Open RAN Integration: Run With It · 2021. 1. 25. · network, including Mavenir, Altiostar, MTI, Qualcomm, Intel, and Fujitsu. This shows how cloud, virtualization, openness and

OpenRANIntegration:RunWithIt White Paper First Quarter 2021

Copyright © 2021 iGillottResearch Inc.

TableofContents

EXECUTIVESUMMARY 1Figure1:OpenRANcommercialdeployments 3

WHATISOPENRAN? 5

TheOpenRANecosystem 6Figure2:O-RANAllianceArchitecture 6

Virtualizationandopenness 7

OpenRANcomponents 7Figure3:4GRANandtheCU-DUSplitinthe5GRAN 9

IndustrychallengesthatdriveOpenRAN 10

BenefitsofOpenRAN 10

OPENRANINTEGRATION 12Table1:EasytoCounter–theargumentsagainstOpenRANintegration 12

OPENRANCASESTUDIES 16

DishNetwork 17

IpT 17

MTN 18

NTTDoCoMo 18

Rakuten 18

Vodafone 19

OpenTestandIntegrationCenter 20

VENDORPROFILES 22

Altiostar 22

Mavenir 22

ParallelWireless 22


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ABOUTIGR 24

Disclaimer 24


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ExecutiveSummary

The Open RAN concept and movement is not new – mobile operators andnetwork and technology vendors have been developing solutions, conductingtrialsanddeployingnetworksforthelastfewyears.TheimportantpointisthatOpenRANnetworksarebeingdeployed todaybymajoroperatorsaround theworld–thisisnolongerascienceexperiment.

TheOpenRANconceptisaboutdisaggregatingtheRANfunctionalitybybuildingnetworksusingafullyprogrammablesoftware-definedmobilenetworksolutionbasedonopeninterfaces–radios,basestations,etc.–thatrunsoncommercial,off-the-shelfhardware(COTS)withopeninterfaces.

TherearetwomainorganizationsdrivingOpenRAN:

§ OpenRANreferstotheprojectgroupthatisapartoftheTelecomInfraGroup (TIP) whose main objective is the deployment of fullyprogrammable RAN solutions based on general-purpose processors(GPPs)/COTSanddisaggregatedsoftware.

§ TheO-RANAlliance istheothermaindriveroftheOpenRANconcept,focusedoneffortstostandardizeinterfaces.Thealliancewasfoundedin2018 by AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO andOrange.

ArecentimportantstepinthedevelopmentoftheOpenRANecosystemwasanallianceagreementbetweenthetwoorganizations.Thenewagreementallowsthetwogroupstoshareinformation,referencespecificationsandconductjointtestingandintegrationefforts.

Open RAN software and hardware vendors have been developing networksolutions for the last few years. As part of the research for this paper, iGRidentified22publiclyannouncedMNOsaroundtheworldusingequipmentfrommultiple vendors, including Altiostar, Mavenir and ParallelWireless, who haddeployedOpenRANincommercialnetworks.TheseMNOshavecollectivelyjustover 1.278 billion subscribers in their commercial networks and operate incountriesorregionswithatotalpopulationofnearly2.425billion.

Thismeansthattheseoperatorsareresponsiblefor21.9percentoftheworld’smobile subscriber base. Furthermore, assuming the current trials convert tocommercialdeployments,iGRestimatesthatby2025,OpenRANwillbeusedbyMNOsthatcollectivelyareresponsiblefor51.1percentoftheglobalsubscriberbase.

As a visual example of howwidespread Open RAN is becoming, consider thefollowing map: this shows the Open RAN announced commercial networkdeploymentsaround theworld, fromthe research iGRconducted inpreparing


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thiswhite paper. Some of the commercial deployments, field trials and pilotsshownintheregionsbelowinclude:

§ UnitedStates:

o Dish has announced thatMavenir and Altiostarwill provide OpenvRANsoftware,MTIandFujitsuwillprovideradiounitsandIntelwillprovideitsFlexRANreferencearchitectureanditschipsformultiple,as-yetunnamedhardwarepartners.

o InlandCellular,asmallregionaloperatorinIdaho,isusingaParallelWireless-poweredradionetworkonDellserverswithIntelXeonD-2100processors.

o Optimera,aproviderinAlaska,isusinga4GParallelWirelesssystem.

§ Vodafone, Ireland: Isoperatingapproximately30ruralandsemi-ruralsiteswithParallelWireless.

§ UnitedKingdom:

o Vodafone:Hascommittedtodeploying2,600ruralOpenRANsitesinthe West of the country. Rural site’s using Mavenir as the mainproviderarenowbeinginstalledandtakenintoservice.

o O2:IsusingMavenirforsomededicatedprivatenetwork5Gtestbedsandtrials.

§ BhartiAirtel, India:UsingAltiostar foranOpenvRANdeployment inselectcities.

§ Indosat Ooredoo, Indonesia: In cooperation with Smartfren, the carrier isconductingOpenRANfieldtrials.


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Figure1:OpenRANcommercialdeployments

Source:iGR;companyreports;2020

Clearly,OpenRANisnolongeraregionalsolution,noronethatonlyappliestogreenfieldoperatorsorMNOsindevelopingregionsoftheworld.OpenRANhasbeendeployedtosupportlegacy2Gand3Gnetworktechnologies,aswellas4GLTEand5G.Ithasbeendeployedinthemostdevelopedandcompetitivemarketsintheworld,supportingsomeofthefastestgrowingregions.

TheseMNOshaverealizedsignificantsavingsinCapExandOpExandmanyhavediscussedthispublicly.ThebenefitsofdeployingOpenRANarereal.Consider:

§ Accenture stated that 5G deployments that used COTS hardware andOpenRANsoftwarehadseenCapExsavingsof49percentcomparedtotraditionaldeploymentoptions.

§ Senza Fili estimated the savings for a cloudRANdeployment tobe37percentover fiveyears,comparedtoaDRANdeployment.Specifically,the study showed a 49 percent savings in CapEx in year one and acumulative31percentsavingsinOpExoverthefiveyears.

§ StrategyAnalyticsmodelledtheTCOofOpenRANoverafive-yearperiod.Thismodelshowed40percentlowerCapExand34percentlowerOpExcomparedtoalegacyRAN.

