Analog Devices (ADI) is moving to accelerate developers' time-to-market by providing integrated wireless solutions encompassing optical fronthaul to RF.

Analog Devices (ADI) today announced the launch of a fully integrated open radio unit (O-RU) reference design platform designed to help wireless system developers reduce design risk and accelerate time to market.

The platform is a fully integrated solution covering optical fronthaul to RF, supporting custom designs for hardware and software of macro and small cell radio units (RUs).

The platform leverages industry-leading technologies that drive advanced 4G and 5G RU requirements, supporting all sub-6GHz bands and a variety of power variations and multi-band applications.

As O-RU development cycles become shorter and carrier requirements become more demanding and complex, RU developer resources are becoming scarce. This complete RU solution, which integrates extensive additional resources, allows designers to focus more on innovation, enabling companies to compete for more RU design opportunities.

The ADRV904x-RD O-RU reference design platform integrates ADI's fifth-generation 8T8R RadioVerse® SoC, which includes an advanced digital front end including proven digital pre-distortion (DPD).

ADI's fully featured commercial O-RAN 7.2a IP stack is hosted on Intel's Agilex 7 F-Series FPGAs, delivering exceptional performance per watt. The platform was tested with Radisys® Layer 2/3 software running on Intel FlexRan server hardware, assuming an 8T8R macro-cell application.

“Advanced radio unit (RU) designs require significant design resources to complete,” said Joe Barry, vice president of marketing, systems and technology for ADI’s Communications and Cloud business. “ADI is working with Intel and Radisys to enable a robust O-RAN ecosystem by providing a complete RU design platform with proven interoperability. We are excited to work with Intel and Radisys to accelerate the realization of the potential of O-RAN.”

“In the wireless market, customers need the ability to build cutting-edge systems that meet today’s dynamic standards,” said Mike Fitton, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Networks Business Unit. “ADI’s ADRV904x-RD O-RU complements Intel’s high-performance Agilex 7 F-Series FPGAs to help achieve this goal.” “Intel’s extensive semiconductor portfolio, combined with ADI’s fifth-generation 8T8R RadioVerse SoC (including DFE), enables customers to implement a broad set of applications with differentiated feature sets,” he said.

“We are pleased to continue our collaboration with Intel and ADI to deliver their award-winning, Release 17-compliant Connect RAN 5G software,” said Munish Chhabra, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Software and Services at Radisys. “The ease of integration and high performance of this advanced open radio design will be instrumental in unlocking the potential of O-RAN.”

For more information, please visit ADI's O-RU wireless platform webpage. This interoperability-proven platform, featuring fully functional end-to-end calling capabilities, will be on display at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in the ADI booth (Hall 2, 2B18).