The industry showed widespread consensus concerning the benefits of open radio access networks (ORAN), and agreement on steps the FCC can take on policy, according to Reply Comments filed by the Open RAN Policy Coalition in the Commission’s Notice of Inquiry (NOI) “Promoting the Deployment of 5G Open Radio Access Networks.”
The NOI examines the potential of open and virtualized RAN in securing America’s communications supply chain and driving 5G innovation, according to the Federal Register. Specifically, through the NOI, the FCC is looking for input on if it should implement policy to accelerate the development, deployment, testing or integration of ORAN, among other items.
The O-RAN Alliance has published specifications for Open Fronthaul, which defines the interface between the Radio Unit and the Distributed Unit and provides a standard mechanism for interoperability at the seam between open and proprietary parts of the network.
“Commenters describe active and diverse engagement in industry organizations that are driving standardization, testing, and other real-world advancement toward open and interoperable interfaces in the RAN,” the Coalition wrote.
A diverse set of organizations described the technical progress and initial deployments in recent years in the Open RAN market. Nokia, the first major global RAN vendor to join the Open RAN Policy Coalition, said it has been driving the development and technical specifications of the Open Fronthaul Interface and the near-real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), which it said will help automate and optimize the network, according to the OEM’s website.
Nokia and AT&T are jointly creating a RIC software platform, according to Nokia, and have run successful trials with external applications, called “xApps,” at the edge of the CSP’s [communications service provider’s] live 5G mmWave network on an Akraino-based Open Cloud Platform.
“RIC is a new optional virtualized 5G optimization technology that adds programmability to an existing or new RAN and allows SON-like (Self-Optimizing Networks) capabilities to be added,” the firm said.
Dell Technologies has said it is working together with other technology vendors to deliver Open RAN solutions as part of its commitment to drive rapid adoption of 5G.
“We’ve put our resources and relationships to work to improve the total cost of ownership of RAN equipment, accelerate RAN innovation through automation and cloudification and support the creation of exciting new 5G services,” Anit Lohtia, head of 5G Strategy at the OEM, wrote. “We are committed to new telco-grade servers and solutions that address the need for an open, scalable, flexible and rapidly deployable RAN in a wide variety of environments.”
There are many pluses to ORAN, according to Lohtia. The standard allows RAN equipment and software to be built by different vendors and advantages include increased supplier choice, service differentiation, flexible deployment options and a more secure supply chain.
“ORAN is a highly flexible, highly scalable architecture that allows mobile operators to deploy RAN and edge infrastructure using virtualized and decentralized components,” Lohtia wrote. “The solutions enable mobile operators to choose which vendors to deploy in their network while providing more options to scale-out RAN resources where they are needed and in precisely the right amounts.”
Dell’s partners include: VMware, Red Hat, Affirmed Networks and Nokia (both for core network functions), CommScope Ruckus (private networks), Intel (Smart Edge MEC), Mavenir (5G Open RAN software to run on Dell EMC PowerEdge XR11 ruggedized servers), according to TelcoTV.
Mike Wolfe, Vice President of Mobility Network Engineering for CommScope, made this prediction in January, “Disaggregation of the RAN will continue as Open RAN deployments gain serious traction and usher in a new generation of products and innovative technology.”
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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