Vodafone shared network performance information from its OpenRANdeploymentinTurkey.Vodafonestatedthatthenetworkhasachieved96KPIsinboth2Gand4Gnetworks;achievedQoSlevelsthatarealreadyacceptable(asofOctober 2019); and that, as of October 2019, that network optimization was


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ongoing,andtheyexpectedtoachieveallofthetargetKPIssoon.And inApril2020,VodafoneIdeaannouncedthatOpenRANhasbeendeployedonmultiplecellsitesandhasbeencarryingcommercialtrafficsinceDecember2019.

Rakuten is a textbook example of how Open RAN can support a nationwidemobileoperator.In2019,theJapanesecarrierwasthefirsttoimplementamulti-vendorRAN,usingproductsfromAltiostar,Airspan,Mavenir,Nokiaandothers.Nokiaopenedtheir radio interfaces toAltiostar’sBBUwhichwasrunningonaCiscovirtualizationplatform.Otherfunctionswithinthenetworkwerealsomulti-vendorsuchastheEPCfromCisco,andIMSandRCSapplicationsfromMavenir.Rakuten’snetworkbeganasanLTEnetworkconsistingofbothmacroandsmallcells.Thecompanyhassinceevolveditsnetworkto5GNRin2020.

InApril2020,DishNetworkannouncedthefirstvendorselectionforits5GOpenRANnationwidenetworkdeployment,usingspectrumDishhasacquiredoverthelastfewyears. Todate,Dishhasannouncedseveralvendorsfor itsOpenRANnetwork,includingMavenir,Altiostar,MTI,Qualcomm,Intel,andFujitsu.

This shows how cloud, virtualization, openness and vRAN architectures andpracticescanbeappliedtoanewnetworkdeployment.WithRakuten,alegacyvendoropenedtheirinterfacestosupportOpenRANradiosandbasebandunitsfrom other vendors. Rakuten’s CTO Tareq Aminhas said the Open RANframeworkhasprovedapproximately40percentlessexpensivethantraditionaltelecommunications infrastructure (Source: Light Reading; SDX Central, 2020).Accordingtopressreports,Rakutendeployedleancellsites,withonlyantennaandremoteradioheads,easingsiteacquisitionandreducingdeploymentcosts,andusesvirtualRAN(vRAN)forbasebandprocessing.

The takeaway here is thatOpen RAN is real; Open RAN can be, and is being,deployedincommercialnetworkstoday;theOpenRANcommunityiscoalescingandcoordinatingtomovedeploymentsalong;thecostsavingsarebeingrealized;andoperationalperformancerequirementsandKPIsarebeingmet.


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WhatisOpenRAN?

Fundamentally,theOpenRANconcept isaboutbuildingnetworksusingafullyprogrammable software-defined radio accessnetwork solutionbasedonopeninterfaces–radios,basestations,etc.– thatrunsoncommercial,off-the-shelfhardware(COTS)withopeninterfaces.Traditionally,mobilenetworkshavebeenbuiltwithclosed,proprietarysoftwareandpurpose-builthardware.Buttoday,mobilenetworkscanbedisaggregatedandbasedontheOpenRANconcept.

Inthiscontext,disaggregationmeansseparatingthehardwarefromthesoftware.The 3GPP introduced this concept in Release 14 of its specification with theControlandUserPlaneSeparation(CUPS)ofevolvedpacketcore(EPC)nodesandtheO-RANAllianceproducedtheOpenRANspecifications.With5GNewRadio(NR)in3GPPRelease15andbeyond,thissplitiscontinuedwiththeServiceBasedArchitecture (SBA). 5GNR further abetsdisaggregationby continuing the splitbetweencontrolanduserplaneallthewaydownintothe5Gbasestationsandradioswiththecentralunitanddistributedunit.

Themainreasonstomoveawayfromtheold,verticallyintegratedmodeltotheOpen RAN concept are those that drive virtualization of data centers andenterprisenetworksandthedisaggregationofhardwareandsoftware:

§ TakebetteradvantageoftherapidadvancesincomputingpowerdeliveredbyMoore’sLaw.Thedatacenter industryexperiencedasimilardisruptionbackinthe2000s.

§ Use software components tonotonly implement corenetwork, radioandbase station functionality, but also introduce new capabilities as they aredeveloped.

§ Use best of breed components and software in architecting building theinfrastructureforthenetwork.

§ Reduce capital and operational/maintenance expenses since there iscompetition among many different layers of the hardware and softwaresupply chain. Operation and maintenance of an Open RAN system issimplifiedbecausethehardwareisstandardized,standardizedinteroperableinterfacesandopenAPIsareused,DevOpsapproachescanbeutilized,andthesoftwaredoesnotrelyonpurpose-builtcomponents.

§ Enablingedgecentricarchitecture–multipleminidatacenterscanbebuiltclosertosubscribers,especiallyinhighpopulationareas,toservesubscriberneeds, support low latency connectivity for 5G applications and providescalabilityforbothdevicesandapplications.

§ Expand the supply chain for RAN solutions, thereby diversifying theecosystemofvendorsfromwhichMNOscanprocurenetworkequipment.


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TheOpenRANecosystem

TherearetwomainorganizationsdrivingOpenRANmovement:

§ OpenRANreferstotheprojectgroupthatisapartoftheTelecomInfraGroup(TIP).ThemainobjectiveisthedeploymentoffullyprogrammableRANsolutionsbasedonGPPP/COTSanddisaggregatedsoftwaresothatoperatorsandvendorscanbenefitfromtheflexibilityandfasterpaceofinnovationcapablewithsoftware-drivendevelopment.

§ TheO-RANAlliance is theothermaindriverof theOpenRANconcept,especially the efforts to standardize interfaces, in addition to the TIP.Founded in 2018 by AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTTDOCOMO and Orange, the O-RAN Alliance’s goal is to foster thedevelopmentofreferencedesignsandstandardssuchthatcurrentandfutureRANscanbebuiltwith“virtualizednetworkelements,white-boxhardwareandstandardized interfaces that fullyembraceO-RAN’scoreprinciplesofintelligenceandopenness.”(Note:TheO-RANAlliancewascreatedbymergingtheC-RANAllianceandthexRANForum.)

The following graphic summarizes the components of the O-RAN Alliance’sreferencearchitecture.

