A new report from
Maturity, security and energy efficiency are becoming increasingly important as the technology enters a new phase in its development, and throughout 2022, the companies have encouraged open discussions around these topics. With global deployments now reaching tens of thousands of sites (mainly executed by new operators in greenfield deployments), Open RAN is closing the gap with traditional mobile radio networks in terms of feature parity and performance, and further pilots are planned this year, leading to full-scale deployments across
Entitled 'Open RAN MoU Progress Update on Maturity, Security and Energy Efficiency,' the report also outlines the key areas of focus for the operators in 2023. These include assisting with the development of Open RAN technologies to allow for wider deployment in highly populated towns and cities than is currently possible, strengthening cooperation with national authorities on security, including the
This is the latest in a series of reports available to vendors, existing and new, as well as other operators and stakeholders of the new Open RAN ecosystem from
Today's report sets out the operators' agenda for 2023 under the three main topics of maturity, security, and energy efficiency. In summary they are: Maturity
The technology gap between traditional RAN and Open RAN is closing. Considerable Open RAN deployments are already visible in markets such as the
The operators continue to cooperate with the relevant national authorities to share information on security, implementation, and management of Open RAN. In the last days prior to the industry trade show MWC23, the companies requested to formally include Open RAN as part of the GSMA security assurance scheme (NESAS) and the EU's 5G certification scheme defined by ENISA.
Reports such as the
As a result,
- Apply all the mandatory controls defined by the O-RAN ALLIANCE and 3GPP security specifications themselves and throughout the supply chain.
- Follow a 'zero trust' approach to every vendor as they do today, and ensure industry established standards and specifications such as 3GPP and O-RAN ALLIANCE, requirements from national authorities and risk profiles of vendors are correctly captured and assessed during upcoming operator procurement processes.
- Address outstanding gaps in security specifications through the O-RAN ALLIANCE. For example, the
Energy Efficiency:
The availability of energy efficient hardware combined with 'sleep modes' is helping Open RAN at least match the energy efficiency of existing mobile sites. Open RAN MoU operators are collaborating with the industry to increase the energy efficiency of all the Open RAN components, with particular focus on radio transmitters and cloud infrastructure.
As in traditional mobile networks, the Open RAN radio units (the transmitters) consume the most power. Currently, their energy efficiency already falls within the typical range seen with traditional RAN, and will further improve thanks to dynamic sleep mode based on actual traffic needs.
The operators also note that the energy efficiency of cloud infrastructure is improving, thanks to advancements in CPU and 'accelerator' (special silicon chip) technologies, as well as cooling systems for servers. In addition, the operators are proposing a general framework for energy monitoring of all appropriate parts of the Open RAN system, including real-time reporting, tools and methodologies to achieve greater automation. The aim is to present the resulting framework for standardisation in ETSI for a harmonized methodology to be used across the whole industry. Note to Editors
Open RAN signatory quotes
Michael Trabbia, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Orange, said: "The significant progress made recently by the Open RAN industry has given us the assurance that open and cloud-native RAN is now geared up for first commercial deployments in brownfield networks within
About the Open RAN MoU
Under the Open RAN MoU, the companies are preparing technical guidelines as inputs to industry bodies to help new and existing vendors develop software and hardware that is interoperable. The purpose is to foster a competitive Open RAN ecosystem, promoting openness and flexibility. The Open RAN MoU group of signatories also agreed to further advance various aspects of the Open RAN ecosystem through a set of actions. These include the active participation in Open Ran focused R&D projects, the support for edge computing initiatives in
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