Open RAN

The OpenRAN 4G site will extend mobile services to rural communities Vodafone UK has switched on an OpenRAN 4G site around the Royal Welsh Showground in Powys, Wales with support from Mavenir. The plan is to use OpenRAN to more …

Mavenir worked with Vodafone UK to bring Open RAN site in Wales on-air Vodafone has made clear it expects Open RAN technologies to play a big role across its multi-national network footprint. In its U.K. market, the operator recently said …

History The DevOps movement inspired large, enterprise organizations with agile practices to allow developers to make quick changes, but it was very difficult to get full benefit, as their legacy development process was not designed for supporting short software development …

In recent months, the telecommunications industry has been abuzz with news about various initiatives related to Open RAN. Essentially, Open RAN refers to open and interoperable interfaces within and between the various subcomponents of the RAN: the radio, hardware, or …

History Most of the CAPEX required to build a wireless network is related to the RAN segment, reaching as high as 80% of the total network cost. Any reduction in the RAN equipment cost will significantly help the bottom line …

In my previous blog, I covered the promise and potential of network slicing. Another deployment use case which has seen tremendous interest and demand is the use of private networks. With the increasing digital connectivity of devices and equipment across …

History In 2G and 3G, the mobile architectures had controllers that were responsible for RAN orchestration and management. With 4G, overall network architecture became flatter and the expectation was that, to enable optimal subscriber experience, base stations would use the …

According to Cellwize, 5G networks should be born automated Cellwize, a network automation and orchestration company, worked with Verizon to develop Chime, an AI-powered RAN automation platform that provides an open, centralized layer that enables an orchestrated ecosystem of automation, …

In my last blog, we briefly touched upon the advanced use cases that are possible in 5G. One such use case is Network Slicing. 5G cellular services should broadly support use cases including enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications …

History Software has been “eating the world” for a while now: from consumer, then enterprise and now the telecom value chains. Open RAN is a great example of how software is “eating” telco. What we have learned from the data …

Is open RAN right for near-term rip-and-replace? Huawei equipment has been ordered removed from networks in the United States and the United Kingdom with speculation that other European markets could soon follow. Advocates of open radio access network technology see …

We left off in our series having looked at the virtualized and cloud-based open RAN. Now we move on to consider the orchestration part, deploying and managing these cloud-based implementations.   Orchestration, or service management and orchestration (SMO), has been used …

History Some estimates put the telecom industry, especially the RAN segment, between seven and ten years behind a normal innovation curve due to the lack of competition in the market. This is a similar situation to the state of the …

Although 2020 has brought numerous challenges to the telecom industry, including geopolitical stresses, the COVID-19 pandemic, and 5G deployment challenges, these events have also highlighted the critical role of fixed and mobile telecom networks in providing economic resilience and national …

In conjunction with a wide swath of industry stakeholders, the United States federal government is working to form and implement the creatively-titled National Strategy to Secure 5G. Signed by President Trump in March, the strategy has three primary goals: “facilitating …

In previous blogs in this “Who Disaggregated My RAN? series, we have looked at the benefits of a disaggregated Open RAN, including the growth of an ecosystem to support the deployment of an Open RAN. We have also looked at …

As it continues to gain 5G infrastructure market share, Samsung this week announced a virtualized 5G RAN solution comprising virtualized central and distributed units and updated radios. And in keeping with the RAN vendor trend toward “open,” Samsung said the …

History Functional splits are nothing new. They were initially outlined in 3GPP Release 14 and defined in 3GPP release 15 and where new terminology, interfaces and functional modules were introduced. But why is this RU, DU, CU functional split concept …

The virtualization of cellular networks has been ongoing for some time. But virtualizing the Radio Access Network (RAN) has always been an enigma and was the final frontier for the trend. The rising star of 5G infrastructure business—Samsung—jumped on to …

Nokia expects “full suite” of O-RAN interfaces available in 2021 Adding on to a recent refresh of its virtualized, cloud-based RAN solutions, Nokia today, after weeks of building up to it, made clear its position on open RAN and its …

In this series focused on the benefits of a disaggregated Open RAN, we have had a chance to see how an open RAN has helped expand the ecosystem and led operators to consider new vendor solutions that meet their needs. …

The decision is being seen by some as an attempt to better align itself with Japanese firm Rakuten Dish Network will use Altiostar’s cloud-native O-RAN compliant solution for its 5G network buildout, providing the carrier with openness, modularity, agility and …

FCC cuts off Universal Service Fund money to buy and maintain US networks that use Chinese kit It’s been a long time coming but, despite the protracted journey, reaching the destination still stings for the small and rural domestic mobile …

History The entire telecom industry is going through a dramatic change that can be only compared to the change that data centers went through in the 2000s, all driven by Moore’s Law. This is driving the need to move from …