Airspan Networks Holdings Inc. announced plans to expand its 5G Innovation Lab initiative in Tokyo to accommodate accelerating network adoption and scaling in the Asia-Pacific region. Airspan Japan's Tokyo office will spearhead the effort to meet growing demand for critical interoperability testing and integration simplicity in public and private networks as technology continue to reach new 5G use cases. The Japan Innovation Lab is expected to represent a stepping-stone expansion from the original UK Innovation Lab, sharing many of the same goals.

It will host several Open RAN architectures, showcasing the modularization flexibility of Airspan's portfolio, from fully-disaggregated software in a split 7.2 format to a software-embedded All-In-One RAN platform. A key driver of this lab is to simplify integration with the rest of the ecosystem by inviting partners with 5G Cores, COTS Servers, UE/CPE/IOT devices, virtual platforms, Hyperscalers, and more.