Open RAN: Is it destined to be closed?

June 15, 2021

Overview
Open RAN: What is It?
• An industrywide set of standards for
Radio Access Network (RAN)
interfaces aimed at shaping 5G
network deployments.
• The goal is to create interoperability
between vendor equipment.
• In theory, carriers won’t have to rely
on a single RAN hardware vendor.
• Instead, they can build their 5G
networks using best-of-breed
hardware options across the
ecosystem.
• Open RAN standards use virtual RAN
technology, which separates the
networking functions from
Source: O-RAN Alliance
hardware. Functions are instead run
as software.
Overview
The Open RAN Market: Small but growing
• With backing from mobile operators, Open RAN is gaining momentum.
• Omdia projects Open RAN will generate about $3.2 billion in annual revenue by 2024, up from just
$70 million in 2020.
• However, Omdia also notes that
Open RAN sales will claim only
9.4% of the total 4G/5G equipment
market sales by 2024.
• And it notes that Open RAN
creates a potential dilemma for
large equipment vendors because
it cannibalizes traditional mobile
equipment sales.
• Many mobile carriers are
hesitating to adopt Open RAN
until a clear ecosystem develops.
Source: Omdia
Open RAN
Its importance in transforming the
mobile network
 The closed RAN

Information Classification: General

 TIP Open RAN reference architecture

Information Classification: General

 O-RAN alliance reference architecture
Service Management rApps
and Orchestration RAN Non Real Time Control

Infrastructure Management Policy RAN Management Radio Management

Core RAN xApps Radio

RAN
Network RAN
RAN Near Real Time Controller
Control Control
Centralized Unit Distributed Unit

CP/DP Midhaul
Backhaul Fronthaul

Distributed Cloud Infrastructure

Information Classification: General
 Future mobile network
Service Management
and Orchestration AI Ops Applications

Infrastructure Management Policy RAN Management Radio Management

Mobile Network Radio

Network Controller Applications

Control
Fronthaul
CNF CNF CNF (Radio disaggregation)
VNF VNF VNF
VNF VNF VNF

White box
Distributed Cloud Infrastructure
hardware
Information Classification: General
 Open RAN just part of a software driven network

Information Classification: General

 The reality of Open RAN market
End of hype cycle, but still to cross the chasm

Early Mainstream
Market Market

Hype cycle finished before

market adoption starts

The
Chasm

Information Classification: General

 Open RAN forecast

Information Classification: General

 New Open RAN ecosystem spending

Information Classification: General

Strengths Opportunities
• Reduced or constrained CAPEX • System blueprints

• Automation and reduced OPEX • Best-of-breed integrated solutions “One hand to shake”

• Supplier diversity and flexibility • Agile software lifecycle management

• Enables best of breed selection • Energy Management

• Futureproof network • Integrated Edge Applications (Private Networks)
• Innovation speed

Weaknesses Threats
• Leading edge radio technology complexity • Telco Innovation reality

• Onboarding and testing RAN network functions • Timelines for removal of Chinese equipment

• System Integration explosion • Network delivery and management

• Testing and certification processes • Outsourcing of risk – “One neck to squeeze”

• Performance • Sustaining Innovative players

• Security • Lack of CSP ambition

 Our Analyst Team

Francis Haysom, Partner & Principal Analyst

Francis has 25+ years of experience in telecoms BSS and OSS software. Francis provides a unique combination of
management and technical acumen, combined with 25 years of successful innovation.

Responsible for innovation and strategy in Ericsson Software Solutions and previously Telcordia. Within this role
he set, reviewed and presented the strategic direction of both product and customer program delivery. VP - OSS
Architecture at Cramer Systems and later Amdocs OSS. As an initial employee of Cramer, he was responsible for
the development of its professional services organization and its strategic deployment architecture. He has led
BSS development teams at BT and Convergys.

Dr. Haysom received his PhD from the University of Bath and a BSc in Engineering Science from the University of
Exeter.
Information Classification: General
About Appledore

Appledore Research is a global research and consulting

firm specializing in the telecommunication and
software market.

