Dell has announced a new partnership with Marvell to offer advanced telecommunication hardware designed for open radio access networks (Open RAN) in 5G deployments. The solution combines an x86-based Dell PowerEdge server with an inline Layer 1 5G processing card powered by Marvell's OCTEON Fusion chipset. This PCIe accelerator card can also be used with other x86 servers, giving telecom companies greater flexibility in their 5G infrastructure.

The collaboration comes as Open RAN continues to gain traction worldwide, especially across European and Asia-Pacific telecom markets. Industry forecasts predict that Open RAN will account for about 15% of the global 2G-5G radio access network market by 2026. RAN technology connects user devices to core telecom networks, and Open RAN architectures allow carriers to mix-and-match various software and hardware components, increasing their options while potentially reducing costs.

The inclusion of Marvell’s accelerator card boosts the performance of Dell’s PowerEdge server by handling Layer 1 processing directly on the chipset, freeing up CPU resources for virtualized network functions. These functions can run on various software platforms from Dell’s partners, such as Red Hat, VMware, and Wind River.

This announcement follows similar industry moves, with other technology providers also integrating advanced accelerator cards into their hardware to support Open RAN. Dell also unveiled software modules for its Bare Metal Orchestrator management platform, enabling telecom operators to deploy and manage their 5G software stacks across numerous locations more efficiently.

While Asian and European communications service providers have moved faster in deploying Open RAN, U.S. adoption is expected to rise, especially in new 5G networks. Companies like Dish Network are leading the way in building Open RAN-based systems from scratch, aiming to offer enterprises private 5G services, software-defined WAN, and edge computing platforms with reduced latency.