The Telecom Infra Project is moving ahead with developing open-source mobile network equipment, announcing at its third annual summit in London the first requests for information from vendors interested in making new radio systems. Telefonica, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom are leading the efforts to design and adopt the new equipment.
TIP has several project groups focused on designing a more efficient radio access network (RAN) for different use cases. To bring together the work, TIP launched a new website outlining the various projects, how their work is complementary and its vision for end-to-end RAN solutions.The OpenRAN working group is among those that have moved to the stage of selecting vendors. In June, Vodafone and Telefonica announced RFIs to explore the market opportunities for RAN technologies built to be software-centric on commoditized hardware. Since then, Vodafone and Telefonica have contributed the joint specification to the OpenRAN Project Group and, at the summit, they announced Altiostar, Mavenir and Parallel Wireless as recognised vendors. The next stage will involve deployments in the field, with trials of OpenRAN platforms with Facebook at Vodafone Turkey and with Telefonica in Latin America.
In August, Vodafone and Telefonica released a second set of RFIs, for CrowdCell technology to boost indoor 4G coverage. The selected vendors for this project, announced at the summit, are Lime Microsystems and Alpha Networks.
The vRAN Fronthaul project group, working on RAN virtualisation where fibre is unavailable, has moved to the trial stage already and is actively driven by more than 10 operators, including Vodafone, CableLabs, BT, Telecom Italia, Orange, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The lead operators, CableLabs, BT, TIM and Airtel are all testing a range of vRAN solutions in TIP Community Labs, including G.Fast (BT), ethernet (TIM), microwave (Airtel) and Docsis (CableLabs).
In addition, the OpenCellular project group, working on rural RAN solutions, announced that the TIP Community Lab is using software from TIP members Nokia and Accelleran. Accelleran is combining the OpenCellular standard platform with its LTE software and support services, integrating with Nokia’s Kuha Community Management system. The resulting solution will be incorporated into the UK’s 5G RuralFirst initiative and move from lab test to field trial deployment.
