Slowly but surely, U.S. mobile network operators are experimenting with open interfaces in their radio access networks, and in-building systems are emerging as a proving ground for this technology. On January 29, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) announced the integration of CommScope’s OneCell radio solution and Corning’s 5G Enterprise Radio with Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform.
Last November, Inside Towers reported that Verizon (NYSE: VZ) had deployed the first-ever interoperable multi-vendor O-RAN DAS system. Verizon also used CommScope radios, but the company told Inside Towers these were not the OneCell small cells, which include a baseband controller.
Verizon CTO and SVP Yago Tenorio, who recently left Vodafone to join Verizon, explained to Inside Towers that indoor O-RAN projects are not necessarily easier than outdoor deployments.
“I wouldn’t say it’s easier or more difficult, it’s just different,” he said. In a multi-site outdoor deployment, integrating a radio unit would be complicated because “every site would have a slightly different combination of spectrum,” he said. “In a venue it is typically unique so you do that once and you integrate for that particular case. However, it is more complex because the distributed antenna system brings an inherent complication.”
At Verizon’s two O-RAN sites in Texas, the operator integrated equipment from multiple vendors. Samsung vDU software is running on servers supplied by HPE and ZT Systems, and Tenorio said the software is “abstracted by an operating system in between” supplied by Wind River. He calls this operating system the CaaS (container-as-a-service) layer, and he said this architecture is prevalent throughout the Verizon network. What’s different at the Texas sites is the integration with CommScope radio units.
“O-RAN allows you to mix and match and seek combinations that attract the best of all worlds and that’s what we’ve done,” said Tenorio. “I don’t think it will be an isolated case. It is not an experiment. It’s something deliberate and purposeful.”
Tenorio said the cost savings afforded by open interfaces are driven less by competition in the market and more by the competition that occurs before vendors ever bring their products to potential customers. Vendors “put more effort into R&D and that results in better products that perform better and they are less expensive to roll out and maintain,” he said. Tenorio noted that a big part of the cost of radio equipment is the “installation, commissioning, the ongoing operational cost for maintenance, and especially for energy.” He said innovation by vendors who want to “win their fair share” is bringing these costs down.
This article represents the opinions of veteran telecom industry editor and journalist Martha DeGrasse, an Inside Towers Contributing Analyst with features appearing monthly. DeGrasse owns Network Builder Reports and contributes regularly to several publications. She was formerly a writer and editor with RCR Wireless and a TV business news producer.
By Martha DeGrasse, Inside Towers Contributing Analyst
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