TechSmart Business News sponsored by the Huawei Global Developer Programme

South African mobile data network operator, rain has launched its intelligent 5G transport network in partnership with Huawei. Transport networks can be thought of as the "neural networks" that connect core networks to services.

rain’s CTO Gustav Schoeman says, "With Huawei’s E2E solutions and new products, our first 5G users can experience 5G ultra-high speed broadband service at home. Rain will further strengthen its partnership with Huawei in 5G network innovation and practice to offer a top service experience to users."

In terms of 5G transport network construction, Huawei’s embraces the concepts of "ultra-broadband network", "intelligent connectivity", and "committed high availability". The NetEngine 8000 M series intelligent metro routers provide high-density 10GE-to-site access and 100GE uplink, accommodating demands for rapid traffic growth. The fabric architecture achieves a large capacity and congestion-free forwarding. The Optical solution uses Huawei's 200G+OXC solution based on OSN 9800 equipment, providing 16T per fiber huge bandwidth with lower cost of per bit, reducing optical-layer commissioning time by 80% because of fiber connection free, while also saving footprint and power consumption usage by 50% per site. Huawei Network Cloud Engine (NCE) also enables service automation and intelligent O&M on this network. The E2E IP network with optimal optical foundation and intelligent NCE helps to build the low-latency and superior-experience 5G transport network.

"With both parties dedicated to constructing highly efficient, stable, reliable, intelligent, and trusted 5G transport networks, the partnership between rain and Huawei is aimed at offering more optimal digitised services to the South African market," says Leo, CTO of Huawei Network Marketing and Solution Sales Dept.

Drawing on the Huawei’s 5G end-to-end solution, rain’s 5G network deployment in Phase 1 will cover the major regions of Johannesburg and Pretoria. It will be expanded to cover all major cities and towns in South Africa and provide supreme ultra-broadband services for homes and enterprises.