About us

Rapid.Space

Rapid.Space is the brainchild of Jean-Paul Smets from Nexedi, one of the inventors of edge computing and Franck Spinelli from Amarisoft, a global leader for software-defined radio signal processing for 4G/5G networks. With Rapid.Space, both companies joined forces to build a cloud solution provider, that focusses on transparency, reversibility and openess. In 2020, Rapid.Space won the virtualized radio access network (vRAN) category in the Telekom Infra Project (TIP) and joined the TEAC Germany acceleration center after also receiving Deep Tech financing from the French BPI. Since then, Rapid.Space has been active on many fronts: the company is member of the EANGTI, the association to foster innovation the European telecom space as well the Open Compute Project. Rapid.Space contributes to define SimpleRAN - an open initiative to simplify the deployment of carrier-grade 4G/5G networks based on transparent standards for virtal radio access networks (vRAN). And as first day member of Gaia-X, Rapid.Space and founding member of Euclidia, the company is both very attentive towards and pushing for competitive markets on national, european and global level.

Fully Open Cloud

The key concept behind Rapid.Space cloud solution is "Fully Open" - using open source software, open hardware and open process. Open processes refer to all aspects related to cloud operation management that turn a cloud software into an actual cloud service. Building on the four freedoms of Free Software and the principles behind open hardware, open service ensures that the way a cloud service is operated and provided to the client is open and transparent. In combination, Rapid.Space provides a completely different cloud model - one that is transparent, reversiable and replicable.

Open Radio System and SimpleRAN

The same approach applies to the open radio systems, Rapid.Space is offering telecom providers an open solution and series of standards that ensure interoperability and transparency in the vRAN ecosystem. SimpleRAN promotes a practical approach aiming to accelerate commercial deployments while remaining compatible with legacy infrastructure. It aims to detangle signal processing from hardware and offer telecom providers a pathway to escape hardware vendor lock-in as equipment is updated from one generation to the next (4G to 5G to 6G). Through real separation of signal processing from underlying hardware, SimpleRan is much simpler than OpenRan (more information) and Rapid.Space is gaining ground with first phone operators are beginning to look into vRAN with help from Rapid.Space (more information).

Who is behind Rapid.Space?

Founders

Jean-Paul Smets  
Jean-Paul Smets, CEO Nexedi Franck Spinelli, CEO Amarisoft

Team China

Weiwei Zha Ni Yan Xiaowu Zhang Lu Xu Xiaowu Zhang
Weiwei Zha Ni Yan Xiaowu Zhang Lu Xu Boxiang Sun

Team International

Thomas Gambier Rafael Monterrat Klaus Wölfel Yusei Tahara Cedric Leninivin
Thomas Gambier Rafael Monerrat Klaus Wölfel Yusei Takara Cedric Leninivin

 

Partners

Rapid.Space data center partners in China are:

  • Mitac Computer MITAC (Shunde, Taipei)
  • Yudeng Technology EdgeCore (Shanghai, Taipei)
  • Grandenet (Shanghai)
  • Yixu Network Technology (Shanghai)
  • China Telecom
  • China Unicom