Small Cell Open RAN
A catalyst for new 5G business models
The development of Open RAN architectures is one of the most discussed topics in the mobile networks industry, but also one of the most misunderstood. Sometimes obscured by a great deal of hype, politics and flawed assumptions, this is nevertheless a subject associated with a very significant objective – to ensure that all the hardware and software elements of a radio access network (RAN) can interoperate, even when they come from different suppliers.
And if this objective was achieved it would drive several important changes in the 2020s. It would:
- enable established operators to access broader bases of innovation and avoid supplier lock-in;
- lower barriers to new deployers, especially in greenfield scenarios such as large enterprises, by driving a broad ecosystem of equipment at all price and performance points;
- lower barriers for new suppliers of equipment, software, chips and services to enter the market and be competitive with established vendors.
This brief report aims to provide a crisp and accessible overview of Open RAN – what it is and what it’s not, along with a short overview of SCF activities in this space. It also provides important market research data, shedding light on how various Open RAN solutions are addressing diverse usage, deployment and operational scenarios, and importantly it includes a collection of case studies – deployments.
Small cells supporting open RAN architectures by environment, and percentage of total deployments that support these architectures
The rise of demand in enterprise environments
Rising demand for cellular networks in enterprise environments – to support high quality in-building connectivity, or to enable new processes and use cases in industrial campuses – is particularly important in making Open RAN a necessity now. It is also the reason why we expect early Open RAN deployments to be led by small cells. Figure 2 shows our forecast for the deployment of small cells supporting Open RAN architectures, and by 2026 we expect open systems to account for 80% of total new small cells deployed, a far higher figure than the 45-50% predicted in the macro network.
