Issue link: https://hub.radisys.com/i/1302511
radisys.com 6 Radisys Series — Who Disaggregated My RAN? eBook 2. The O-RAN Alliance: An operator-founded organization defining standards for next generation RAN architecture and open interfaces across all use cases with a heavy focus on operator deployment needs and to help build a supply chain eco-system. 3. The Small Cell Forum: Focuses on accelerating small cell deployments, removing commercial & technical barriers, gathering requirements globally from service providers and enterprises and defines FAPI (functional application programming interface) and network FAPI (nFAPI) standards for 4G and 5G. While the launch of so many initiatives demonstrated the industries desire to break free from a traditional proprietary model, it also had some unintended side effects. First of all, it created some confusion. Since all of them were focused on the RAN issue, the abbreviations and names for the initiatives were all similar sounding - CRAN, VRAN, DRAN, O-RAN, OpenRAN, Open RAN etc. This also led to a perception that these standards are not aligned and do not interoperate well together. But just as with any soup, there is often a depth and richness that goes beyond what can be seen at a quick glance. How it All Falls in Place To help clear up some of the potential alphabet soup confusion, it's important to be clear on the terminology. The term "Open RAN" is a broader term for RAN solutions built on open commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and open interface standards. Radisys has been at the forefront of the Open RAN movement and has been involved in a number of these key initiatives. We've seen first-hand how these standards initiatives align to standardize architecture based on real- world deployment scenarios. Ultimately, they work together to accelerate deployment of solutions based on Open RAN philosophy. 1. The O-RAN Alliance bases its specifications on 3GPP specifications and liaises with 3GPP and other standards organizations as required. The O-RAN Alliance has a dedicated working group on white box hardware. 2. Recently, TIP signed a liaison agreement with the O-RAN Alliance. This agreement enables TIP's OpenRAN projects to refer to the O-RAN Alliance specifications. TIP focuses on open hardware designs to enable quicker adoption and deployments. 3. The Small Cell Forum has a formal liaison with the O-RAN Alliance to work on alignment for small cells and DU solutions based on Open RAN. Momentum for Open RAN All of the above is good news for operators looking for Open RAN solutions and for vendors enabling this evolution.