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Accelleran, a leading provider of Open RAN software solutions for 4G/5G networks, continues to make impressive headway with news of participation in a new consortium. Led by Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and backed by funding from the UK government, this will encourage Open RAN deployment as part of the Future RAN (FRANC) competition.
Alongside Accelleran, the TIP led Accelerating RAN Intelligence in 5G (ARI-5G) consortium will feature Amdocs, AttoCore, BT, WM5G and VIAVI Solutions. £2.4 million in funding has been secured to finance this consortium’s activities, which will mainly concentrate on RAN automation and assuring cross-vendor interoperability. It will validate use cases for open and disaggregated solutions – with innovations in 5G power consumption, energy efficiency, and spectrum management (including massive MIMO optimisation). This work will help with progressing successful Open RAN commercialisation over an initial period of 18 months.
The project will demonstrate the benefits of an approach based on open interfaces, with multiple vendors providing solutions traditionally sourced via a single-vendor strategy.
It will leverage Accelleran’s near-real-time dRAX™ RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) platform. The RIC will play a crucial role in supporting increased levels of network automation and moving the industry towards AI/ML driven networks. It will provide fine grained, use case driven control and management of the RAN resources. In this project, the ARI-5G consortium will implement, test and demonstrate a standards-based RIC platform with specific xAPPs and rAPPs.
According to Stan Claes, Accelleran’s CEO: “The work of the ARI-5G consortium will further contribute to getting Open RAN closer to full maturity, allowing leading players in the telecom’s sector to demonstrate its effectiveness in real-world situations. Incorporation of our dRAX™ RIC into deployments like these will allow the necessary network intelligence to be accessed. This will mean that higher degrees of automation will be possible, with major operational cost advantages being derived.”