Figure2:O-RANAllianceArchitecture

Source:O-RANAlliance,2019


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ArecentimportantstepinthedevelopmentoftheOpenRANecosystemwasanalliance agreement between the two organizations to ensure they were inalignment indeveloping interoperable,disaggregatedandOpenRANsolutions.The new agreement allows the two groups to share information, referencespecificationsandconductjointtestingandintegrationefforts.

InherentinOpenRANissupportforexistingradioaccessnetworksinadditionto5GNonstandalone(NSA)andStandalone(SA)networks.Therearemanypartsoftheworldwhereallofthesevarioustechnologygenerationsmustbesupported;OpenRANactuallyallowsthattohappenonthesameinfrastructure.

Toachievethisgoal,theOpenRANmovementhelpsenableabroaderandvibrantopen ecosystem of complete solutions and solution components that takeadvantageof the latest capabilitiesofGPPs, bothat a software level andalsousing readily available programmable offload mechanisms such as field-programmablegatearrays(FPGA),andopeninterfaces.

Virtualizationandopenness

Itisimportanttounderstandthatvirtualizationandopennessarenotthesamething.Virtualization isdisaggregationofhardwareandsoftwarebyabstractingthesoftwareapplicationfromtheunderlyinghardware.ARANcanbevirtualizedbutnotbeopen–i.e.,thesoftwareand/orthehardwarecouldbeproprietary,ortheinterfacescouldbeclosed.

Being truly “open”means that there are reference designs and standards forhardwareandsoftwaresuchthatthereareopeninterfaceswithnoproprietaryinterfaces and/or hardware in the RAN. For example, a COTS remote radiohead/unit (RRH/U) from Vendor A will be able to talk via open interfaces to(proprietary) software running on a COTS server with (virtualized) networkfunctionsfromVendorB.

Notethatopennessdoesnotmeanthatallhardwareandsoftwarewillbetheidentical for all mobile networks. Vendors will compete to produce all of thehardwareandsoftwaresuchthatoperatorswillhaveabroadselectionintermsofscale,scope,featuresandcost.Duetotheopeninterfacesandstandardizedhardware, the network software will run on COTS and talk to hardware andsoftwarefromothervendors.Thiswill leadtoawiderprocurementecosystemfromdifferentvendors.

OpenRANcomponents

Thegoalof thispaper isnot todescribe indetail the technologies involved inOpenRAN–thevarioustechnologiesandarchitecturesarecomplexanddifficulttocoverinashortwhitepaper.Thereisarangeofnetworkarchitecturesthatareneededtoaddressthespecificneedsofdifferentmobileoperatorsaroundtheworld and it is expected that vendors will interoperate to create customizedsolutionstomeettheserequirements.


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Movingforwardintotheworldof5GNRwhich,in3GPPtermsareRelease15andbeyond, the specifications require the RAN to become a new, disaggregatedgroupingoffunctionalelements(ashasbeendiscussedearlierinthispaper).The5Gbasestation,knownasthegNB(asopposedtotheeNodeBoreNBinLTE),iscomprisedofseveralfunctionalunits:

§ Theradiounit(RU)whichcomprisestheRFchain,totransmitorreceivetheover-the-airsignalandprovidecorrespondingtransformationoftheanalogradiosignalandthedigitalsignals.

§ Thedistributedunit (DU)whichhandles the lower layers of thebasebandprocessingupthroughthePDCPlayeroftheprotocolstack.Inlegacysystems,thisrunsonaproprietaryhardwareappliance,buttoday’ssoftware(whichrunsonCOTS)allowsthisfunctiontobevirtualized.Sinceitisvirtualized,thisgivesflexibilityintermsofplacingtheprocessesatdifferentlocationswhichmayincludethecellsite,faredgelocationsand/orthecentralizedlocations.These functional splits are defined in the 3GPP specifications and theirplacementisselectedbasedontypeoftransportavailabletothecellsites.

§ Thecentralizedunit (CU)handlesallhigher layer functionsof theprotocolstackfromPDCPandabove.

Ashasbeenstated,thegoalofOpenRANistocreateopeninterfacessothatthehardwareandsoftwarefromdifferentvendorscaninteroperateandtalktoeachother. One key initiative is the TIP Evenstar program which has developed aRemoteRadioHead(RRH)thatwillbeavailableinthesecondhalfof2020.TheEvenstarRRHdecouplesthebasecomponentsoftheRRHandwillsupporttheO-RAN Central Unit-Distributed Unit (CU-DU) architectural split known as 7.2.Beyond this, other vendors including MTI, Gigatera Communications, NEC,AirspanandFujitsuhaveannouncedthattheyplantoprovideradiosinvariousconfigurationswhichwilladheretoOpenRANspecifications.

Thefollowinggraphicshowsthe4GRANandcorenetworkascomparedtothe5GRANandcore.


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Figure3:4GRANandtheCU-DUSplitinthe5GRAN

Source:TransportnetworksupportofIMT-2020/5G,ITU-TReport,February2018

Notethatin5G,theBBUfunctionfromLTEissplitbetweentheCUandDUandthisdependsonwhichpaththemobileoperatoristakingtoward5G,astherearemanyoptionsthataccommodateincumbent2G,3Gand4Gnetworks,aswellasthelevelofintegrationbetweenthecurrentnetworkandanew5Gnetwork.

The3GPPdefinedmultipledeploymentoptionsforcarriersthataremigratingto5GNRfromLTE.Twoofthemostlikelypathsare:

§ Option 1 toOption 3x toOption 7x toOption 4a toOption 2: This pathassumedthattheoperatoralreadyhasanextensiveRANandacorenetwork(EPC) that itwants to leverage before introducing a 5G core. The currentroadmapassumes thatOption3 isalreadydeployed, thatOption2willbedeployedwhenready,andthatthetwoconfigurationswillcoexistforsometime.Thispathinvolvesusingmultipleradioaccesstechnologies.

§ Option1toOption3xtoOption4atoOption2:ThispathalsoassumestheexistenceofaRANandcore,butthemovedirectlyto4aimpliesthat5GRANcoveragegetsbuiltout,the5Gcoreintroducedandthentheoperatormovesdirectlyto4aorOption2.