Our clients include global software and infrastructure

suppliers, CSPs, and investment banking firms.

Our analyst team brings 20+ years of experience driving

change at both CSPs and major suppliers in the
industry.

Appledore Research
@AppledoreVision
 Copyright

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Information Classification: General

LIGHTREADING WEBINAR

Open RAN: Is it
Destined to be
Closed?

Stephen Douglas – Head of 5G Strategy

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Open ambitions

RU
Optimize
Costs
Spur
Innovation
Improve
Coverage
Vendor
Diversity
(Best of Breed)

DU / CU
Open Fronthaul
Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 18
WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Many stakeholders

CSP’s & NEP’s Industry Bodies Government SI Eco-systems

Multi-vendor pre-validated
eco-systems:

SONIC Notice of
Open Network
Funding Global SI’s:
Interoperability Centre Inquiry

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 19

 WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Many options

Deployment Frequency O-Cloud Synchronization

RAN Sharing
Topologies Support Architectures Profiles

Split 7.2x & 2 4G MORAN Containers

Disaggregated RU Shared cDU cCU-CP cCU-UP
Low (MHz) Mid (MHz)
GNSS Sync
RU DU CU Site Shared Containers
Split Split 2 200-900 1800-2600
7.2x

Spectrum A B COTS & GPPs HW ACCL.

PTPv2 SyncE
Co-Located DU/CU
Ethernet L2
DU RU
RU Split 7.2x
DU CU 5G MOCN Virtual Machines Ethernet L1

Mid (GHz) High (GHz) RU Shared cCU-UP S-Plane

Class B,
Co-Located RU/DU Synch
3.3-4.2 26-39 Site Shared cCU-CP Containers BC Device
Synch Flow
RU DU CU
Split 2
Spectrum Shared Virtual Machine

COTS & GPPs

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 20

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Many challenges
What are the biggest challenges you see for Open RAN in the near term?

Multi-vendor interoperability 40%

Maturity
Performance & robustness 18%

Risk New Security overheads 14%

New O&M overheads 12%

Cost
New SI overheads 11%

Other 5%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Source: Spirent Survey, March 2021, 124 respondents

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 21
WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Many timelines & pathways

Is Open RAN mature for use and how will you start your journey?

Mature
for use
~15% Single Vendor (to start with)

1-2 years Mature for ~40% Multi-Vendor (1-3 years)

away limited use
~45% Still Investigating

Source: Spirent Market/Customer review, Dec 2020, ~40 CSPs

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 22

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Testing becomes critical for an Open eco-system

Key test considerations

Conformance, Interop. & Scalability & Integration &

1 3 4
Synchronization Performance Performance

UE OPEN RAN RIC

E2 CORE
4G
F1 / X2 X2 / S1 / N2
RF
FRONTHAUL MIDHAUL
5G RU DU CU BACKHAUL

Functional & Security

2 5 O-Cloud Performance
Performance

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 23

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Keeping it Open with an efficient testing strategy

Open RAN Testing Strategies

Automated “Continuous” testing

RU
Vendor(s) Isolation “Wraparound” testing Progressive “Adjacency” testing “End-to-end” testing
DU
releases | updates | config changes
CU

Nodal Adjacent End-to-End

✓ Conformance Testing
S Core S
S CU Core S

✓ Interoperability Testing
S CU S RAN Core S
S DU CU S S

S DU S
S RU DU S
S RU S
✓ Performance Testing

S Spirent Test & Emulation Functions

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 24

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Digital
Example:Twins
Open RU Testing
PERFORMANCE TESTS PARAMETRIC TESTS SYSTEM TESTS

OFH
DUT DUT SUT
Xn 7.2x Xn
OFH 7.2x
S S RU S S RU VSA S CU/DU RU
N2/N3 C | U | S | M Planes N2/N3 OFH
7.2x
5G CORE CU + DU RF CHANNEL UE CU + DU 5G CORE UE
EMULATOR EMULATOR EMULATOR EMULATOR EMULATOR VSG EMULATOR EMULATOR

