ATIS and O-RAN Alliance MOU may be a prelude to Open RAN standards in North America
ATIS today announced it has executed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the O-RAN ALLIANCE to further both organizations’ mutual objectives to advance the industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and global standards-compliant mobile networks.
The MoU notes that ATIS and the O-RAN ALLIANCE will collaborate on advancing the state-of-the-art of open radio access network, including Open RAN security and stakeholder requirements for Open RAN. It also addresses the opportunity for ATIS translation of O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications to Open RAN standards to advance the adoption of Open RAN in North America.
“This agreement with the O-RAN ALLIANCE brings the power of ATIS’ 3GPP leadership and its contributions to the continued evolution of 5G, coupled with ATIS’ leadership for 6G and beyond as part of its Next G Alliance, to advance the development of open RAN technologies,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller. “The MoU combines the forces of ATIS and the O-RAN ALLIANCE to connect the present to the future for the open RAN ecosystem, advancing the promise of a robust open RAN marketplace.”
“Continuing the work toward open radio access networks is critical in unlocking the full potential of 5G in North America and will lay the foundation for future generations of wireless technology,” said Igal Elbaz, Chair of ATIS Board of Directors and Network CTO of AT&T. “ATIS and the O-RAN ALLIANCE combining their expertise and resources and ATIS’ adoption of O-RAN specifications to ATIS Open RAN standards will help accelerate the industry’s implementation of open RAN.”
The MoU also addresses participation, by invitation, in meetings of each other’s working groups where appropriate, and promoting and endorsing each other’s events (e.g., conferences and plugfests) or activities (e.g., publication of work results) in areas of mutual interest and with prior consent of the other party.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Analysis:
ATIS’ board is composed of top executives from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Ciena and Comcast. It’s the group that has previously addressed topics including secure supply chain, robocalls and hearing aid compatibility for cellphones. And it’s also the association behind the new Next G Alliance, which is working to organize a comprehensive U.S. strategy around future 6G technologies.
Also note that ATIS represents 3GPP in ITU-R WP 5D and presents all their IMT contributions on 5G/IMT 2020/ITU-R M.2150. If 3GPP ever includes Open RAN in its specifications, it’s very likely that those will be presented by ATIS to ITU-R for 5G or even 4G LTE.
“Standards-based open RAN will help create a more receptive marketplace for open RAN technology, advance its development and drive adoption in North America,” added ATIS’ VP of technology and solutions, Mike Nawrocki, in a statement to Light Reading.
In the U.S., Dish Network is in the midst of building a nationwide 5G network that adheres to Open RAN specifications. However, it’s unclear whether Dish will be able to profit from its embrace of open RAN. AT&T has told this author they are interested in deploying Open RAN for 5G if it is more economical than legacy RANs. Neither Verizon or T-Mobile has expressed interest in Open RAN.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
About ATIS:
As a leading technology and solutions development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) brings together the top global ICT companies to advance the industry’s business priorities. Our Next G Alliance is building the foundation for North American leadership in 6G and beyond. ATIS’ 160 member companies are also currently working to address 5G, illegal robocall mitigation, quantum computing, artificial intelligence-enabled networks, distributed ledger/blockchain technology, cybersecurity, IoT, emergency services, quality of service, billing support, operations and much more. These priorities follow a fast-track development lifecycle from design and innovation through standards, specifications, requirements, business use cases, software toolkits, open-source solutions and interoperability testing.
ATIS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The organization is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a founding partner of the oneM2M global initiative, a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and a member of the InterAmerican Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). For more information, visit www.atis.org. Follow ATIS on Twitter and on LinkedIn.
About O-RAN ALLIANCE:
The O-RAN ALLIANCE is a world-wide community of more than 300 mobile operators, vendors, and research & academic institutions operating in the Radio Access Network (RAN) industry. As the RAN is an essential part of any mobile network, the O-RAN ALLIANCE’s mission is to re-shape the industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and fully interoperable mobile networks. The new O-RAN specifications enable a more competitive and vibrant RAN supplier ecosystem with faster innovation to improve user experience. O-RAN based mobile networks at the same time improve the efficiency of RAN deployments as well as operations by the mobile operators. To achieve this, the O-RAN ALLIANCE publishes new RAN specifications, releases open software for the RAN, and supports its members in integration and testing of their implementations.
For more information, please visit www.o-ran.org.
References:
https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/open-ran-gets-helping-hand-in-us/d/d-id/782703?
https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/the-growing-pains-of-open-ran-/a/d-id/782247
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9946966
Dish Network to FCC on its “game changing” OpenRAN deployment
One thought on “ATIS and O-RAN Alliance MOU may be a prelude to Open RAN standards in North America”
Comments are closed.
According to ReportLinker: The global Open RAN market is projected to grow from USD 1.1 billion in 2022 to USD 15.6 billion by 2027, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 70.5% during the forecast period. Advantages such as solution flexibility, reduced costs and supply chain diversity is driving the Open RAN market growth.
The adoption of Open RAN services is expected to increase among service providers and enterprises with the increasing adoption of Open RAN solutions.The Open RAN market has been segmented based on services into consulting, deployment and implementation, and support and maintenance.
These services assist end users in reducing costs, lowering operational costs, increasing overall revenues, and improving business performance.
Sub-6GHz segment is expected to account for a larger market share during the forecast period
Businesses are already on the way to Sub-6GHz 5G.Huawei proposed bands below 6 GHz as the primary working frequency of 5G.
Qualcomm announced a 5G New Radio model system and trial platform.The 5G NR prototype system operates in the Sub-6GHz spectrum bands and is utilized to showcase the company’s 5G designs to efficiently achieve multigigabit per second data rates and low latency.
Mobile operators will continue to rely heavily on the Sub-6GHz spectrum. This is because it will take time for mmWave technology to be fully developed and harmonize the availability of the new spectrum bands.
Public segment to account for the largest market share during the forecast period
Public 5G wireless networks provide the same level of service and security to all clients.But the security risk is higher in case of public access and comes from the public sharing the network.
Also, when the network is busy, it can impact all users at the same time.The spectrum is usually owned by a mobile network operator (MNO), and in the public 5G network, the service and management are the responsibility of the MNO.
The public 5G network is intended for use by the public, with tens of millions of subscribers on a given nationwide network.
Among regions, Asia Pacific recorded the highest CAGR during the forecast period
Asia Pacific constitutes thriving economies, such as Singapore, Japan, China, India, and Australia, which are expected to register high growth rates in the Open RAN market.Asia Pacific houses many large countries with a wide population spread over remote locations and wide geographical areas.
Major leading companies such as Rakuten Mobile, NTT Docomo, KDDI, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and more are involving and contributing to Open RAN technology in Asia Pacific region which is driving the growth of the market.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-global-open-ran-market-is-projected-to-grow-from-usd-1-1-billion-in-2022-to-usd-15-6-billion-by-2027–at-a-compound-annual-growth-rate-cagr-of-70-5-301712449.html