For the vast majority of operators, deploying a fully open and virtualized RAN remains a distant prospect because the technologies are so immature and the specifications scarcely agreed. But a few frontrunners are starting to make significant breakthroughs which could inject confidence into the wider market. Many of the early efforts focus not on the virtualized base station itself but on the cell site gateway, which sits at the base station site to enable functions such as backhaul and timing/synchronization. While the Linux Foundation’s ORAN Alliance is driving common interfaces for the disaggregated RAN – as deployed pre-commercially by Japan’s NTT Docomo in Tokyo – the other most significant open network initiative, Telecom Infra Project (TIP), is leading the charge…