In the aisles of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the global telecommunications trade show held in Barcelona from Monday February 28 to Thursday March 3, the Open RAN (or O-RAN, for Open Radio Access Network), a concept at first glance reserved for technophiles, occupied the conversations, between two demonstrations of virtual reality or metaverses (the digital space of the future). Because if open source was able to revolutionize the world of software at the end of the 1990s, this new technology promises to upset the balance of the telecom sector.
Until now, a mobile telephony network operated thanks to integrated equipment, interweaving hardware and software, often sold by the same supplier – Ericsson, Nokia or Huawei. Like Apple with its Macs or iPhones, the intimacy between hardware (hardware) and software (software) optimizes the operation of the device. But this integration has a flaw: it limits the ability of customers, in this case telecom operators, to switch providers or incorporate external functionality into the network. By enabling more interoperability, Open RAN “lifts the lock on equipment manufacturers”welcomed Maite Aparicio, head of this technology at the Spanish operator Telefonica, during the MWC.
Open RAN will eliminate neither antennas nor electronic boxes which, placed on high points (roofs, pylons, water towers, etc.), send communications or data to mobile phones. This technology makes it possible to cut out the different functions of the box and add control software, through which it is possible to add third-party applications.
“Winning back in choice of supplier”
With an open network, an operator can turn to other equipment manufacturers and add layers of software, thus more services and flexibility. All with the hope of lowering the costs of deployment and network management, which is not too much at a time when the turnover of operators is stagnating, in the best of cases.
No wonder the O-RAN Alliance, an association responsible for promoting and defining the standards for this technology, was created in 2018, on the initiative of five operators, including the French Orange, alongside AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Docomo and China Mobile. “The current equipment is excellent, and we don’t want to get rid of our partners Ericsson and Nokia. But Open RAN should enable us to improve innovation and regain supplier choice”, explains Michaël Trabbia, director of technology and innovation at Orange. This freedom of choice has become even more necessary since Europe and the United States have banned Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei for national security reasons.
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