Last year, the Open Networking Foundation set up SD-RAN, an initiative to develop a platform for a key element of Open RAN, the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). At the time, the ONF insisted it was not breaking with the O-RAN Alliance and would use that body’s RIC specs as the framework for its own effort, but it wanted to push forward a developer ecosystem for the xApps that will run on top of the RIC, especially in the challenging near-real time environment. It also commented that O-RAN had become very vendor-driven, while ONF – which has its own engineering teams rather than relying entirely on those of members – would stick firmly to operator-defined specs and requirements. It has now…