One of the animating conceits of Open RAN as a technology set and what’s often characterized as a “movement,” is enabling operators to mix-and-match hardware and software from multiple vendors into a radio system optimized for a particular deployment scenario. Offsetting that is one of the major recurring questions Open RAN faces: how do you reaggregate something once you’ve disaggregated it. To answer that question, a range of system integration models have emerged with, in some cases, operators leading their own effort, hiring a specialized system integrator—think 1&1’s engagement with Rakuten Mobile, and companies with long pedigrees in enterprise IT system integration pivoting to address a nascent telecom opportunity.
Vodafone wants 30% of its European network footprint to be made up of Open RAN systems by 2030 so obviously this integration question, both before and after a site is brought live, is top of mind. So much so, in fact, that the paper published a white paper laying out their vision for multi-party support through the entire process. Vodafone’s James Grayling, head of O-RAN Product Integration and Performance, walked RCR Wireless through the company’s vision in a session in the recent Open RAN European Forum.
Open RAN as a catalyst for radical change
“We need to radically change the way that we do things and what Open RAN brings is a catalyst to do that,” Grayling said. “What I mean by that is that the way that we’re working with our incumbents vendors today doesn’t allow any flexibility, doesn’t allow any efficiencies with regards to rollout, pre-staging and so on. The objective…[is] to create a discussion within the industry to say, ‘This is Vodafone’s ambition. This is how we see system integration progressing and gaining feedback.
Grayling further broke that vision down into three elements requiring some degree of collaborative system integration work. FIrst, distributed labs for interoperability testing and verification tuned to the needs of particular market; second, pre-staging various kit configurations where they’re need to hasten deployment timelines. And third, ongoing support for the network once it’s made operational.
Grayling further broke that vision down into three elements requiring some degree of collaborative system integration work. FIrst, distributed labs for interoperability testing and verification tuned to the needs of particular market; second, pre-staging various kit configurations where they’re need to hasten deployment timelines. And third, ongoing support for the network once it’s made operational.
Automation to take Open RAN from lab to field
While all three elements are important to Open RAN success, the operational piece is particularly interesting given the notion of innovation on the back of a dynamic, responsive RAN requiring long-term multi-vendor/operator working relationships. Automation will be key here, Grayling said. “Automation will play a massive role within the system integration, creating efficiencies again. But also how is it going to be managed in life? Is it going to be managed by a single entity, or is it going to be managed by the operator but governed by a system integrator?”
Deutsche Telekom’s Petr Ledl, vice president and head of network trials and integration lab, echoed Grayling’s point around the foundational role of Open RAN. “Automation is the key here,” he said. “Test automation and automated deployment…That’s what we also learned–how important this is in order to make sure that this can be done efficiently.”
DT has been working with Open RAN for some time, and last year set up the “O-RAN Town,” a live, 25-site 4G and 5G network built in Neubrandenburg. Before how, maybe it’s prudent to ask why given that Duetsche Telekom has around 90% population coverage with its 5G network. So what role could Open RAN play given the relatively maturity of the current offering.
“The main opportunity that we are looking at in the context of Open RAN,” Ledl said, “is really how do we assure long-term ecosystem sustainability? How do we gain flexibility, programmability and how do we ensure that we can also contribute efficiently into the solution and design and deployment. Here we see the main opportunity in the high-power, high-capacity, outdoor macro deployment.” He also called out potential applicability to private networks–”very important and also very relevant for us. And we will also use the Open RAN when it is beneficial and when it is relevant for these use cases.”
On the how piece with regard to system integration, Ledl described a vertical and horizontal integration effort wherein “a lot of upfront coordination is required.” He also picked up integrating the radio system into the service management and orchestration framework. In multi-vendor environments, “You have a lot of permutations and increased complexity compared to what we are doing today with the tightly-integrated solution.” One other aspect that’s related to testing, validation, integration, operationalization, the whole thing, is sufficient transparency so redundant work isn’t slowing things down. “The process of integration is really important so that we can drive efficiency of integration complexity.” So back to automation.
For Open RAN, “it’s not all about TCO,” Grayling said
In the even earlier days of Open RAN, the value narrative was simple–this new approach lowers capex and opex and therefore better. As the technology has matured, the value narrative has too with a current focus on flexible RAN architectures and systems hosted in cloud environments becoming programmable and automated. Part of this too is a growing pool of smaller hardware and software suppliers, fostering competition, and (again) innovation by virtue of a more competitive landscape. Form an operator perspective, heightened competition would also, probably, circle back to the lower capex/opex motivation.
But, “It’s not all about TCO,” Grayling said. “TCO is a really big driver and that has to be one of the biggest things that we push, so it’s got to come in equivalent or better than the incumbent vendors that we have today…And where I’m leading there is the real true benefits are innovation and competition, because it gives the flexibility…What it does is it promotes the capability for the operator and the industry to go to the smaller players, the smaller startup companies for argument’s sake to say, ’Look, I need a specific radio or a specific DU to address this particular market.’…TCO is the big strap line, but what Open RAN does is it brings other opportunities that we just couldn’t have tapped into today by working with one of the proprietary vendors.”
