Juniper Networks today shared plans to integrate its radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller with Intel’s FlexRAN platform for open RAN development.

The vendor increasingly views open RAN as an opportunistic endeavor and claims it’s currently testing the RIC integration in labs and trials with some tier-one operators. Juniper’s RIC takes direction from the O-RAN Alliance and adheres to open interfaces and APIs, but the specialized features it adds on top are proprietary.

“RIC is like the brain for open RAN, and we also call it essentially the operating system of the RAN,” said Jai Thattil, director of strategic technology marketing at Juniper Networks.

While open RAN unlocks different components such as the radio unit, distributed unit, and central unit, the RIC operates in the middle as a kind of linkage to the wider network, he explained. “We see RIC as a key component that is helping operators to monetize their 5G services.”

Juniper Networks entered the RAN space earlier this year through a licensing agreement it inked with Netsia, a subsidiary of Turk Telekom Group, to provide the vendor with exclusive rights to its RIC source code and patents. 

“Even though we are not a RAN vendor, we need to build the ecosystem to showcase that our RIC will be working with different vendors as well as our customers, or the operator’s strategy,” Thattil said, adding that Intel is the first of many vendors it’s working with on that effort.

Juniper intends to differentiate its RIC from others by pre-integrating and validating the technology so operators can adopt it as part of a more comprehensive offering combined with other services. “Juniper is kind of in a unique position, compared to a lot of other vendors” because of its experience in 5G transport, network cores, service management and orchestration, according to Thattil.

The timing of commercial availability will be determined in part by ongoing development at the O-RAN Alliance on RIC interfaces and APIs, but trials and proof of concepts with multiple operators are underway and give Juniper confidence it’s on the right track, he said.