The Linux Foundation’s LF Networking (LFN) group is now home to the O-RAN Software Community (O-RAN SC).

The O-RAN SC was established in 2018 as a collaboration between the O-RAN Alliance and the Linux Foundation for open source radio access network (RAN) software development. The O-RAN Alliance has overseen specifications and governance for more than a dozen projects, while O-RAN SC has utilized LFN projects such as the OpenDaylight SDN controller, Nephio cloud-native orchestration tool, and the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) network automation manager.

LFN will now encompass the full RAN stack, including key tenets such as the service management and orchestration (SMO) framework, rApps, xApps, and RAN intelligent controllers (RICs).

“After eight years, the O-RAN Software Community successfully accomplished its mission to jumpstart open source RAN software closely aligned with the O-RAN architecture and specifications, supporting the RAN industry in building open and intelligent radio access networks,” Thomas Lips, chair of the O-RAN Alliance board and SVP for RAN disaggregation at Deutsche Telekom, noted in a statement. “Ever since, relevant open-source initiatives have continued to expand, and the O-RAN Alliance looks forward to further supporting the broader LF open source community in developing O-RAN consistent open source software."

The O-RAN SC integration follows various LFN efforts to advance development in AI-native networks such as 6G and open RAN. Last August saw the hub partner with the AI-RAN Alliance, as well as the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) on developing open RAN software.

It also comes as research house Analysys Mason expects open RAN and virtualized RAN (vRAN) architectures to account for more than 70% of segment vendor revenues by 2030. Dell’Oro Group is also hopeful of the overall market, though it holds doubts on the market’s openness.

“Long-term open RAN growth prospects remain favorable. Although near-term headwinds and business case challenges persist, the broader trajectory continues to point toward greater openness, virtualization, intelligence, and automation across the RAN,” the research firm noted. “We remain optimistic about the outlook for open RAN and cloud RAN in the latter part of the forecast period, though the attractiveness of the multivendor RAN model continues to be limited.”