Ericsson reaffirmed its commitment to the industrialisation of Open RAN. In a official release, the company said it will bring the benefits of cloud-based open network architecture to the industry, including support for open fronthaul in its Cloud RAN and radio portfolios.
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Ericsson's Journey in Open RAN
Ericsson said through its role in the O-RAN Alliance, in collaboration with industry peers, it has achieved significant milestones in defining the next-generation open fronthaul interface required to bring scalable performance to Open RAN.
One Million Radios Ready
As per the statement, Ericsson has already deployed over one million radios that are hardware-ready for the open fronthaul technology. With its latest radio platforms unveiled this year, Ericsson said it has a complete Open RAN-ready portfolio, across both Massive MIMO and remote radio offerings. Furthermore, the company has plans to introduce open fronthaul support into its Cloud RAN portfolio, starting in 2024.
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Ericsson shared its perspective on this move, stating, "We believe that the biggest revolution in future mobile networks is the introduction of cloud-based open networks, which will enable a move towards fully programmable mobile networks. We are enabling an open and growing ecosystem of innovation together with our customers and partners."
Industry-Scale Open RAN
Ericsson says Open RAN plays an important role in future networks, which the company believes to be increasingly resilient, open, sustainable, and intelligent. Additionally, the company said it is industrializing the three pillars of Open RAN: cloudification, open fronthaul, and open management for network programmability.
Elevating Network Performance
"In a disaggregated environment, ensuring end-to-end system performance, leveraging AI-driven software extensions for automation, and promoting continuous development are essential for high performance," noted the statement.
Ericsson said its Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP) enables multi-vendor network management. This not only enhances network performance and customer experience but also provides extensive RAN programmability, thereby delivering operational cost savings.
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According to Ericsson, its EIAP offers industrial-scale automation for Cloud RAN, purpose-built and multi-vendor radio access networks, which incorporates an open, standards-based software development kit (SDK) for innovation across the industry - service providers, third-party software vendors, and network providers.
Ericsson said it is fostering an ecosystem that expedites the development and deployment of high-performance and cost-efficient Open RAN systems at scale.
