A historic initiative by Department of Telecommunications – India advances in 5G/ORAN testing ecosystem through public private partnership

What is the News?

Telecommunication Engineering Center(TEC), a technical arm of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with VVDN Technologies Private Limited.

The signing of MoU will facilitate registered startups, innovators and MSMEs working in the field of Open RAN to get their products tested at the existing lab of M/s VVDN.

It is aimed that India shall be emerging as the design leader in 5G/ORAN. This test certification ecosystem will make India as design testing and certification hub of Asia.

What is Radio Access Network(RAN)?

RAN is a key part of a mobile network system that uses cellular radio connections to link individual devices to other parts of a network.

It comprises antennae which transmit and receive signals to and from our smartphones or other compatible devices. The signal is then digitized in the RAN-base station and connected to the network.

What is Open RAN?

Currently, RAN is provided as an integrated platform of both hardware and software. Therefore, it is difficult to mix vendors for the radio and baseband unit and in most cases, they come from the same supplier.

The idea of Open RAN is to change this. It aims to enable a multi-supplier RAN solution that allows for the separation – or disaggregation – between hardware and software.

With Open RAN, telecom players would have the flexibility to use in-house solutions or solutions from multiple vendors for RAN services.

What are the benefits of Open RAN?

More opportunities for telecom operators: Open RAN would allow telecom operators to look beyond traditional vendors, thus creating opportunities for lesser-known vendors from abroad as well as from home to be part of the growing 5G ecosystem, based on their innovation competence.

Network flexibility: Being software-centric, it is scalable, agile and best of networks with improved network performance using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Reduced cost: Open RAN would reduce a telecom operator’s network deployment cost as it is interoperable with other networks such as 4G.

Source: The post is based on the article “A historic initiative by Department of Telecommunications – India advances in 5G/ORAN testing ecosystem through public private partnership” published in PIB on 10th May 2022.