Connecting Rural Communities: Can 5G and Open RAN help bridge the broadband divide?

19/11/21, 7:30 am

Open RAN: the game-changer

Open RAN is also helping to make 5G more economically viable given its advantages of open interfaces and component-level interoperability. The functional splits enabled by Open RAN architecture offers possibilities to further optimise network design. For example, the ability to aggregate certain RAN functions in Centralized Units (CU’s) helps reduce network cost and complexity. Additionally, increased competition driven by open RAN interfaces unleashes innovation and invites new RU vendors to the market, offering operators the ability to deploy best-of-breed solutions. The industry is already seeing several RU reference architectures being developed to bring new RU products to market.

Open RAN has also enabled neutral host architectures. In this shared infrastructure setting, a neutral host provides towers and other physical infrastructure and allows different providers access and co-location facilities to connect and offer services. Sharing infrastructure in this way reduces the cost and ideally provides a platform for more players and innovators than would a typical, closed mobile network. Cloud-native 5G RAN enable multi-operator RAN (MORAN) and multi-operator core network (MOCN) architectures, creating new economically viable alternatives to support rural buildouts.

Open RAN-based neutral host infrastructure

Shared infrastructure is highly advantageous in the 5G world. In a shared infrastructure network built on Open RAN, network components, applications, physical infrastructure and even spectrum are decoupled. Open RAN radio units support multiple bands and open interfaces to any other vendors’ DUs and CUs. The open environment allows new vendors and innovators to participate and compete with a greater ability to focus on solutions for specific geographies and use cases.

Some countries are encouraging greater private sector participation to explore these possibilities. O-RAN’s open ecosystem, coupled with shared infrastructure initiatives like the UK’s NeutrORAN project, brings added advantages to make the use cases in low density and remote locations more viable. The NeutrORAN approach, supported by NEC’s 5G Center of Excellence (CoE), aims to not only reduce cost and maximise the value derived from 5G infrastructure but also open a 5G B2B2x environment for additional ecosystem participants to leverage this open, shared infrastructure.

For example, CSPs can enable enterprises to build out private 5G extensions of their global corporate network. State and local governments or enterprises may evaluate opportunities to monetise existing public infrastructure, e.g. to support V2X initiatives. Other innovators will be able to identify and address opportunities in markets where CSPs otherwise might not risk or invest in engaging specific communities in new ways, e.g. public safety. With a more open 5G community comes more opportunity for more viable players to address market needs that may have been underserved, unidentified or simply not prioritised in the past.

Closing the broadband gap

Closing the gap in broadband access is a critical economic issue that public-private technology and policy initiatives increasingly aim to address. NEC will continue to be an early adopter of open-network initiatives, just as it did with SDN/NFV more than a decade ago and now with Open RAN. Jointly working with its global carrier customers and supporting public-private initiatives, we remain optimistic that the next 5 years will see accelerated progress in addressing this important issue.