It is iGR’s understanding that themain differences between these two routesinvolvetheextentofthechangesandhowlongtheprocesstakes.Theseoptionsenableoperatorsto leveragetheexistingEPCthattheyhave intheirnetworksandallowforamigrationpathtowards5GC.ItappearsthatbothOption3and


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Option7,regardlessofthesub-type,areinterimstepsandtheamountoftimetheoperatorspendsineitheroptionwilldependonmanyexternalandinternalvariables.

And consider that regardless of how quickly mobile operators might want tomove in the migration, they will likely be required to support multiple radioaccesstechnologies(RATs)foratleast10yearsifnotlongerduetomarketandregulatory demands. Thus, the ability to support incumbent networktechnologiescost-effectivelybecomesevenmoreimportant.

IndustrychallengesthatdriveOpenRAN

ThelegacyRANvendorshaveprovidedsolutionsthatareproprietaryandsiloedforeachairinterfacegeneration.Byvirtueoftheirestablishedbaseoftraditionalmobileoperatorradioinfrastructure,thesevendorsmaypositionthemselvestoprovidesomeofthebenefitsassociatedwithvirtualizationandtheymaycomplywiththe3GPPreleasespecifications,buttheyarenotrequiredtoopenuptheirhardware/softwareinterfacestootherequipmentvendors.

Therefore, they continue to promote and provide only closed, proprietarysystems that are only in their best interests and not creating a future-proofnetwork for their operator customers, although it is completely within theircapabilitiestoday.Insomecases,thelegacyOEM’sreluctantdecisiontoopenupany part of their hardware/software architectures has been driven by therequirementsofsomeoftheirincumbentmobileoperatorcustomers.

Inpart,oneofthedriversforOpenRANhasbeentheneedtoexpandtheradioecosystem– the reality is that thereare relatively fewradiovendorsavailabletoday.Theradioisoneofthemostimportantcomponentsinamobilenetwork,it provides the link between the subscriber and the network and is thereforewidelydeployed.GrowingtheradioecosystemisthereforeseenasimportantforthesuccessoftheOpenRANmovement.

Deploying and maintaining/optimizing traditional networks requires a lot ofmanual labor and results in high cost. This can be addressed with theautomation/DevOpsapproachinOpenRANsolutions.DevOpshasbeendefinedas thepracticeofdevelopmentandoperationsandengineers (henceDevOps)workingtogetherfromtheservicedesignallthewaythroughthedevelopmentprocess to production support. And by introducing ContinuousIntegration/ContinuousDevelopment(CI/CD)modelsfromtheclouddomainsoftheITindustry,operationalcostscanbereducedsignificantly,andnewfeaturescanberolledoutfaster.

BenefitsofOpenRAN

Fromthemobileoperator’spointofview,benefitsofOpenRANinclude:

§ Lowercosts–bothCapExandOpEx


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§ Lowerdeployment times–UsingvirtualizedRAN,benefits likeautomationcan reduce the average time for deploying a site. And a virtualized RANcombined with centralization can be deployed faster than a traditionalarchitecturesincetheonlysiteinstallationrequiredisfortheradioandpower.The remainder of the installation uses remote software loads managedthroughcentraloperationcenterwhichdonotrequireanadditionalsitevisit.

§ Upgrade options from multiple vendors to future-proof the networkevolution.MNOsdonothavetodependontheroadmapevolutionofasinglevendortorolloutnewfeatures.

§ Minimizesthedangerofvendor lock-in- the incomingOpenRANvendor’sequipmentwillworkwiththeincumbentandfuturevendors’solutions

§ Easiertoscalebecausedisaggregatinghardwarefromsoftwarecanenablecarrierstorespondmorequicklyandinamoretargetedfashionwhentheyneedtoincrease/decreaseorrelocatecapacity

§ Abilitytoaddmassivescaleifneededusingwebscaleapproach.

The last bullet highlights one of themain architectural benefits of Open RANnetworks.Sinceedgecomputingisbeingdeployedbymobileoperatorsaroundtheworld,theedgecomputearchitecturecanbeusedforOpenRAN–containerscan be used to push changes (using automation) to the network, using theDevOps model. This means that the RAN is essentially following the samedevelopmentcurveasthedatacenterdid,withthecorrespondingbenefits.

Inaddition,tofurthersupportmobileoperatorsastheytransitionto5G,OpenRANalsosupportslegacy2G,3Gand4GLTEnetworktechnologies.

Movingforward,theneedtocontinuesupportingLTEwhilealsotransitioningto5GaddsmorecomplexitytoanalreadycomplexRAN.Notonlywillcarriersbeintroducing new frequency bands (such as mid-band/CBRS and mmWave),layering in new carrier aggregation schemes, adding small cell sites, addingcapacity to macrocells, coordinating capacity among small cell sites andmacrocells,swappingoutoldantennasfornew,theywillalsoneedtosupportedgecomputingsolutionsandnewapplications–VR/AR,IoT,etc.

Opening up the RAN so that operators can introduce comparatively lessexpensive COTS and best-of-breed software can help operators’ future prooftheir networks and become more flexible in their operations. This modelleverageswellestablishedpracticesfromtheclouddomainintheITworldandisapplyingthemintothemobiletelecomspace.


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OpenRANintegration

OpenRANisbeingdeployedinmultiplemarketsbymultipleMNOsaroundtheworld.Theyarelargescaledeploymentsinsomeofthelargestcountriesintheworld.

ItisimportanttounderstandtherearetwolevelsofintegrationrequiredwhendiscussingOpenRANnetworks:

§ OpenRANecosystemintegrationincludesthehardware,software,systemsintegrators,datacentersandMNOs.Inthiscase,thesystemsintegratorwillberesponsibleforintegratingacrosstheentiresolutionincludingintegratingopenradios.Toensuretheecosystemthrivesandperformsasrequired,theSImustbeimpartialandnotalignedorassociatedwithaspecifichardwareorsoftwarevendor.

§ SystemintegrationoftheOpenRANsoftwareonCOTShardware.Thislevelofintegrationissimilartowhatoccursinthedatacenterenvironment.Infact,manyofthesametoolsandprinciplesareused,whichfurthereasesOpenRANadoption.

§ Inadditiontothis,multiplevendorsfromtheecosystemcancometogethertoself-integrateandcertifytheirsolutionstocreateablueprintthatmobileoperatorscanusedirectlyintotheirnetworks.

