Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone Group announced a joint commitment to the rollout of Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) as the technology of choice for future mobile networks. In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the four operators expressed their individual commitment to the implementation and deployment of Open RAN solutions that take advantage of new open virtualized architectures, software and hardware to build more agile and flexible mobile networks in the 5G era.
The four operators will work together with existing and new ecosystem partners, industry bodies like the O-RAN ALLIANCE and the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), as well as European policy makers, to ensure Open RAN quickly reaches competitive parity with traditional RAN solutions. This initiative is an important milestone towards a diverse, reinvigorated supplier ecosystem and the availability of carrier-grade Open RAN technology for a timely commercial deployment in Europe.
Enrique Blanco, Chief Technology & Information Officer (CTIO) at Telefónica, said: “Open RAN is the natural evolution of radio access technologies and it will be key for 5G networks. This is an extraordinary opportunity for the European industry not only to promote the development of 5G but also to participate in its sustainable technological development.”
Michaël Trabbia, Chief Technology & Information Officer (CTIO) at Orange, said: "Open RAN is the next major evolution of 5G RAN. Orange believes it is a strong opportunity for existing and emerging European actors to develop O-RAN based products and services, starting with indoor and rural areas. This evolution should be supported by a large European ecosystem (academics and research, software and hardware developers, integrators, public funding for R&D) as it is a unique occasion to reinforce the European competitiveness and leadership in the global market.”
The four operators believe that the European Commission and the national governments have an important role to play to foster and develop the Open RAN ecosystem by funding early deployments, research and development, open test lab facilities and incentivizing supply chain diversity by lowering barriers to entry for small suppliers and startups who can avail of these labs to validate open and interoperable solutions.
O-RAN publishes 3rd software release - Cherry
The O-RAN Software Community (OSC) announced its 3rd open software release within 18 months, dubbed “Cherry”.
The main use cases delivered in Cherry include:
- Policy based Traffic Steering using the A1 and E2 interfaces
- Automated Monitoring and Health check of selected components using the O1 interface
- Configuration, Fault and Performance Management Services aligned with OAM models and specifications newly approved by O-RAN
- Life Cycle Management Framework of rApps and xApps using SMO
- O-DU Low and High pairwise testing in O-RAN Software Community lab
- Simulators for testing and integration, such as E2, A1, Open Test Framework, etc.
“It is gratifying to see the continued momentum of the OSC’s open-source O-RAN implementation,” said Jack Murray, co-chair of the OSC Technical Operating Committee (TOC) and Assistant Vice President of AT&T. “AT&T is proud to have continued its contributions to enable RAN AI/ML through the Near-Real Time RIC implementation, and to provide a platform for software testing and integration.”
“We are glad to see Cherry has made big progress by building on the base of Bronze,” said Chih-Lin I, the Co-Chair of O-RAN Technical Steering Committee. “It not only realizes more 3GPP-defined models, but also brings O-RAN defined interfaces including E2 and A1 closer to commercialization. More ML and AI technologies are implemented in the RIC, RICAPP and NRTRIC projects to push the traffic steering e2e use case forward, which makes it a more intelligent RAN. The newly created SMO project is also worth special mention for the quick momentum that it has gained in contributing to O-RAN automation and management within just 3 months.”
https://www.o-ran.org/software
