Understand what is Open-RAN (Open Radio Access Networks)

Understand what is Open-RAN (Open Radio Access Networks)" title="Understand what is Open-RAN (Open Radio Access Networks)" />

The future of internet networks will undoubtedly be starred by 5G networks and Open-RAN. THE 5G is the gateway to multiple new technologies that will require a high-speed connection, while the Open-RAN it is simply the key to democratizing that access.

What is Open-RAN?

The Open-RAN (open radio access networks) is a movement that tries to democratize parts of the telecommunications network, and thus not depend on large telecommunications equipment manufacturers, such as Huawei.

And even without geopolitics, the movement is expanding. Facebook already supports Open-RAN with its Telecommunications Infra Project, while some of the world's biggest telephony operators, Vodafone and Telefónica, want more open source. For them, Open-RAN represents a way to reduce costs and power of large manufacturers.

The Open-RAN architecture combines modular base station software with hardware commercial, assigning baseband and radio unit components from isolated vendors for seamless interoperability, whether there are virtualized / disaggregated RAN elements or not. Open-RAN is gaining momentum, at an early stage of commercial adoption by the global wireless community.

Objectives of Open-RAN

One of the goals of the Open-RAN movement is to establish an architecture that evolves cellular networks into an open and intelligent RAN, while meeting the standards 3GPP. With Open-RAN, operators could deploy networks with some combination of remote unit providers and distributed units and central units.

Furthermore, an open RAN approach could provide additional flexibility to meet 5G application requirements. Specifically, 5G supports vertical applications with different network requirements in terms of performance, capacity and latency.

The influence of the Chinese government on Huawei

THE Huawei is the world's leading provider of 5G technology equipment. However, several sectors involved with the supply of new technologies have a great concern regarding the influence of the Chinese government on the company, and therefore, operators and other governments are looking for alternatives such as Open-RAN

The other options to Open-RAN are an untrusted Chinese monopoly (and attacked by the US) or an untested Nordic duopoly (Ericsson and nokia). Therefore, Open-RAN technology is an alternative that is attracting a lot of attention.

Vodafone announced that it would use Open-RAN in the UK to replace Huawei equipment. It's still a work in progress, but the wind is right. Also, to add an element of morbidity, behind the scenes there is a power struggle between the two most important Japanese personalities in technology.

For you to understand, there are three technology manufacturers (Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia) that dominate the mobile network market. This is weighing on the cost of equipment and innovation capabilities. By producing truly open interface specifications, the O-RAN alliance aims to enable any vendor to offer hardware and software solutions that work with these standardized 5G architectures.

Thanks to these interfaces, Open-RAN allows the access network to be virtually cut into smaller pieces. The barrier to entry in terms of research and development is then lower; this promotes market access to new manufacturers.