Mark Waddell, BBC R&D, and Douglas Allan, Neutral Wireless
The UK’s current public mobile network ecosystem is typically dominated by just two or three so-called ‘tier-1’ radio equipment manufacturers whose solutions offer little scope for interoperability with other vendor systems. Inevitably, vendor lock-in results which inhibits growth in market competition and the potential to achieve reductions in costs. Arguably, vendor lock-in can also weaken the resilience, sustainability, and indeed security of our telecoms critical national infrastructure.
An alternative to this status quo is Open RAN, which is an initiative intended to diversify the supply chain by defining standardised interfaces between base station components, as defined by, for example, the O-RAN ALLIANCE. The intention is to improve the security and diversity of the supply chain and optimise the efficiency of the interfaces.
Standardised interfaces are likely to be ingredients of next generation systems in 6G and allow intelligent control of mobile networks using AI.
Our ON-SIDE project is part of a UK Government funded Open Networks Ecosystem initiative. It is primarily concerned with the technical, operational, and commercial impact of private 5G networks on use cases across several market verticals – including investigating the practical pros and cons of Split-8 vs Split 7.2 O-RAN architectures. The different approaches, based on how the 5G stack is partitioned, does offer some interesting potential computational benefits. But how these might be translated into actual cost and performance benefits requires further quantification – and will be dependent on specific deployment scenarios. Our technical and performance observations will be highlighted in a future post.
Putting to one side for a moment the technical architectural differences between Split-8 and Split 7.2, the fundamental principles behind open networking are something that the ON-SIDE project and partners have already robustly proven. The coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in 2023, and last year’s summer Olympic Games in Paris, both reached video screens and audiences world-wide thanks to pioneering work on private 5G networks by ON-SIDE partners at the BBC, Cisco, and Neutral Wireless. These large-scale, extremely high-profile broadcasts were delivered using a system integrated approach and solution comprising multi-vendor subsystems: bringing together proprietary and market-ready technology. The success of these deployments, effectively demonstrated the viability, necessity, and possibilities of pop-up, open networks operating in regulated shared spectrum bands.
We’re continuing to build on these success stories — and broadening the slate of applications for this open approach to networking. The team at Neutral Wireless has created an evaluation platform that enables a practical exploration of some of the benefits of its O-RAN architecture for private, standalone 5G networks. Elsewhere, the BBC has been testing Cisco’s portable 5G system, while academics at the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow continue to develop O-RAN solutions and scale the security framework for O-RAN enabled private networks. Our results, so far, are starting to test and quantify the purported promises that O-RAN architectures will enable a more open, efficient, and cost-effective RAN solution for large-scale public and private networks alike, and whether any such benefits will also be cost-effective in, arguably, smaller-scale, high-performance use cases like live broadcasts and connected stadia.
With 5G coming of age, and 6G on the horizon, the ability for operators and end users to utilise an open networking ‘mix and match’ approach may be key to rolling out commercially viable current and next-generation comms networks. As the technology continues to mature, we can expect more vendors to enter this open ecosystem, providing increased choice and diversity to RAN system integrators and network operators — and, ultimately, an improved offering to the end user.