04 October 2021

Cellular system integrator Vilicom has selected US specialist Mavenir to provide a private LTE network based on open RAN architecture for an off-shore wind farm in Scotland.

The project is the first of its kind in the UK, the companies said, combining open RAN in an off-shore private network.

Texas-based Mavenir said its virtualised (software-based) MAVair open RAN platform, working with commoditised radio hardware, will form the basis of a new LTE connectivity platform for sea vessels and workers within the boundaries of the Moray East offshore wind-farm project, off the coast of Scotland.

The Moray East wind farm is projected to deliver approximately 40% of the total electricity demand in Scotland, said Mavenir, powering the equivalent of up to 950,000 homes (out of 2.64 million dwellings in Scotland). This new private LTE network will also allow workers to connect on a regular basis through video calls and emails whilst they are at sea.

Designed with “cloud-native virtualisation techniques”, the MAVair product enables the RAN to flex and adapt based on usage and coverage. Readingbased Vilicom sells indoor and outdoor cellular systems. It claims to serve “some of the biggest (and, indeed, the smallest) technology-driven companies in the world”.

“Private networks are increasingly becoming more prevalent and we look forward to collaborating with Vilicom to develop further such use cases and applications,” Stefano Cantarelli, chief marketing officer at Mavenir, said: “This project highlights the relevance and importance of advanced communications in a real application scenario.”