The O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network) alliance was established in 2018 to promote the evolution of wireless access networks toward a more open and intelligent direction. This article will show you the current development of O-RAN and the solutions introduced by companies such as Arrow, ADI, and Intel for O-RAN.
O-RAN reduces equipment purchasing costs
In the early days, telecom operators had to buy equipment from traditional telecom equipment manufacturers such as Ericsson, Nokia, or Huawei if they intended to build base stations, which means that the equipment procurement by telecom operators and services that telecom operators can provide cannot be separated from these manufacturers, making it difficult for telecom operators to provide flexible, fast, customized, and differentiated services for customers when deploying mobile networks, not only with limited choices, but also with closed specifications and high procurement costs.
In view of this, the O-RAN alliance was formally established in June 2018. It is jointly sponsored by 12 operators such as China Mobile, AT&T of the United States, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO of Japan, and Orange of France. It is committed to evolving the radio access network (RAN) into a more open and intelligent network. O-RAN is opening RAN from the previously closed supplier environment to a standardized and multi-supplier open environment. Operators and third parties can access the previously closed RAN data and deploy more innovative intelligent services, thus attracting many operators to join the O-RAN alliance.
The O-RAN alliance is transforming the radio access network industry into an open, virtualized, and fully interoperable RAN, using big data and AI support to help RAN develop towards intelligence, maximize the use of common-off-the-shelf hardware and merchant silicon, and minimize proprietary hardware, specify API and interfaces, drive standards, and move towards open source. Through faster innovation, a more competitive and dynamic RAN supplier ecosystem has been realized, improving the efficiency of RAN deployment and operation.
The open structure attracts many businesses to grab a big pie
RAN is another expression of base station, which consists of an antenna, remote radio unit (RRU), and baseband processing unit (BBU). Among them, the RRU is used to transmit and receive signals, and the BBU is used to process signaling messages. Since the 3G era, operators and the industry have been continuously innovating the construction scheme of base stations. In the 1G and 2G era, BBU, RRU, power supply units, and other equipment were put together. In the 3G era, distributed base stations were proposed, separating BBU and RRU, which is called a distributed radio access network (D-RAN) architecture.
However, the operation and maintenance costs of D-RAN were still very high for operators, so centralized radio access networks (C-RAN) arose at that historic moment. Although BBU and RRU still adopt separate architectures, the costs can be significantly saved because RRU is close to the antenna that can greatly reduce attenuation generated through feeders (the connection between the antenna and RRU), while BBU migrates and concentrates on central office (CO) to form the BBU baseband resource pool, and CO and RRU are connected through the forward transmission network.
In the era of 4G or even 5G, O-RAN has developed on the basis of C-RAN and D-RAN. O-RAN proposes network intelligence, open interface, universal hardware, and open source software. All hardware has been transformed into universal standardized products, and the software code has also become open source. As a result, the O-RAN architecture is expected to break the oligopoly of the existing large international brand factories, giving the information industry, communication industry, and hardware manufacturers the opportunity to build a new business model and grab this market pie.
New wireless platform realizes rapid development of 5G solutions
ADI and Intel have jointly created a new radio platform, which combines advanced ADI software-designed digital front-end transceivers with the Intel Arria 10 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This new platform combines the advanced technology of ADI RF transceivers with the high performance and low power consumption of the Intel Arria 10 FPGA to realize a fast-growing 5G architecture, which can offer high performance and design flexibility, and provide developers with a new set of design tools, making it easier for them to create optimized 5G solutions.
This high performance, O-RAN compliant solution uses ADI’s market-leading software defined transceiver, which features innovative DFE functionality and creates a highly flexible architecture with Intel's Arria 10 FPGA. Through this cooperation, designers can customize frequency, frequency band, and power, thus achieving higher system performance at lower cost.
The cooperation between ADI and Intel will provide new radio solutions for 5G network development. By offering a flexible FPGA platform to meet changing needs, it is very easy to use and eliminates many complex obstacles of RF and digital product development and can speed up hardware development.
Provide one-stop 5G RF solutions
As one of the key participants in the 5G evolution, Arrow has been cooperating with various 5G solution partners/suppliers including Intel and ADI to provide customers with the most advanced 5G technology. Arrow provides one-stop 5G RF solutions, including filters, power amplifier modules (PAMs), isolators, microwave passive components, and high-quality antennas.
Arria has developed a number of complete RF reference platforms based on the Intel Arria 10 FPGA and ADI's high-speed RF transceiver, ADC and DAC. Arrow uses high-speed analog RF transceivers and ADI-based RF transceivers, and ADC and DAC modules. These solutions also use third-party carrier platforms such as Critical Link and iWave to support a system of module (SOM) based on the Intel Arria 10 FPGA.
ADRV9009BBCZ-REEL
Take the ADRV9009 RF Reference Platform from Arrow as an example, which uses the JESD204B serial interface, operates at channel rates up to 12.288 Gbps, and connects the Intel Arria 10 FPGA to ADI's ADRV9009 evaluation board via an FMC connector. ADI's ADRV9009 is a wideband, high performance RF integrated transceiver with dual transmitters, dual receiver, and dual input shared-observation receiver. The platform is very suitable for developing various radio frequency applications, such as 3G/4G/5G TDD macro cell base stations, TDD active antenna systems, massive MIMO, phased array radar, electronic warfare, military communications, portable test equipment, etc. Arrow also offers tool kits for customers to evaluate these solutions.
Conclusion
O-RAN has lifted the previous restriction that the equipment can only be purchased from traditional telecom equipment manufacturers, shaping competition among a hundred enterprises and opening the door to the 5G market. Through the reference design developed by Arrow and the solutions of Intel and ADI, manufacturers interested in entering the O-RAN market will be able to speed up product development and seize new business opportunities in the 5G application market.
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