Systems integration can be provided by a variety of companies and can beprovidedbyonevendorifneeded.ThissituationissimilartowhattheMNOsusetoday – there is no reason that Open RAN cannot be as simple and easy tointegrateanddeployastheRANistoday.

Despitethisactivity,manyofthosecriticaloftheopennetworkmovementandtryingtopreserveproprietarysystemsstillpresentargumentsagainstOpenRAN–theseareoldargumentsthatwereleveledinthepastbutarenolongerrelevant.Thefollowingtablediscussesthoseargumentsandwhytheynolongerapply.

Table1:EasytoCounter–theargumentsagainstOpenRANintegration

OLDARGUMENT DETAIL CURRENTSITUATION

1 MNOwillneedtointegrateOpenRANsolutionsthemselves

• SincemultiplevendorsarerequiredforanOpenRANdeployment,solutionisnotintegrated

• MNOwillthereforeberesponsibleforthecostofintegration

• NumerousOpenRANdeploymentsinliveMNOnetworks

• MultiplevendorshavedevelopedtheirOpenRANsolutionsspecificallytobeintegratedontohardwareandwithothersoftware

• SystemsIntegrationcanbedonebyvendorsoroperators


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• Thiswillleadtohigheroverallcostsanddelayedtimetomarket

• HardwareandsoftwarevendorshavefolloweddatacenterintegrationbestpracticeswhicharewellestablishedintheITworld

• MNOsthathavedeployedOpenRANhavesaidintegrationcostsarenohigherthanwiththetraditionalsingle-vendorapproach

• NotethattraditionalapproachtodeployingRANalsorequiresintegrationbetweendifferentvendors–forexample,forOSS/BSS,EPCandRANandthereareassociatedserviceagreementswitheachvendor

2 Highriskfornetworkreliability

• Sincenetworkelementsarefromdifferentvendors,networkreliabilitywillbecompromised

• Identifyingnetworkissueswillbemorecomplexduetothesolutionusingmultiplevendorsoftwareandhardware

• OpenRANnetworkdeploymentshavedemonstratedabilitytosupportlargesubscriberbasesandmeetnetworkperformanceKPIs

• NetworkmanagementtoolshavebeendevelopedforOpenRAN,meaningthatanyissuescanbequicklyidentifiedandresolved

• Modularitywillhelpoperatorsauditanddetermineproblemswiththeirnetworkfaster.

3 Loweroverallnetworkperformance

• Sincenetworkelementsarefrommultiplevendors,theoverallnetworkperformancewillbecompromised

• Disparatenetworkelementscannotbeintegratedtomaximizeperformance

• RealworldOpenRANnetworkdeploymentshavedemonstratedabilitytosupportlargesubscriberbasesandmeetnetworkperformanceKPIs.

• VodafonesharedKPIsfromitsOpenRANdeploymentinTurkeythatarecomparabletoKPIsfromthelegacyvendors

• Software-basedRANallowsformorerapiddeploymentofupgradedfeatures,therebyallowingtheoperatorfinetuneperformancefeaturesfortheirnetworkandrolloutadvancednewfeatureslikecarrier-aggregationtoboostperformance.

• DevOpsapproachwithCD/CIcanpushupdatesquicklytomanydifferentsites,allautomatedandorchestrated

4 LowerCapExsolutioncostsavingsnotrealized

• UseofdisparateRANvendorsresultsinhigherinitialcosts,sinceoverallvolumesarelowerthan

• ActualOpenRANnetworkdeploymentsbymultipleMNOshaveresultedinsignificantlylowercosts–bothCapExandOpEx(40percentaccordingtoRakuten)


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fromusingasingleRANvendor • NumerousTCOstudiesalsoproveandsupport

similarCapExandOpExsavings(upto40percent)

• COTShardwareisgenerallylowercost,duetomassivescalespreadacrossenterpriseIT,datacenterindustriesetc

• SoftwarecanbedevelopedandscaledquicklyandatlowercostusingmoderntoolsandpracticessuchasDevOps,etcleadingtoloweroperationalcosts.

5 Overallcostshigherthantraditional

• Evenallowingforalowersoftware-basedRANsolutiononCOTS,argumentisthattheoveralldeploymentcost(includingintegration)willbehigher

• ActualOpenRANnetworkdeploymentsbymultipleMNOshaveresultedinsignificantlylowercosts–bothCapExandOpEx(40%Rakuten)

• SomeMNOshavestatedthatOpenRANintegrationcostshaveactuallybeenlowerthanforthetraditionalapproach

6 Systemsintegrationlacking

• OpenRANsolutionshavenotbeenintegrated

• Argumentisthatsoftwaresolutionsarenotintegrated,andthatsoftwareisnotintegratedontohardware

• MultipleMNOdeploymentsshowthatdifferentsoftwarecomponentshavebeenintegrated

• Richecosystemofvendorsforradios,basebandhardwareandsoftwarearealreadyworkingtogethertoensureintegratedsolutionsareavailabletothemarket

7 Lesssecure

• Lackofintegration,argumentisthatOpenRANdeploymentsareinherentlylesssecurethanthetraditionalsingle-vendorapproach

• OpenRANdeploymentshavefolloweddatacenter,privatecloud,andenterpriseITintegrationandsecuritybestpractices

• MoreauditableinterfacesforanMNOtotakecontroloftheirownsecurityversusablackboxapproachbytraditionalvendors

• SecurityisajointresponsibilityacrossthevendorsandtheMNOversusasinglevendor

8 EcosystemnotdevelopedtosupportMNOs

• SinceOpenRANissonewanduntested,thereisnodevelopedecosystemofvendorstosupportthenationalMNO

• Therefore,theMNOwillberesponsibleformanyinstallation,maintenance

• OpenRANnowsupportedanddeployedbysomeofthelargesthardwareandsoftwarevendorsintheworld.Forexample,RakutenisusinganIMSfromMavenir,andOpenRANarchitecturefromCisco,AltiostarandNokiatocreateanE2Ecloudarchitecture.IpTandVodafonedeploymentsalsoutilizecomponentsfromdifferentvendors


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andoperationaltasksthemselves • Also,nowawiderangeofspecialistRANsoftware

vendorsdevelopinganddeployingsolutions

• Multiplevendorsintheecosystemwhoarecomingtogethertocreateblueprintsthatwillensurethesolutionsarenotonlyavailablebutwelltested.

