Nokia has introduced a set of new products designed to strengthen its AirScale baseband portfolio and help operators meet growing traffic, performance and sustainability demands.
The lineup includes two next-generation baseband capacity cards, Levante and Lodos, and an ultra-performance baseband control card called Ponente. Built around Nokia’s ReefShark System-on-Chip (SoC) technology, these cards deliver higher throughput, improved energy efficiency and greater scalability for 4G and 5G networks.
Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, commented:
“We are excited to introduce our enhanced portfolio of next-generation Radio Access Network solutions. Our new baseband delivers twice the performance with just half the energy, helping our customers meet their ESG targets.
Enabling ultra-high capacity, our future-ready AirScale baseband portfolio helps manage exponential increases in traffic growth. With our MantaRay solutions portfolio, our customers can leverage the power of artificial intelligence in their mobile networks.
All of these solutions are O-RAN ready, and Cloud RAN compatible, supporting the long-term network evolution to 5G-Advanced and beyond.”
Levante is a 4G/5G capacity card engineered for high-density deployments. It doubles the number of supported Massive MIMO cells compared with previous generations while cutting energy use by up to 60 percent. Its expanded scalability also enables site configurations up to three times larger, allowing operators to densify coverage and capacity without proportional increases in footprint or power.
Lodos complements Levante as a high-performance 4G/5G capacity card that boosts scalability and reduces power consumption by up to 30 percent. It is aimed at sites that require significant capacity increases with efficient energy use.
Ponente is an ultra-performance baseband control card that supports 2G through 5G connectivity and focuses on throughput and energy optimization. The card can deliver up to 100 percent higher throughput capacity to accommodate rapid traffic growth and high-speed site connectivity, while reducing energy use by up to 80 percent. Ponente is designed for a smooth evolution toward 5G Standalone and 5G-Advanced and incorporates Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology to enhance security.
Beyond baseband cards, Nokia has expanded its radio product range with Pandion, a new generation of FDD remote radio heads, and Shikra, a family of compact small cells suitable for both outdoor and indoor deployments. These radios extend Nokia’s offerings for O-RAN and Cloud RAN architectures and support targeted, purpose-built scenarios.
Nokia also launched MantaRay, a comprehensive network management and optimization suite that leverages Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML). The MantaRay portfolio comprises MantaRay Network Management, MantaRay SON (Self-Organizing Networks) and MantaRay RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller), delivering intelligent and automated RAN operations. MantaRay Energy focuses specifically on optimizing radio access network power consumption through AI-driven analysis and automation.
These additions to Nokia’s AirScale baseband and radio portfolios are intended to help mobile operators manage accelerated traffic growth, increase site throughput and reduce operational costs, while supporting long-term network evolution and sustainability targets.
Rémy Pascal, Principal Analyst of Mobile Infrastructure at Omdia, said:
“These new additions to Nokia’s modular AirScale baseband portfolio will help mobile operators manage traffic growth and future-proof their networks by adding capacity and performance where and when it is needed.
Nokia has also significantly raised energy efficiency of the products thanks to new ReefShark baseband SoC and other hardware design improvements helping mobile operators to meet their sustainability commitments.”
Overall, Nokia’s latest product introductions reinforce the company’s focus on innovation, energy efficiency and scalable performance to support operators as they deploy and evolve 4G and 5G networks toward 5G-Advanced and beyond.
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