Europe’s largest wireless carriers are inching along on their collective push to deploy open radio access networks (RAN) across the continent, issuing the second phase of technical requirements for the open and disaggregated architecture.
Deutsche Telekom, Orange, TIM, Telefónica, and Vodafone said they’re particularly interested in energy efficiency requirements that could support their sustainability efforts through open RAN.
“It is expected that open RAN networks will gradually become more energy efficient than traditional RAN, benefiting from open RAN concepts such as cloudification, disaggregation, and native artificial intelligence (AI),” the quintet wrote in a joint statement.
The operators originally signed an agreement to individually and jointly commit to deploy open RAN technology, which separates hardware from software with open interfaces, in early 2021.
Security Gains Interest in Open RAN DevelopmentThe second wave of technical requirements details security aspects of open RAN, including risk-based threat modeling and remediation analysis work underway at the O-RAN Alliance.
The release update also “provides details on the Open RAN Security Focus Group activities, which focuses on developing the four security specifications that are the pillars of the open RAN security architecture. These include threat modeling, security requirements, protocols, and tests,” the carriers wrote.
Finally, the operators issued other requirements for service management and orchestration, lifecycle management, the non and near real-time variants of the RAN intelligent controller (RIC), APIs, and interface testing.
The first version of technical requirements imposed by the carriers focused on multi-vendor RAN, the open fronthaul interface, and interoperability between different radios, basebands, and legacy networks.
Proponents Claim Bountiful BenefitsOpen RAN proponents claim many benefits from the technology, including lower capex and opex, better security, and a more diverse pool of vendors across hardware and software.
Much of that remains unproven at scale or relegated to trials and labs. Moreover, open RAN largely remains a greenfield play. That dynamic could flip quickly if some of the world’s largest carriers can make good on their open RAN aspirations.
Many industry analysts understand the theoretical value of open RAN, but remain skeptical, particularly of its near-term viability in a large scale network. Meanwhile, some open RAN claims simply defy logic.
“You can’t increase the number of vendors and then claim it’s more secure,” Strand Consult CEO John Strand said in a phone interview.
Nevertheless, many of the world’s largest carriers have big hopes and dreams for open RAN.
Europe’s five largest carriers collectively called it “the technology of choice for future mobile networks” in early 2021.
Carriers Rapidly Put Open RAN to the TestTelefónica CTO Enrique Blanco in late 2021 said open RAN will comprise up to 70% of total radio deployments by 2025 “if everything is going well.” He also, in the final week of summer 2020, pledged to transition at least 50% of Telefónica’s markets to open RAN by 2025.
Vodafone recently cemented itself as the open RAN leader in Europe, claiming it will deploy the first commercial network of its type on the continent. The carrier previously deployed a trio of 4G LTE open RAN sites in the United Kingdom, and said it will activate 2,500 5G open RAN sites in the southwest of England and most of Wales, followed by broader deployments in urban centers.
Revenue from open RAN radios and basebands more than doubled in 2021, but the majority was purchased by Rakuten Mobile and its competitors in Japan, according to Dell’Oro Group. Dish Network, which has yet to deploy commercial 5G service and faces a rapidly approaching deadline to cover 20% of the U.S. population, was also likely a top buyer of open RAN gear.
There’s no doubt operators want open interfaces and more competition in the RAN market, but “progress of the technology, especially with some of the non-traditional or non-top 5G RAN suppliers has perhaps not advanced at the same pace,” Dell’Oro Group VP Stefan Pongratz wrote in a blog post.
He counts more than 20 suppliers with commercial or forthcoming open RAN products, including at least six with massive MIMO capabilities. Nearly half of all current suppliers only play in the small cell market, Pongratz added.
Dell’Oro still projects open RAN to capture 15% of the total RAN market by 2026. Global RAN revenues were in the range of $40 billion to $45 billion in 2021.