The telecom industry has witnessed in the recent several years significant transformation and development in a bid to connect not only devices, but everything. As such, a new paradigm is on the market today called Open RAN, “where cellular radio networks are comprised of hardware and software components from multiple vendors operating over network interfaces that are truly ‘open and interoperable’,” as defined by Commscope.
Open RAN is an important component for 5G networks in the midst of an increasing movement in the industry to cloudify mobile network infrastructure, resulting in open and virtualized Radio Access Networks (RAN). O-RAN technology is said to allow service providers to speed up 5G network development through its open architecture.
To date, the main focus of mobile operators was leveraging open technologies for the mobile packet core, leaving the RAN virtually untouched. Why? Because the traditional RAN, with its proprietary, embedded and integrated RRU and BBU nature, is the most difficult part of the network to disaggregate. However, today, the RAN is being unbundled and disaggregated, while becoming more flexible to address real-world network conditions. The traditional RAN is now becoming the Open RAN – moving from distributed and integrated towards virtualized and centralized.
Telecom Infra Project assigns 7 key characteristics of OpenRAN which include the following:
- Disaggregation of RAN HW & SW on vendor neutral, GPP-based platforms
- Open Interfaces – Implementations using open interface specifications between components (e.g. RU/CU/DU/RIC) with vendor neutral hardware and software.
- Multiple Architecture Options, including: An all integrated RAN with disaggregation at SW and HW level; A split RAN with RU, BBU (DU/CU); A split RAN with RU, DU and CU; A split RAN with integrated RU/DU, CU.
- Flexibility – Multi vendor solutions enabling a diverse ecosystem for the operators to choose best-of-breed options for their 2G/3G/4G and 5G deployments.
- Solutions implemented on either Bare Metal or Virtualized or Containerized Platforms.
- Innovation via Adoption of New Technologies (AI/ML, CI/CD…).
- Supply Chain Diversity.
To create an adequate environment for this tech novelty, an alliance has been formed in 2018 between telecom giants such as AT&T, China Mobile, Vodafone, Orange, along many more, working on an initiative to standardize these protocols. According to an O-Ran Alliance whitepaper, this interface “will allow smaller vendors to introduce their own services and allow operators to customize the network as needed. It will also allow multiple vendors to deploy their technology on the network, thereby enabling competition and reducing costs.
Seeking to deploy the technology across Africa, African operators are testing open RAN waters and partnering with services providers to extend their coverage and expand their subscriber base. For instance, as part of a broader program dubbed IDEAL (Include Digital in Every African Life), Orange intends to roll out OpenRAN in rural areas of Central African Republic. It partnered with Parallel Wireless and with the help of I Engineering Group, an infrastructure group specializing in Africa and emerging markets, they are enabling a shift to open, software-based, and virtualized OpenRAN network architectures to deliver scalable 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G software-based networks from the same infrastructure. These are cost-effective to deploy, to maintain and can deliver the coverage and capacity to the end users and businesses across the country.
Being new to the market, there is still significant room for improvements on both the hardware and software sides of the technology, many of which will likely be explored by some of the smaller players or newcomers to the industry. Meanwhile, we will be watching the development of this novelty and remaining updated on its deployments.
