The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is funding further research and development of Open Radio Access Network (ORAN). The BMVI is supporting the establishment of an Open RAN Lab by 2024 with funding of around EUR 17 million. The laboratory is a test environment and development platform for researching, testing and developing Open RAN-based networks.
The aim is to accelerate the development of new products, processes and services and to advance industrial research. A consortium of companies taking part in the project support cooperative development using an open source strategy. Members include leader Deutsche Telekom as well as Altran Germany SAS/Capgemini Engineering, BISDN, EANTC, Fraunhofer-Heinrich Hertz Institute, highstreet technologies, Nokia, Telefonica, and the Technical University Berlin.
In the Open Lab, SMEs and start-ups have direct access to research projects, mentoring, and can test their applications. The laboratory will also develop open standards, for example through test procedures for data security, the implementation of security analysis as well as tests of software components and the identification of security-critical interfaces.
The government is also financing the project Protopolis carried out by Vodafone Germany to the tune of EUR 1.5 million. Vodafone will build a prototype network based on Open RAN technology at several LTE and 5G stations on the mobile network in Plauen. The goal of the project is to research and test integration of Open RAN components into the existing mobile network in real conditions. It also aims to collect information on how professional, secure and efficient operation of Open RAN can work.
Deutsche Telekom is receiving EUR 10.5 million to work on the O-RAN Town project. Telekom plans to set up Open RAN in the city of Neubrandenburg with the goal of conducting research on Open RAN in operation and to identify possible weak spots in the networks.
Finally, the BMVI is financing the O-RAN Ecosystem Enabler project conducted by Nokia with EUR 2.5 million. Nokia plans to set up a test centre for Open RAN in real conditions at the company location in Ulm. The test environment will be used for research and trials of interoperability of products and services from multiple providers. In addition, work at the centre will aim to develop applications to improve the quality of the O-RAN network, for example by optimising energy consumption. The intention is to use the Open RAN ecosystem for innovative approaches to the Internet of Things and 6G mobile communications.
