UPDATE DISH Wireless, a subsidiary of EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS), was awarded a $50 million grant from NTIA to establish the Open RAN Center for Integration & Deployment (ORCID). ORCID will allow participants to test and validate their Open RAN radio hardware and software solutions against a complete commercial-grade Open RAN network deployed by DISH.
This grant represents NTIA’s largest award to date under the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. ORCID will be housed in DISH’s secure multi-tenant lab and field testing campus in Cheyenne, WY. The Center will be supported by DISH’s consortium partners Fujitsu, Mavenir and VMware by Broadcom. Technology partners include Analog Devices, ARM, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Intel, JMA Wireless, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Samsung.
At ORCID, participants will be able to test and evaluate individual or multiple network elements to ensure Open RAN interoperability, performance, and security. At the same, the Center is intended to foster an environment where these companies can contribute to the development, deployment, and adoption of open and interoperable standards-based radio access networks. DISH characterizes ORCID as a “living laboratory” that will drive the Open RAN ecosystem from lab testing to commercial deployment.
ORCID’s key objectives are to:
- combine both lab and field testing and evaluation activities. ORCID will be able to test elements brought by any qualified vendor against DISH’s live, commercial-grade Open RAN stack.
- use DISH’s spectrum holdings, a combination of low-, mid- and high-band frequencies, enabling field testing and evaluation.
- evaluate Open RAN elements through mixing and matching with those of other vendors, rather than validating a single vendor’s stack. DISH’s experience in a multi-vendor environment will give ORCID unique insights about the integration of Open RAN into brownfield networks.
“[ORCID] will serve a critical role in strengthening the global Open RAN ecosystem and building the next generation of wireless networks,” comments Charlie Ergen, Echostar co-founder and chairman. “By leveraging DISH’s experience deploying the world’s first standalone Open RAN 5G network, ORCID will be uniquely positioned to test and evaluate Open RAN interoperability, performance and security from domestic and international vendors.”
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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