The top tier mobile network vendors are chasing one another to launch virtualized RAN (vRAN) platforms, with varying degrees of commitment to emerging open RAN specifications. The centralized architectures of the last wave of virtualized ‘Cloud-RAN’ products – which applied to 4G and merely implemented the higher layer network functions in software – are forgotten. Open or not, the new wave of 5G vRANs seek to run some Layer 1 and 2 functions in virtual machines or containers, which means deploying high performance cloud infrastructure close to the cell site, in a virtualized distributed unit (vDU). Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung have all announced major vRAN architectures in the past six months, while Huawei – once an exponent of first generation…