How to open the Blackbox in the 5G-era?

Author: Paul Rhodes, OpenRAN and 5G Principal Consultant, GSP International, WWT

?As our recent research ‘5G: Follow the Money' has shown, there is real excitement about the potential of 5G, with 92% of the VCs we polled invested, or planning to invest in 5G-dependent companies. What’s more, the level of investment is significant. The 100 funds we spoke to have $59bn invested in 5G technology already, and anticipate this growing to $94bn within 5 years. Clearly, the opportunity is huge.

5G is becoming a reality, but how to monetise it remains an important concern. Network operators are understandably wary of repeating the 4G era, where significant investment was not matched by an uptick in revenue. While the research showed there is excitement for the potential returns in the 5G era (with 76% predicting an above average return on their 5G investments over the next 6-10 years), it is important to question: who will see those returns?

In our recent research ‘5G: Follow the Money’, we asked investors ‘Can you name any 5G-enabled companies that are expected to make it big in the next 12 months?’ 41 of our 100 respondents answered by naming an operator – second only to suppliers of components and hardware.??

Clearly network operators are expected to succeed in the 5G era - but the question remains for service providers: How do we avoid the mistakes of the 4G era and secure returns from 5G?

Supporting transformative use cases

One step mobile network operators can take to prepare the ground to support the transformative use cases 5G will create is by looking to ‘open the black box’ and invest in OpenRAN. However, creating this environment comes with an associated cost. For years it has been assumed that delivering network slicing on traditional architecture would raise OpEx beyond the potential revenue gains 5G is expected to deliver, and this would be without the ability to automate the process. Furthermore, it is clear that the financial and opportunity costs of opening the black box have deterred service providers from adopting OpenRAN. In order to implement OpenRAN an internal team would need to be created, with resources reassigned towards integration. Service providers have avoided doing this because it could prevent them from assigning those same resources towards driving customer value propositions.

One route to ORAN adoption is through taking advantage of the ‘as-a-service’ model, via Network-as-a-Service (NWaaS), to open the network with reduced cost and internal overheads, as the model reduces up-front costs. This allows service providers to exploit the inherent flexibility of OpenRAN, with a less prohibitive barrier to entry. Disaggregated RAN and Original-Equipment-Manufacturer-as-a-Service (OEMaaS) can also be deployed as an analogue of today’s network, fully centralised and fully distributed, all within the same network. This allows service providers to deliver everything from nationwide services, to private NWaaS in either ‘All-on-Premise’ or hybrid premise and cloud options.

As-a-service therefore makes the cost-barrier for opening the network more surmountable than ever before. Just as importantly however, this investment will create the environment for the building of more innovative 5G use cases, which will open new revenue streams for the service providers. OpenRAN allows for a more flexible network infrastructure placement, which the traditional network cannot match. This flexible, multi-vendor approach means that solutions can be built which would not be possible on a standard network. For example, a use case for an energy supplier may require a B87 for wide-area coverage; and an n78 for localised high-capacity coverage around its offices and hubs. Those radios may not both be available from a single vendor, so sourcing a B87 oRU from Vendor X; and n78 oRU from Vendor Y and connecting them to the same oDU/oCU and integrating them gives the customer the solution then require. This is a fundamental benefit of OpenRAN.

Understanding the role of an SI

Whilst the cost implications of OpenRAN are becoming more palatable due to options such as NWaaS, a remaining concern for service providers is how to most efficiently integrate and build an open network. One prudent solution is to explore smart partnerships. Historically mobile network operators are unused to working with multiple vendors and dealing with complex supply chains, their expertise and experience lays elsewhere. Partnerships therefore make sense to ensure an efficient, quick and smooth process. But who to partner with?

For these ORAN installations, when there are multiple companies involved, there is rarely an obvious partner to perform the integration, and the expertise of an external Systems Integrator (SI) is often sought. But there are common misconceptions about the role of an SI and the term is broadly misunderstood and mischaracterized. Not all SIs are the same, there are different specialisms and areas of expertise. For Open vRAN service providers should look for the following capabilities in an SI to ensure quality, speed, rate and cost of build.

• A deep and balanced understanding of the vendor landscape and the ability to identify vendors with the correct portfolios/roadmaps, scale, ability and willingness to interoperate.?
• A knowledge about which vendors are ‘pre-selected’ due to existing Public or Telco Cloud preferred vendor relationships.
• The L1,2,3 capability to integrate the different vendor infrastructure into an OpenRAN active solution optimized for compliance and performance.
• An understanding of mobile site and site solutions requirements and limitations to optimize the solution for deployability and operability
• The ability to sell, deliver and support multi-vendor solutions with ‘one-hand-to-shake’.
• A deep and balanced understanding of the vendor landscape and the ability to identify new vendor solutions.

If you’re interested in understanding how WWT can guide and support you on your ORAN journey, we'd love to hear from you.