LIVE FROM TIP FYUZ24, DUBLIN: Steve Papa, founder and CEO of software-based infrastructure company Parallel Wireless, offered an open RAN reality check, branding the idea the approach would transform the industry by delivering off-the-shelf hardware as a massive lie.

In a panel session, Papa (pictured, far right) clarified the open RAN sector is in good shape, but explained the work to-date had been more complicated than initial headlines might suggest.

Rather than combining stacks on a server to create a tier-one product, Papa said open RAN requires a commitment to rebuild from the ground up: “it’s a long journey, but it’s necessary”.

Papa clarified he believes the industry is “doing great”, having now understood what is required to build a network of the calibre operators expect.

But he noted the vision of creating a multi-vendor environment had proved harder to achieve than initially expected, with the development of a common management plane “a continued problem”.

Papa noted open RAN had spurred “a lot of investment in silicon” which, if pushed “upstream” into radio reference designs, could ultimately make “a vision of plug and play” viable.

The onus is on vendors to stay the course. Papa believes if they do, then interoperability is “within our grasp” even though there are currently relatively few silicon options available.

Teamwork
Randy Cox, VP of product development with software company Wind River (pictured, second from left), argued the sector is now largely in a place where all players are pulling in the same direction, with the emphasis on partnerships which are open, transparent and trustworthy.

He argued the feasibility and technology of open RAN have been proven, meaning the industry is now “on to mass deployment at scale”.

Cox made the case for turning attention to automation and the role AI could play in “managing and operating the network”, by enabling predictive maintenance through analysis of pools of data to give advance warning of events which could result in outages if left unchecked.