• ManycompaniesintheecosystemsuchasIntel,Cisco,Fujitsu,MTI,VMware,Qualcomm,Airspan,NEC,Dell,RedHat,Quanta,GigateraCommunications,Xilinx,Sercomm,SupermicroandothershaveannouncedthatarebuildingorcontributingtoOpenRAN.

• TheradiohardwareecosystemisrapidlydevelopingwithTIPleadingtheEvenstarhardwaredevelopment.

9 OnlysuitedtogreenfieldMNOdeployments

• OpenRANdoesnotintegratewellwiththeexistinglegacy2Gand3Gdeployments

• Thenumberofactualdeployments,andthereforethescale,isthereforelimitedtogreenfieldMNOsonly

• MultipleMNOdeploymentsshowthatOpenRANcansupportlegacytechnologynetworksaswellasnew4GLTEand5Gdeployments

• SomeofthelargestMNOsaredeployingOpenRANfortheirrunninglegacyarchitecturenetworks

Source:iGR,2020


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OpenRANCaseStudies

Open RAN software and hardware vendors have been developing networksolutionsforthelastfewyears(theOpenRANProjectGroupwaslaunchedbytheTIPattheTIPSummitinNovember2017).Afterseveraltrials,thereareanumberofcommercialdeploymentswithmanymoreinthepipeline,aswellasnumeroustrialsbymajornationalandmulti-nationalMNOs.

Aspartoftheresearchforthispaper,iGRidentified22publiclyannouncedMNOsaround theworld using equipment frommultiple vendors, including Altiostar,Mavenir and Parallel Wireless, who had deployed Open RAN in commercialnetworks.TheseMNOshavecollectivelyjustover1.278billionsubscribersintheircommercialnetworksandoperateincountriesorregionswithatotalpopulationofnearly2.425billion.

Thismeansthattheseoperatorsareresponsiblefor21.9percentoftheworld’smobile subscriber base. Furthermore, assuming the current trials convert tocommercialdeployments,iGRestimatesthatby2025,OpenRANwillbeusedbyMNOsthatcollectivelyareresponsiblefor51.1percentoftheglobalsubscriberbase.

Clearly,OpenRANisnolongerascienceexperimentoraregionalsolution,noronethatonlyappliestogreenfieldoperatorsorMNOsindevelopingregionsoftheworld.OpenRANhasbeendeployedtosupportlegacynetworktechnologies,as well as 4G LTE and 5G. It has been deployed in the most developed andcompetitivemarketsintheworldsupportingsomeofthefastestgrowingregions.

TheseMNOshave realized significant savings inCapExandOpEx–manyhavediscussedthispublicly.Otherstudiespointtosimilarsavings:

§ Accenture stated that 5G deployments that used COTS hardware andOpenRANsoftwarehadseenCapExsavingsof49percentcomparedtotraditionaldeploymentoptions(Source:AccentureStrategy,2019).

§ GoldmanSachshasalsopublishedsomecostsavingsforOpenRAN:50percentCapExand35percentOpEx savings;andefficiencygains fromtaking 10minutes to deploy a virtualized radio site (Source: GoldmanSachsGlobalInvestmentResearch,2019).

§ Senza Fili estimated the savings for a cloudRANdeployment tobe37percentover fiveyears,comparedtoaDRANdeployment.Specifically,the study showed a 49 percent savings in CapEx in year one and acumulative 31 percent savings inOpEx over the five years. The CapExsavingsmainly come from reduced equipment costs in the virtualizedBBU. (Source:HowmuchcanoperatorssavewithaCloudRAN?Whitepaper,2017)


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§ StrategyAnalyticsmodelledtheTCOofOpenRANoverafive-yearperiod.Thismodelshowed40percentlowerCapExand34percentlowerOpExcompared to a legacy RAN. Strategy Analytics stated Open RAN costsavings of $93.852 per macrocell site excluding cell site costs and$204,390 permacrocell site including cell site costs. (Source: StrategyAnalytics,2019).

ThissectiondetailssomeofthemajorOpenRANdeploymentsaroundtheworld.

DishNetwork

DISH Network, through its subsidiaries, the company provides televisionentertainment to over elevenmillion customerswith its satelliteDISH TV andstreamingSLINGTV services. In2020, thecompanybecameanationwideU.S.wirelesscarrierthroughtheacquisitionofBoostMobile.

DISHhasinvestedover$20billioninwirelessspectrumassetstodatetoenterthewirelessindustryandiscurrentlybuildingtheUnitedStates’firstcloud-native,OpenRAN-based5Gbroadbandnetwork.ThecompanyhasparticipatedineveryFCCspectrumauctionsince2008 - its spectrumacquisitions include: theFCC’s2008700MHzauction;a2011acquisitionoftwosatelliteservicecompanieswithAWS-4spectrumholdings;theFCC’s2014HBlockauction;theFCC’s2017600MHzIncentiveauction;theFCC’s201924/28GHzauctions;andtheFCC’s2020CitizensBroadbandRadioService(CBRS)auction.

Utilizing Open RAN cloud-native wireless architecture, DISH plans to use itsspectrum to deploy the nation’s first virtualized, standalone 5G broadbandnetwork.DISHrecentlylauncheditsfirstOpenRAN5Gradioandantennatrialcellsite in Littleton, Colorado. DISH is expecting to cover 20 percent of the U.S.populationbyJune2022and70percentbyJune2023.

Todate,DishhasannouncedseveralvendorsforitsOpenRANnetwork,includingMavenir,Altiostar,MTI,Qualcomm,Intel,andFujitsu.

IpT

InternetparaTodosPerú(IpTPeru)launchedinMay2019.Thecompanyisownedby Telefónica, Facebook, IDB Invest and CAF banks. IpT Peru has deployedhundredsofnewmobilesitesinPeruusingtheParallelWirelessvirtualizedandautomatedOpenRANarchitecture.

WiththeParallelWirelessOpenRANController,IpThascreatedamulti-vendor,multi-operator, open ecosystem of interoperable components for the variousRANelementsandfromdifferentvendors.Allnewradiounitsareself-configuredby the software, which reduces the need for manual intervention. The self-optimization capability automates optimization across different RANs in IpTPeru'snetwork,utilizingavailableRANdatafromallRANtypes(macrosandsmall


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cells).ThisfunctionalityhasallowedIpTtocreateabusinessmodelwhereMNOscanpartnerwithlocalcompaniesthatfocusonruralcoverage.