Isolation “Wraparound” testing RF Parametric Tests Progressive “Adjacency” testing

• 5G PHY Layer can be tested independently – real-time or waveform
• DU providers real-time logging of PHY layer operations with time stamps
• C/U/S/M plane messages logged in real-time w/time stamps

• Wraparound / Nodal testing is critical to assure a multi-vendor network

• Automation is key to lowering costs and ensuring repeatable quality
• Test system components can be virtualized and reused

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 25

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Digital
Example:Twins
Open CU Testing
PERFORMANCE TESTS SYSTEM TESTS

DUT SUT
Xn F1 5G Xn F1
S CU S CU S
N2/N3 CORE N2/N3

5G CORE DU / RRH / UE(s) DU / RRH / UE(s)

EMULATOR EMULATION EMULATION

Isolation “Wraparound” testing
• Functional validation of F1, Xn, N2, N3
• gNB-CU sclability vs gNB-DUs
• gNB-CU control and user plane performance
Integration testing
• Service’s analysis: design, QoE, QoS
• 5GC readiness for gNB-CU scale
• Transport design for user plane scale

• Wraparound tests can also extend to the CU – the linchpin to network virtualization
• Incremental testing / experimentation of network / RAN elements
• Completely aligned with a Cloud Native approach to services

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 26

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Time synchronization is critical

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 27

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Faster, Frequent, Multi-Vendor Releases

Traditional RAN – 12-18 Month View

Single RAN
Vendor

R1 R2 R3

Open RAN – 12-18 Month View

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 … 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3

Vendors 1, 2, & 3
RU
1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22
Vendor 4
DU / CU
4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 5.0 5.1
Vendor 5
O-Cloud

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 28

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Digital Twins
Automated Continuous Testing (CT)
with automated CT
Vendors Continuous Testing Environment
65%
Outputs
Vendors Product Test Scripts
CSP 75% 90%
Automated Test Suites
Vendors
Feedback

Test Tools
Vendors
Test Final • Test Results
Emulators | Traffic Generators
Results Output • Automated Test
Suites & MOPs

Time Cost Errors

Develop Deploy Optimize

Lab Testing Continuous Testing Continuous Monitoring

(Active Test)
Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 29
WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Continuous monitoring with Active Testing

• Cost Efficient E2E visibility (SW Test Agents) Automated Service Pro-Active Rapid Fault
Continuous
Change Mgt.
Activation Monitoring Isolation
Validation

• Automatically ensures the network is Active Testing

ready for service SW Test Agents (VNF | CNF | PNF)

Orchestration Data & Metrics

• Proactively monitors performance

• Progressively tests to rapidly isolate S RU DU S CU S CORE S

issues across domains & paths

• Continuously re-validates efficacy before S ACTIVE TEST AGENT:

and after changes Emulates UE / Network Function

Injects Synthetic Traffic

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 30

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Digital Twins
Rapid Fault Isolation

P100 B
Issue rapidly verified & isolated with Rapid Fault Isolation
Network Issue Predictability

(within minutes)
P C
Active Test(s)

Issue slowly qualified

& roughly isolated 75%
(after hours/days) 80%
90%

P A

Escalations MTTR Customer

Churn
T = X min T = X hrs
S Time 
Active Test detects a potential problem

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 31

WEBINAR: OPEN RAN: IS IT DESTINED TO BE CLOSED?

Safely accelerate Open RAN adoption with Spirent

RF Open RAN test & emulation Core test &

emulation & O-Cloud validation emulation

UE OPEN RAN RIC

E2
CORE
4G
eCPRI F1 / X2 X2 / S1 / N2
RF
FRONTHAUL MIDHAUL
5G RU DU CU BACKHAUL

Field test Transport, Synch & Security test solutions

Continuous Test & Automated Assurance S

Proprietary and Confidential Spirent Promise Assured 32

 Helping Open RAN

Ensure Realize cost

Continuously
interoperability, efficiencies &
validate performance,
collaboration & open
security & robustness. innovation benefits.
eco-systems.

THANK YOU
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