11542 search results for Open RAN

Soracom demonstrates integrated SIM for IoT Japanese IoT connectivity technology developer Soracom has demonstrated integrated SIM (iSIM) for various categories of IoT device. This results from a joint effort with cellular IoT chipset provider Sony Semiconductor Israel, and security firm Kigen for authentication of the devices. The iSIM combines the network connectivity and authentication of device identity in a single system-on-chip (SoC), reducing circuit board footprint, complexity, manufacturing cost and power consumption, while increasing processing capacity. In this proof of concept, a hardware-secured area was established within Sony’s Altair ALT1250 cellular IoT chipset and a unique Soracom carrier profile was then provisioned over the Kigen iSIM operating system. This generated Soracom’s unique key information, secure loading of the carrier profile information onto the…

IBM’s Red Hat subsidiary now has over 250 engineers dedicated to its Open RAN efforts, and has invested about $25m to date in development for the platform. The firm said it is easing deployment for operators by offering a “bridge for customers to embrace the Open RAN movement”. This bridge consists of an open, horizontal, cloud-native software platform that has been pre-integrated with technologies from multiple hardware and software vendors. Red Hat has partnered with Altiostar, Ericsson, Intel, Mavenir, Nokia, Samsung and others to create its framework, which will, of course, encourage operators to adopt the IBM unit’s Kubernetes-based Open Shift platform, which includes containers and microservices for core, RAN and edge computing workloads. Azhar Sayeed, Red Hat’s senior director…

Rakuten is not the only Japanese operator driving Open RAN. NTT Docomo is also a significant supporter and contributor and has been deploying a commercial open network in Tokyo that is supposed to support the Olympic Games. Docomo, always in the forefront of new architectures, has extended its multi-faceted and long-time partnership with NEC – also a key Rakuten supplier – to the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). The RIC is an important element of the O-RAN platform and introduces entirely new functions, unlike many of the specs, which merely open up existing architecture elements and interfaces. As such, the RIC, which abstracts control and management functions that were traditionally embedded in the equipment, has been the focus of intense interest…

Intel has been targeting many elements of the 5G network with its technologies and, for the first time, building a proposition that looks beyond the transport network and telco data center, and deep into the cellular platform. Now, it is pulling together many of its hardware and software offerings to form the Intel Network Platform, which aims to enable full solutions for the potent combination of RAN and edge compute that will shape future cloud-based 5G networks. The platform includes a wide range of existing Intel offerings that have been developed or adapted for the RAN, including its processors, accelerators, Ethernet adaptors, memory chips, software toolkits and blueprints. Intel is particularly interested in enabling enterprise 5G networks, where new architectures…

India’s 5G programme is now well underway, even if its spectrum auctions are not, as Bharti Airtel and Tata Group join forces to roll out a trial 5G network across the country. Airtel has become the second Indian operator after Reliance Jio to launch 5G trials after the government gave the go-ahead in May 2021. The government has excluded Huawei and ZTE from 5G deployments, which gives a cue to an important subtext to these trials – to promote the country’s ‘Made in India’ campaign, centered around Open RAN as a way into mobile network infrastructure, including 5G, for emerging vendors. More importantly, Indian authorities see the opportunity to turn the country into a manufacturing hub for affordable O-RAN equipment…

The 4G idea that a Cloud RAN really could run entirely on standard cloud processors (except for the RF chips of course) has been exploded by the demanding requirements of 5G. This has put optimized silicon, usually based on customized ASIC chips, back in the spotlight as a key source of competitive differentiation, and one where large vendors with deep pockets clear have the kind of advantage they will no longer enjoy in RAN software, if more democratic platforms such as O-RAN are adopted at scale. Processing of advanced beamforming and dynamic spectrum sharing, for instance, needs high levels of acceleration if these functions are to run in a cloud-based distributed unit (DU). Or they can be left on the…

Ericsson has expanded the 5G Cloud RAN platform that made its debut in November, with support for midband 5G and Massive MIMO added to the initially sub-1 GHz platform. The Swedish giant was cautious in its first launch of 5G virtualized RAN, sticking to low-band 5G spectrum, which supports only limited capacity and traffic compared to higher frequencies, and is therefore less demanding in computation terms. Ericsson pointed out at the time that, if functions such as beamforming are moved from the radio unit to the cloud-based distributed unit, they may stretch the definition of ‘COTS’ (common off the shelf) hardware and require sophisticated (and possibly expensive) acceleration. Now, Ericsson says it has worked closely with Intel to develop suitable…

