Beyond vendor diversity with Open RAN
Governments worldwide – including in the UK – have made it a key objective to increase vendor diversity in their telecommunications networks. Open-interface solutions like Open RAN can help them achieve that.
The UK is a leader here. It’s forged ahead of other governments with big efforts to support the development and adoption of Open RAN – not just with talk but action. UK Government recently announced its Open RAN principles and it’s earmarked £250m funding for Open RAN development.
The intersection between Open and private networks
Open RAN is a new way of deploying networks, and there is enormous potential for it to encourage vendor diversity. There is also enormous potential in the intersection between Open RAN and 5G private networks.
A 5G private network provides a private mobile network exclusively for use by a single organisation to operate a range of authorised devices. This includes private operational networks for airports like the one at Cologne Bonn or advanced manufacturing facilities such as Ford’s Dunton Campus.
As 5G expands the mobile ecosystem into new industries it helps technology innovation flourish in new and different ways, including:
precision agriculture
construction and mining
digitised education
connected healthcare
richer mobile experience via in-venue solutions
smart manufacturing
intelligent retail
smart cities.
These are widely diverse uses with specific and individual needs. What a rural Dorset farm needs for per plant farming will differ wildly from a big US retailer monitoring stock levels in its flagship Arkansas store. And different functional needs need different and often very specific solutions to meet them.
Mixing and matching
Open RAN interfaces – defined and built on global standards – provide a new way of deploying mobile networks. They offer a new level of flexibility, too. When you apply that to 5G private networks, you can mix and match different vendors’ components or solutions to meet the demands of the task you’re trying to achieve or the environment you’re trying to create.
Beyond that, 5G private networks built on Open RAN standards also create whole new commercial opportunities. Mobile networks can monetise their expertise and existing spectrum assignments beyond airtime and handset customers into new areas like building networks for the verticals mentioned above.
Collaboration is crucial
At the forefront of 5G, Qualcomm is also leading the way on private networks and Open RAN. Through technology innovation, partnering, and contributing to standards, we’re enabling high performing 5G private networks to meet the needs of businesses and public sector bodies worldwide.
Collaboration between Governments, vendors and networks will be crucial to the success of Open RAN. To drive its development forward, we’ve recently announced we are working with Vodafone to develop Open RAN blueprints, with Mavenir to accelerate their next-gen 5G infrastructure and with Fujitsu to develop a global mmWave Solution.
On top of these partnerships, our engineers are collaborating on standards with organisations like 3GPP, the ORAN alliance and the Small Cell Forum, especially on the 5G FAPI standard. An essential part of Open RAN technology in 5G private networks, FAPI is a good example of our approach to building horizontal technology foundations.
Horizontal foundations let you deploy innovative, high-performance, virtualised, and disaggregated 5G networks at scale. Another reason that Open RAN is the ultimate 5G private networks catalyst.
