Presentation SlidesPermission to use with attribution

to ‘5G Americas’ is granted.

“Open RAN requires a full understanding of technical architecture and the interdependent multi-vendor ecosystem.”

Chris PearsonPresident, 5G Americas

“SLA management and seamless integration with existing networks are critical to the success of Open RAN deployments. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications will be essential tools to help manage and monetize networks with multiple spectrum bands, network slices and varied applications in this new 5G environment.”Amit Mehrotra, Nokia’s Global Head of Sales for Network Planning, Optimization and Analytics

“The Open RAN approach has benefited from global collaboration in the telecom ecosystem and presents itself as an alternative worthy of consideration for greenfield deployments or any time operators embark on network upgrades or enhancements.”Durga Satapathy, Director, Advanced Technologies & Innovation at T-Mobile

“Managing the operations and the customer satisfaction of a heterogeneous-cellular network requires a complex and labor-intensive organization with specific objectives and key success factors. As cellular network operators transition to increasingly diverse heterogeneous 5G systems, AI and machine learning are increasingly needed to not only help manage capital investment, but also to manage the increasingly complex networks”Charlie Michaelis, Associate Director of Big Data for AT&T

Logical Open RAN Architecture

Open RAN Split 7-2x modes of operation

Small Cell Forum MAC/PHY split

3GPP Release 14 study on

RAN split with E-UTRA

protocol stack

PDCP Low-

RLCHigh-MAC

Low-MAC

High-PHY Low-PHY

PDCP Low-RLC

High-MAC

Low-MAC

High-PHY Low-PHY

Option 5Option 4 Option 6 Option 7Option 2Option 1

RRC

RRC

RF

RF

Option 8

Data

Data

High-RLC

High-RLC

Option 3

3GPP Rel-15 Disaggregated RAN

CU, DU Virtualization and Open RAN Interfaces

Look Aside vs Inline Acceleration Source: Ericsson

Illustrating more notable publicly announced milestones with deployment of various forms of vRAN and Open RAN combinations

NTT DoCoMo 4G and 5G multi-vendor interoperability

Potential Benefits of Open RAN

Potential Challenges of O-RAN

Ecosystem Business Roles and TCO

ML and AI based techniques

permeate all aspects of E2E

wireless system design, service

management and delivery

Local and global learning and decision

making in large

distributed networks

Technology enablers for hyperdense networks.

Source: SCF

Implications of 5G-Era aspects

to SON & Orchestration

Source: SCF