Nokia opened the first of several planned testing and collaboration centres focused on open RAN, as the vendor continues to try carve out a leading role in the development of the network architecture.

The company’s first centre is in an existing complex in the US city of Dallas, with the Finnish vendor expecting to eventually open similar resources in other global offices.

Its US centre is intended to support development of partnerships with other open RAN vendors, providing facilities to validate interoperability between equipment from different sources and end-to-end testing.

“The project is the latest in Nokia’s continued commitment to open RAN, vRAN, and Edge Cloud innovation,” the company stated. It noted the facility would provide a “collaborative, open, and impartial working environment to perform tests”.

In the short term, the focus will be on validation around fronthaul interfaces and testing with Nokia’s near real-time RAN Intelligent Controller. It plans to eventually extend the remit of the centre to other related interfaces.

Nokia was initially the traditional network vendor most vocal on the prospects of open RAN and its role in the ecosystem, an outlook which its executives have been increasingly bullish on as it continues to execute a broader turnaround plan.

However, long-time rival Ericsson has also made a number of moves in the last 12 months in a bid to cement its place in the open networking ecosystem.