What is Open RAN and why could it be decisive in accelerating 5G deployment?

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona is a very interesting place for any telecommunications engineer. In the 2022 edition, the concept of Open RAN was repeatedly discussed.

What is happening with 5G?

The first commercial 5G deployments are already a reality in some countries, but this technology is still in development in most parts of the world. Deploying 5G networks is a huge challenge, especially due to the high investments required.

For this reason, telecom companies are forced to find new ways to monetize their infrastructure that add value. One option is to offer new services to different verticals. One thing that’s clear is that 5G will not only be for the end consumer but also for businesses and their business processes.

Every 8-10 years, with each generation (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G), telecom companies experience a strong investment push. To survive now, 5G needs to be launched, and doing so while optimizing costs is one of the key drivers of Open RAN.

What Open RAN is (and what it is not)

Open RAN introduces the concept of hardware and software disaggregation, which allows, among other things, for different suppliers to provide hardware and software components, thanks to the standardization of interfaces.

Traditionally, the telecommunications world has been dominated by four major companies, the vendors: Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and ZTE. These are the companies that have historically manufactured both hardware and software in telecommunications, often as closed packages that are very expensive for telecom companies to acquire.

To make a comparison with the mobile world (with some differences), the traditional vendors are like Apple, which sells its phones (hardware) with its operating system (software), as opposed to Google, with its Android operating system (software), which is installed on various mobile devices.

In telecommunications, the "Apple model" was the traditional one, meaning that any change a company wanted to make had to be requested from the vendor. This required significant investment and adapting to the manufacturer's timeline, which often hindered innovation. The rationale behind this system is that it involves critical infrastructure and must function perfectly. For the telecommunications industry, the standard is what is known as the "five 9s of availability," meaning the system must be operational 99.999% of the time. This is similar to saying that only an average of less than 6 minutes of downtime per year is acceptable in a cellular network.

But with Open RAN, the playing field opens up; the main telecom companies in Europe, Asia, and the United States are promoting this movement, based on a standard that allows any company to develop both software and hardware technology. The main proponents of this concept created the O-RAN Alliance, a global community of cellular operators, manufacturers, and academic and research institutions.

Open RAN refers to the use of open interfaces and software virtualization to implement the radio access network (RAN). In this way, the different software functions can be installed on general-purpose or specific-purpose hardware in terms of interfaces, processing capacity, and memory, but with a generic hardware design.

But with Open RAN, the playing field opens up; the main telecom companies in Europe, Asia, and the United States are promoting this movement, based on a standard that allows any company to develop both software and hardware technology. The main proponents of this concept created the O-RAN Alliance, a global community of cellular operators, manufacturers, and academic and research institutions.

This disaggregation allows for software development with a high degree of independence from hardware, making it possible to implement new technologies more quickly and not necessarily through costly hardware changes. It also encourages the emergence of new manufacturers in the ecosystem, in addition to the large traditional manufacturers who are now joining this business line. Some focus specifically on software, others on hardware, and some on both.

Since these are open interfaces, it is possible that some software functions are implemented by one manufacturer and others by a different one. In turn, many company alliances are emerging, some of which are well-known and have a long-standing presence in the IT industry. Ultimately, for the operator, a much more diverse and competitive world of options opens up than before.

What is happening in the world and in the region with 5G and Open RAN?

One very interesting development is what is happening in the U.S. market. After the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile in 2018, only three major telecom companies remained, along with Verizon and AT&T. In this context, Dish Networks emerged as the fourth competitor, determined to become a pioneer in all technological trends related to 5G. Dish set the goal (mandated by the country's regulator, the FCC) of reaching 20% of the market with 5G by June 2022. They managed to meet this goal just hours before the regulator's deadline.

This accelerated deployment, which involved bringing 5G to more than 120 cities, was partly made possible by using Open RAN, with a highly varied ecosystem of vendors and technology partners, in contrast to the traditional strategy. Choosing the Open RAN path allowed them to have more alternatives at a time when the supply chain and delivery times are a decisive factor in technological projects. Now, the company is aiming to reach 70% of the market by 2023, a huge challenge. They will need to turn to new options to meet their objectives.

There are also advancements in our region. In Colombia, operators like Tigo have already begun their Open RAN trials to cover rural areas more efficiently. They tested a new technology in areas where connectivity is harder to achieve, at a more suitable cost for return on investment, while also minimizing the impact on performance in case it didn't work as expected.

Meanwhile, various operators in Chile, the leader in 5G deployment in the region with over a million 5G customers, are intensely exploring Open RAN.

What Are the Challenges?

Opening the market to multiple vendors presents challenges that telecom operators must address. This is why Open RAN represents a unique opportunity for technology integrator companies. Having in-depth knowledge of the various hardware and software components across the entire architecture will become increasingly necessary.

Technology integrators that can quickly develop these skills will gain a high-value competitive advantage for telecom operators.