SECURITY IN OPENRAN - Mavenir · 2021. 5. 19. · 8. Conclusion
Open RAN Integration: Run With It · 2021. 1. 25. · network, including Mavenir, Altiostar, MTI,...
Transcript of Open RAN Integration: Run With It · 2021. 1. 25. · network, including Mavenir, Altiostar, MTI,...
OpenRANIntegration:RunWithIt White Paper First Quarter 2021
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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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OLDARGUMENT DETAIL CURRENTSITUATION
• 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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OLDARGUMENT DETAIL CURRENTSITUATION
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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OLDARGUMENT DETAIL CURRENTSITUATION
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.