IpTPerú,TelefónicaandParallelWirelesshavealso implementedanoperatingmodelbuiltontheprinciplesofthedatacenterwithcontinuousintegrationandcontinuousdelivery(CI/CD)thathelpstoacceleratetakingnewfunctionalitiestomarket fasterandsafer thaneverbefore, inaneasyandautomatedway.Thisapproachhashelped toestablishanewoperatingmodel to reduce IpTPerú'sOpEx,tobeabletomanagemuchfasterproductlifecyclesandtospeedupthedeploymentofnewapplicationsforcoverageandcapacityscenarios.

MTN

MTNplanstodeployOpenRANtechnologyatmorethan5,000ruralsitesinAfrica(includingZambia,MozambiqueandSouthAfrica)acrosstheir21operationsinorder to bringmobile connectivity to those regions.MTN has partneredwithParallelWireless,VANUandNuRANWireless.

AccordingtoMTN,thecompanyconcludedfieldtrialsinZambiain2018andhadbegun deploying commercial sites from the beginning of 2019. As of October2019,MTNdeployed200commercialruralsitesacrossitsfootprintusingOpenRAN.

MTNhasstatedthatOpenRANofferscostsavingsofupto50percentonthenetworksystemscomparedwiththecostof"traditional"radioaccessnetworkequipment.

NTTDoCoMo

Inlate2019,NTTDoCoMoannouncedthatalongwithFujitsu,NECandNokia,ithadachievedmulti-vendor interoperabilityacrossavarietyof4Gand5GbasestationequipmentcompatiblewiththeinternationalstandardsoftheOpenRadioAccessNetwork(O-RAN)Alliance.Thisequipmentwastobedeployedinitspre-commercial5Gservice.Theservicewasexpandedto45prefecturesasofJune2020.

Rakuten

In2019,Rakutenwasthefirsttoimplementamulti-vendorRAN,usingproductsfromAltiostar,Airspan,Nokia andothers. Rakuten’s networkbegan as an LTEnetworkconsistingofbothmacroandsmallcells.Thecompanyhasevolveditsnetworktodeploy5GNRusingsub6GHzradiosfromNECandacontainer-basedsolutionfromAltiostar.

Rakuten’snetworkisatextbookexampleofhowcloud,virtualizationandvRANarchitecturesandpracticescanbeappliedtoanewnetworkdeployment.Inthiscase, Nokia opened their interfaces to support the baseband solution fromAltiostar. In this network, Altiostar has virtualized the CU and DU to run on


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commerciallyoff-the-shelfhardware fromQuanta inavirtualizedenvironmentfromCisco. Rakuten’s CTO TareqAminhas publicly stated that theOpenRANframeworkhasprovedapproximately40percentlessexpensivethantraditionaltelecommunicationsinfrastructure.

Accordingtopressreports,Rakutendeployedleancellsites,withonlyantennaandremoteradioheads,whichismakingiteasiertofindappropriatecellsites.ByusingvirtualizedRAN,Rakuten is able todeployhundredsof sites ina fewweeks,leveragingcloud-scaleautomation.

Rakuten’snetworkusesacarrier-gradetelcocloudforallvirtualizedapplicationsfromRANtocorewhichincludesacommonorchestrationlayerontop.Centralandregionalsoftware-defineddatacenterswillbecapableoftensofterabitsofcapacity,horizontalscale,automationandanalytics.

Rakutenhastheabilitytohostavarietyofservicesandapplicationsatvariouscentralorfar-edgelocationsalongwiththeRANworkloads.Thisenablesvarioustypesofnetworkslicestobeenabled,formingthebasisforhowapplicationsaredeployedin5G.ThemobilenetworkisusingaControlandUserPlaneSeparatedpacket core, along with its distributed telco cloud, to enable mobile edgecomputingforbothinfrastructurefunctionsandavarietyoflow-latencyservices.

RakutenMobileNetworkhaslessthan10SKUsinordertoenableinfrastructurestandardization,leadingtonotonlyeconomiesofscaleinprocurement,butalsoreducedoperationalcomplexity.

Vodafone

Vodafonehasbeenheavilyengaged inOpenRANefforts fromthestartof theinitiative.Themulti-nationaloperatorhasstatedthatithasthreemaingoalsforitsOpenRANinvolvement:

§ Tospurinnovationthroughbuildinganecosystem,

§ Toenablesupplierdiversityand,

§ Toreducedeploymentandmaintenancecosts.

Vodafonerecentlynotedthat“theglobalsupplyoftelecomnetworkequipmenthasbecomeconcentratedinasmallhandfulofcompaniesoverthepastfewyears.Vodafone has claimed that a greater choice of suppliers will safeguard thedeliveryof services toallmobile customers, increase flexibility and innovationand,crucially,canhelpaddresssomeofthecostchallengesthatareholdingbackthedeliveryofinternetservicestoruralcommunitiesandremoteplacesacrosstheworld.VodafonehasbeentryingtodosomethingaboutthislackofchoicebyacceleratingOpenRANdevelopmentanddeploymentthroughTIP.Forexample,in Turkey, Vodafonewas able tomodernize its networkwith ParallelWirelessusingtheOpenRANarchitecture.


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VodafonehasdeployedOpenRANinruralandlowARPUmarketsaswellasmoreurban and higher ARPU markets. For example, Vodafone has used ParallelWirelesstohelprunlivetraffic inTurkey, intheDemocraticRepublicofCongo(DRC),andinIrelandandMozambique(Mavenir).

AttheTIPSummitinAmsterdam,Netherlands,in2019,Vodafonesharednetworkperformance information from its OpenRAN deployment in Turkey. Vodafonestatedthat:

§ Achieved96KPIsinboth2Gand4Gnetworks

§ AchievedQoSlevelsarealreadyacceptable(asofOctober2019)

§ Inthe2Gnetwork,KPIswereexceededwiththeTCHcongestionrateandthecallset-upsuccessrate

§ For 4G LTE, KPIs were exceeded on the RRC set-up success rate, theinterRAThandoffsuccessrate,theintraRAThandoffsuccessrateandthecircuit-switchedfallbacksuccessrate.

