To support the development and standardisation of Open RAN (radio access networks), Subex, a pioneer in Digital Trust, announced that it has become a member of the O-RAN Alliance. Specialists in advanced network analytics based on machine learning, Subex's inclusion into the alliance will help drive innovation in the radio access network domain and ultimately facilitating Open RAN that leverages embedded artificial intelligence (AI) to maximise network performance.
The O-RAN Alliance aims to transform the RAN industry towards an open, intelligent, virtualised, and fully interoperable mobile network ecosystem. The alliance is responsible for creating O-RAN standards and reference architectures to enable a more competitive and vibrant RAN supplier ecosystem with faster innovation. Today, O-RAN Alliance has become a world-wide community of mobile network operators, vendors, and research and academic institutions.
Ten percent of the total RAN market will be captured by Open RAN hardware and software by 2025, according Dell’Oro Group. While, ABI Research predicts that Open RAN Capex spending will overtake traditional RAN spending by 2028.
The open standards promoted by O-RAN Alliance will allow the development of open interfaces and faster deployment of radio access networks by leveraging technologies such as AI and real-time analytics. As 5G moves towards becoming mainstream, Open RAN at the network edge is expected to benefit applications including autonomous vehicles and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
Commenting on the announcement, Suresh Chintada, CTO, Subex said, “As of today, Subex has proven its vendor-agnostic capabilities catering to use cases that alleviate the critical business challenges faced by network planning and optimisation teams, via its capacity management solution. Through its innovative AI-first approach, Subex helps network teams achieve a higher level of efficiency and accuracy in making smart decisions, resulting in the maximisation of return on network investment and customer experience enhancements. As a next step towards evolving our solution, we are proud to be working with the O-RAN Alliance. Within the alliance, Subex will be extensively involved in working groups related to RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and will bring innovation using machine learning and deep learning technologies. Open RAN brings considerable innovation potential to the telecommunications industry. The joint effort of all vendors involved in the alliance will greatly accelerate innovations in the space, and we’re excited to be part of it.”
Leading European telecommunications operators including Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone have already committed to deploying Open RAN as part of their 5G rollouts.
The O-RAN Alliance was founded in February 2018 by AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO, and Orange, and has since become a global community of mobile network operators, vendors, and research and academic institutions operating in the RAN industry.
