11552 search results for Open RAN

Enrique Blanco, Telefónica’s CTO, was one of the eminent operator executives who warned, in 2017, that fast-tracking a non-standalone (NSA) variant of the 5G New Radio would deprive operators of many of the commercial benefits of 5G in the first few years, because most of those benefits require a 5G core. He remains impatient to move towards the full 5G architecture, even though his employer has not yet switched on commercial 5G networks even with NSA. But he is determined to deploy a multivendor 5G core, even though that will add to the already daunting complexities of the migration. At the 5G Core Summit in Madrid this week, he said it would be “easier and cheaper” to work with just…

The ORAN Alliance may have based its initial specifications on AT&T code, but it is Japan’s NTT Docomo which is taking the lead in driving the ORAN platform towards commercial reality. As so often when it comes to advanced architectures and multivendor networks, Docomo is setting the pace. The pre-commercial 5G service it is launching this week will combine 4G and 5G base stations from multiple suppliers using the ORAN specs. This will represent a major step forward in a world where most operators still define a multivendor RAN as one where different suppliers cover different geographical zones. Japan’s largest MNO will be switching on a network in Tokyo, offering pre-commercial services as a preparation for 5G support for next…

When a group led by AT&T pushed a fast-track 5G New Radio standard, Non-Standalone (NSA), through the 3GPP, it enabled operators to deploy a 5G RAN more quickly and easily than they had expected – but just succeeded in storing up problems for the future. Because 5G NR NSA uses the LTE core, most operators which have launched 5G already have been able to make relatively simple upgrades to their RANs – in most cases, deploying very limited numbers of base stations, using existing site infrastructure, and often simply being able to activate a previously installed 5G-ready base station. This has some benefits – enabling faster speeds and some new applications in congested urban areas; supporting fixed wireless access (FWA)…

Just after Haystack Technologies unveiled its rather cool new LPWAN equipment, and promptly selling out of the developer kits, Amazon teased the community with what could be a seismic announcement – Amazon Sidewalk. Details are scant, but a 900 MHz mesh protocol with a range of 500 to 1,000 meters has excellent application in Amazon’s smart home footprint. Haystack can trace its origins back to wireless supply chain visibility technologies in Savi Technology, a firm that was acquired by Lockheed Martin in 2006 and then spun back out in 2012. Haystack was founded in 2010 by Patrick Burns and J.P. Norair, and created the DASH7 protocol to focus on low-power wireless applications in wide-area networks. The DASH7 Alliance was founded…

Satellite operator SES sent out a series of press releases last week with a distinct cloud technology flavor, increasing its reliance on Microsoft Azure infrastructure a week after it launched an over-the-top video synchronization product. SES unveiled plans to deliver media and connectivity services based on Azure to rural and underserved regions, equipping broadcasters and other enterprises with features including intelligent network automation through direct cloud connectivity – achieved through the two products Azure ExpressRoute Satellite Connectivity and Azure Broadcast-Grade Managed Video Services. The move is a win-win, benefiting both SES and Azure customers, and could give Azure an edge over cloud computing opposition AWS. Azure-based media services can help SES execute an initiative which could prove crucial in delivering…

Private LTE has another solid use case to use as it tries to convince industrial customers that it is a viable platform on which to transform business operations. The latest example comes from Nokia and Telefonica Peru, who partnered to provide Minera Las Bambas with a network aimed at boosting productivity and improve worker safety. With Telefonica, Nokia is at least keeping the MNOs sweet. The next evolution of these industrial-type customers could cut the MNOs out entirely, by making use of unlicensed spectrum for LTE or 5G networks. Many of these deployments are located sufficiently far away from civilization to alleviate concerns about interference and noise, and the likes of Nokia could aggressively target such customers if their core…

Open network initiatives are always interesting and point the way in two important 5G trends – disaggregating the network, and ensuring that the resulting components can be mixed and matched from multiple vendors, to end the lock-ins and limited price competition that have characterized the mobile equipment business until now. However, many organizations publish the specifications but fail to drive further into the large-scale commercial adoption that is essential for success. The ORAN Alliance, which is developing open specs based initially on AT&T code, is guarding against this risk by setting up a test and integration process, backed by significant vendors and operators. This is important to establishing ORAN as something more than a call to arms against proprietary systems,…

The Open Networking Foundation’s (ONF’s) conferences always provide interesting foretastes of how the telecoms network of the future will look, and the recent Connect event in California was no exception. The group set out new platforms including an open source packet core and an evolution of its CORD (Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter) technology. And operators from AT&T to Comcast shared the results of their efforts so far to drive virtualization based on open specifications. AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica – three leading lights in the push for open, virtualized platforms to transform the economics of telco networks – provided a joint update on what they call a ‘central office pod’ (CO pod). This is an extension of CORD…

In July, Ofcom announced new rules allowing spectrum sharing in four bands, with the aim of making it easier for businesses or localized service providers to build and operate cellular networks. These are welcome moves to open up spectrum for enterprises and alternative service providers, to ensure that every industry, not just telecoms, can benefit from 4G and 5G. However, there are many compromises in the mechanisms, especially when compared with presumed role models such as the USA’s CBRS framework in 3.5 GHz or Germany’s award of 100 MHz in the 3.7 GHz band for industrial use. It has introduced two new schemes – Local Access licences and Shared Access licences. The former are clearly influenced by the example of…

It seems only yesterday that the seminal 5G white paper, published by the NGMN Alliance, was issued, setting out many of the key assumptions about the new generation of mobile technology. In fact, it was almost five years ago, which seems to be long enough for the industry to have moved on to ‘6G’, and the first white paper seeking to define what that will entail. The paper has been published by the 6G Flagship research program, which says the document “opens the floor for defining the 2030 wireless era”. This may be ambitious when most stakeholders are still struggling with what 5G will mean for networks and business models, but the authorship is credible. The paper is based on…

Spectrum is, of course, the lifeblood of wireless networks, and therefore has always been the subject of regulation, fierce competition and often high costs. But in the wireless broadband world, it fitted neatly into a bilateral structure of long term exclusive licenses for cellular, and completely unlicensed for WiFi and other technologies. While MNOs might use a mixture of the two types of technology, their power rested with their licenses, and their 3GPP networks lived only in those licensed bands. Then LTE moved into unlicensed spectrum, notably 5 GHz; and the boundaries between licensed and unlicensed networks and operators blurred further with moves to open up cellular spectrum and make it available and affordable to a wider base of organizations,…

When a new generation of technology is over the horizon, it’s easy to assume that the newest operators with the most disruptive visions will be the first to cash in. But sometimes the legend of the tortoise and the hare comes into play. China Mobile was supposed to the first major operator to move to 5G New Radio Standalone (NR SA) with a full 5G core, while Rakuten was hot favorite to be the first to deploy a fully cloud-native end-to-end network (initially for 4G). But the Chinese leader pulled back from the plan to roll out NR SA from day one and now has no firm timeline to deploy its cloud-native core at scale, amid many business case challenges…

Private LTE has another solid use case to use as it tries to convince industrial customers that it is a viable platform on which to transform business operations. The latest example comes from Nokia and Telefonica Peru, who partnered to provide Minera Las Bambas with a network aimed at boosting productivity and improve worker safety. With Telefonica, Nokia is at least keeping the MNOs sweet. The next evolution of these industrial-type customers could cut the MNOs out entirely, by making use of unlicensed spectrum for LTE or 5G networks. Many of these deployments are located sufficiently far away from civilization to alleviate concerns about interference and noise, and the likes of Nokia could aggressively target such customers if their core…