Vodafone stated that, asofOctober2019,networkoptimizationwasongoing,andtheyexpectedtoachieveallofthetargetKPIssoon.

VodafonehasalsoannouncedthatVodafoneIrelandisrollingoutOpenRANsitesacrossnorthwesternIrelandtodelivernew4Gserviceto30locations.RRU,DUand CU vendors include Parallel Wireless, SuperMicro, and Comba Telecom.Parallel Wireless’ Intelligent Controller is also used, located in a Dublin datacenteronHPhardwareusingVMwarevirtualizationsoftware.

OpenTestandIntegrationCenter

InSeptember2019,theOpenTestand IntegrationCenter (OTIC) initiativewaslaunchedbyagroupofglobaloperators,vendorsandsystemsintegrators.ThegroupincludesChinaMobileandRelianceJioalongwithparticipationoperators,vendorsandacademic institutionsrangingfromChinaTelecom,ChinaUnicom,Intel,Radisys,SamsungElectronics,Airspan,Baicells,CertusNet,Mavenir,Lenovo,RuijieNetwork, Inspur, Sylincom, Viavi Solutions,WindRiver, ArrayComm, andChengduNTS.

TheOTICwas founded to facilitateOEMandother open sourceproducts andsolutionstobefunctionallycomplianttothespecificationsoftheO-RANAlliance,throughverification, integrationandtestingofdisaggregatedRANcomponentsandtodeliverthedesiredarchitecturethatsupportsaplug-n-playmodel.

TheinitialfocusistoensurethatRANcomponentsfrommultiplevendorssupportstandardandopeninterfacesandcaninteroperateinaccordancewithO-RANtestspecifications.Additionalpartnerswillbeinvitedtojoinovertime.


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In late 2020, Deutsche Telekom hosted a plugfest in which multiple vendorsdemonstrated the capabilities of their radio access equipment. In Italy, TIMhosted a similar plugfest. In Spain, a Spanish service provider hosteddemonstrationsofOpenRANfronthaulandmidhaultransportwithequipmentfrom multiple vendors. In India, Airtel hosted a plugfest that, in part,demonstratedtheintegrationofradioaccesssoftwareandequipmentmeetingO-RANspecificationsfrommultiplevendors.AndinJapan,severalcarriershosteddemonstrationsofO-DU,O-CUandO-RUvendors.

Thegoal is todevelopanecosystemwithmanydifferentsolutionsfromwhichoperatorscanchoose.AndhavinggonethroughtheOTICprocess,thesesolutionswillbeassuredtoworktogether.Systemsintegratorscanalsoselectfromthesesolutionstobuildproductportfoliosthattheycanbringtotheoperatormarket.


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Vendorprofiles

This paperwas sponsored by Altiostar,Mavenir and ParallelWireless. A briefoverview of each company is provided here. See each company’swebsite formoredetails.

Altiostar

Altiostarprovides4Gand5GopenvirtualizedRAN(OpenvRAN)software thatsupportsopeninterfacesandvirtualizestheradioaccessbasebandfunctionstobuild a disaggregated multi-vendor, web-scale, cloud-based mobile network.Operatorscanaddintelligence,quicklyadaptthenetworkfordifferentservicesandautomateoperationstorapidlyscalethenetworkandreduceTotalCostofOwnership(TCO).AltiostarcollaborateswithagrowingecosystemofpartnerstosupportadiverseOpenRANsupplychain.TheAltiostarOpenvRANsolutionhasbeendeployedglobally,includingtheworld’sfirstcloud-nativecommercial-scalemobilenetworkwithRakutenMobileinJapan.

Formoredetails,gotowww.altiostar.com.

Mavenir

MaveniracceleratesandredefinesnetworktransformationforServiceProvidersbyofferingacomprehensiveproductportfolioacrosseachlayerofthenetworkinfrastructurestack—from4G/5Gapplication/service layertothe4G/5GRANandpacketcore.ThroughitsindustryfirstVoLTE,VoWiFi,AdvancedMessaging,Multi-ID, vEPC and Cloud RAN solutions, Mavenir’s platform enables serviceproviderstosuccessfullydeliverinnovativenewservices,lowercostsandrealizenewrevenuestreams.Maveniroffersafullyvirtualizedend-to-endportfolioofVoice/Video,MessagingandMobileCoreandAccesssolutions.

Formoredetails,gotowww.mavenir.com.

ParallelWireless

ParallelWirelessisaU.S.-basedcompanychallengingtheworld'slegacyvendorswith the industry's only unified ALL-G (5G/4G/3G/2G) software-enabled OpenRANsolution.Itscloud-nativenetworksoftwarereimaginesnetworkeconomicsforglobalmobileoperators inbothcoverageandcapacitydeployments,whilealsopavingthewayto5G.Thecompanyisengagedwith50+leadingoperators(e.g., Vodafone, IpT/Telefonica, MTN, Zain, Etisalat, Cellcom, Inland Cellular,OptimEra, Optus) worldwide. Parallel Wireless's innovation and excellence inmulti-technology,openvirtualizedRANsolutionshavebeenrecognizedwith72+industryawards.

InFebruary2020,ParallelWirelesswontwoGLOMOawards.Thefirstwas“bestmobileinfrastructureforglobalOpenRANdeploymentswithVodafoneandTIP


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foritssolutionsdeployedinTurkeyandtheDemocraticRepublicofCongo(DRC).Vodafone will now roll out the Parallel Wireless solution across Europe. Thesecondawardwas for itsOpenRANControllerandNetworkSoftwareSuiteasbestnetworksoftwarebreakthrough.

Formoredetails,gotowww.parallelwireless.com.


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AboutiGR

iGR is a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobilecommunicationsindustry.FoundedbyIainGillott,oneofthewirelessindustry’sleadinganalysts,weresearchandanalyzethe impactnewwirelessandmobiletechnologieswillhaveontheindustry,onvendors’competitivepositioning,andonourclients’strategicbusinessplans.

A more complete profile of the company can be found at http://www.iGR-inc.com/.

Disclaimer

TheopinionsexpressedinthiswhitepaperarethoseofiGRanddonotreflecttheopinionsofthecompaniesororganizationsreferencedinthispaper.AllresearchwasconductedexclusivelyandindependentlybyiGR.ThispaperwassupportedbyAltiostar,MavenirandParallelWireless.

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