Open RAN may be the headline theme of the industry right now, but the big players are duking it out in a technology where they feel relatively unchallenged by new entrants – in large-scale Massive MIMO radio/antenna units for 5G. Nokia presented its latest 5G Massive MIMO product, which is the first to use its new generation system-on-chip (SoC), as the proof its 5G comeback, after some disastrous mistakes, mainly related to the chipset, that cost it customers and a CEO in 2019-2020. Operators have deployed higher grades of MIMO antenna arrays at a faster rate than was forecast a few years ago, to increase 5G range and performance. In particular, the technology has allowed them to use the same…

Many of our recent in-depth reports have focused on technical and political changes in Open RAN, and interesting developments continue to emerge on a weekly basis – including, last week, a partnership between NTT Docomo and NEC to work on an implementation of the O-RAN RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller – see item below). This highlighted the importance of Japanese operators and vendors in the fledgling Open RAN ecosystem, and the determination of major players to build on Rakuten’s high profile efforts and preserve a Japan-first 5G platform. This harks back to the innovations of the 2G and early 3G eras, when Docomo, in particular, was a major contributor to cutting edge deployments and to industry standards. Despite the continuing influence…

A few weeks ago, the USA’s Dish Network caused a stir when it said it would deploy its 5G vRAN in the public cloud, via a partnership with Amazon AWS. But it is not leaving all its cloud infrastructure to the hyperscaler, and has now announced a deal with Dell to support an edge cloud build-out of its own, which will support private and enterprise networks. Dish will deploy Dell EMC PowerEdge servers at cell sites and in centralized RAN locations. It will subscribe to Dell’s Apex Flex On Demand, which enables it to scale its server usage up and down while only paying for what it uses, and will use a wide range of Dell tools and software, as…

The increasingly edge-centric nature of 5G networks is a golden opportunity for cloud providers to gain a strategic position in the telecoms market. At the least, this will provide them with new or increased revenues from operators; on top of that, it can even enable them to usurp operators in providing many service elements, especially to enterprises. Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have all been courting operators as customers and partners in recent years, and while they have clearly won the battle to build and monetize the centralized cloud, at the edge there is a different balance of power, at least for now. Operators need to build or rent edge cloud infrastructure to support distributed cores and vRANs,…

AT&T’s CTO, Andre Fuetsch, is now requiring all its RAN hardware suppliers to support Open RAN specifications, though the timing for commercial deployments remains somewhat uncertain. However, he told Recon Analytics that this would start with indoor networks, since they are based on small cells and are relatively simple to install and operate. “Our first implementations here will be indoor and in-building,” he said. “If you have issues [with an indoor network] you can always fall back to the outdoor network.” Its next stage, once it has proven the platform indoors, would be to extend Open RAN to rural outdoor networks, which are also simpler than dense, urban networks. This mirrors the trend among many operators to deploy the new…

With revenues from consumers expected to be flat over the next few years, operators are forced to focus increasingly on enterprises to recoup investments in 5G spectrum and infrastructure. Network slicing is seen as critical in generating these revenues by enabling differentiated services that appeal not just to enterprises, but also some consumers in gaming and premium entertainment for example. The primary vendors have all promoted network slicing and invested heavily in tools to help implement it and ensure that individual slices can be monetized effectively through integration with existing billing and CRM (customer relationship management) systems. The ability to configure slices for individual enterprise customers or use cases quickly and efficiently is also critical, and Nokia was quick off…

Vodafone’s credentials as a champion of Open RAN were enhanced earlier this month when it announced a line-up of non-traditional vendors for its network build-out in the UK (see separate item). However, just a week later, it announced another UK supplier contract, for dual-mode 4G/5G core, and this went to a far more familiar face, Ericsson. Vodafone Germany is already working with Ericsson to deploy a cloud-based dual-mode core that can support 5G Standalone while working alongside the existing 4G core. Now the same platform will be adopted in the UK, and presumably other European markets, as the operator moves towards 5G Standalone. The UK deployment will take five years to complete, and Ericsson’s president for Europe and Latin America,…

When major telcos in the world’s biggest mobile economies share their Open RAN vendors or milestones, they naturally attract significant attention, but this can obscure the amount of activity and innovation that is going on in developing economies. There are good reasons why the Open RAN community can look to these markets for an early impetus: Operators will often have very challenging cost efficiency targets as they expand 4G and plan 5G while grappling with low ARPUs The growth in mobile usage is as high in most developing economies as in mature markets, so operators have an urgent need for platforms that will support that flexibly, while not driving costs up too sharply Operators will sometimes have made less recent…