs of individual investors on the back of the growing popularity of the Nippon Individual Savings Account, or NISA, tax-exempt small-lot investment scheme.
https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2023100500520/
September 19, 2023
Not all telcos have started the evolution towards cloud native. Some are still debating why it is needed. To help encourage an industry-wide adoption of cloud native, this panel looks at the key steps required to create and implement a cloud-native approach for telcos. We start with defining the vision, then move on to the creation and implementation of roadmaps, before discussing the all-important task of enabling an ecosystem of partners to take this work to commercialisation. The panel also considers whether an ‘all-in’ approach is best, or if it is better to start with a small ‘internalised’ deployment before scaling out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auTCM1ICuAo&t=146s
September 19, 2023
A beacon of innovation, Rakuten Symphony Deutschland is a global team creating the technologies behind a first-of-its-kind mobile network in Germany. Discover our story and learn how you too could do something that will leave a lasting impression on your career and the way people connect, forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r6wXTnMxyk
Soompi, a division of Viki Inc., is the world’s largest and longest-running English online media providing complete coverage of Korean pop culture. Founded in 1998, Soompi has become the ultimate authority for all the latest news on Korean celebrities, music, TV shows, movies, and style, as well as a respected organization that works closely with major Korean entertainment agencies to bring you exclusive content. Soompi boasts a dedicated user base from 150 different countries. Site traffic is spread out among our comprehensive forums and news site. Soompi reports everything awesome and important going on in the world of Korean entertainment, in a way that’s lively, engaging, positive, respectful, and timely.
In August 2015, Soompi was acquired by Viki, Inc., the leading streaming video service for global TV.
OUR STORY
Soompi’s legacy began in 1998 when a lonely fan created a Korean pop music fan site from her home in Los Angeles. As a fan of a famous boy band called H.O.T., “Soomp” initially started her site with the goal of providing a place where she and her American friends could share their love for H.O.T. and their counterparts. However, Soompi quickly gained traction and has grown into one of the most distinct brands in the Korean pop culture fan world. Offices are in San Francisco and Seoul. The editorial team now consists of editors and contributors from around the world, as it continues to grow in size and influence in the Korean entertainment industry.
https://www.soompi.com/about
According to industry estimates the Affiliate Software Platform market growth is projected to expand between 7.9% CAGR during the 2023 to 2029 assessment period.
Top Key Players Profiled in this report are: Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, Rakuten Advertising, Awin, Shopify, CJ Affiliate, Bluehost, WPEngine, Tradedoubler, Admitad, Everflow, ClickBank, Leadpages, Refersion, Post Affiliate Pro, Tapfiliate and others.
https://www.seedance.com/...-amazon-alibaba-ebay-rakuten-advertising/