Reliance Jio among global operators to partner industries in O-RAN testing, integration activities

On September 18th, at Hong Kong, leading tier 1 telecom operators came together with a common goal to accelerate multi-vendor, open and disaggregated next gen 5G wireless infrastructure by providing test and integration centers to facilitate product readiness.

The Open Test and Integration Center (OTIC) initiative was launched, which is led by a group of global operators, vendors and integrators. China Mobile and Reliance Jio along with participation from China Telecom, China Unicom, Intel, Radisys, Airspan, Baicells, CertusNet, Mavenir, Lenovo, Ruijie Network, Inspur, Samsung Electronics, Sylincom, WindRiver, ArrayComm, and Chengdu NTS are collaborating on multi-vendor interoperability and validation activities for realizing O-RAN compliant disaggregated 5G access infrastructure that leverages open software and hardware hardened for commercial deployments.

The OTIC initiative is an operator-led collaboration with the aim to facilitate OEM and other open source products and solutions to be functionally compliant to the specifications of the O-RAN Alliance, through verification, integration and testing of disaggregated RAN components and to deliver the desired architecture that supports a plug-n-play model.

The OTIC has an aim to expedite how the industry develops open RAN technologies and products that are hardened and supported for real-world deployments. The initial focus is to ensure RAN components from multiple vendors support standard and open interfaces and can interoperate in accordance with O-RAN test specifications.

Additional partners were invited to join to advance the creation of ready-to-implement blueprints for RAN solutions conforming to the O-RAN specifications in order to realize open and disaggregated 5G networks.

"Jio is creating an OTIC to accelerate the telecom industry transformation by driving ready-for-commercialization products and solutions that allow operators to fully realize industry-standard, interoperable O-RAN based open platform deployments. We will work with industry partners, including the O-RAN Alliance, operators, OEMs, SOC providers, and SIs, offering a platform for innovation and cooperative development with enhanced tools, systems, and automation. This platform will be inherently interoperable, programmable, and economically disruptive through its creation of a robust ecosystem for O-RAN compliant products and solutions," said Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance Jio.

"Intel supports enabling open architectures and a robust ecosystem that will drive innovation at the edge and radio access network. Our support of the OTIC labs will enable development, integration and testing of the O-RAN specifications and accelerate the development of commercial solutions for 5G network deployments," said Dan McNamara, Senior Vice President Data Center Group, Intel.

"Samsung strongly supports open architecture that will take 5G networks to new heights, allowing the industry to continue driving innovation further. I am confident that OTIC will play a key role in accelerating the O-RAN based open platform development by empowering rapid creation of the robust ecosystem," said Jaeho Jeon, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

"As a leading provider of disruptive global 4G/5G solutions, Baicells is honored to be part of the OTIC initiative with the shared vision of new levels of openness, efficiency and flexibility with all members. By leveraging our solid abilities in O-RAN development and system integration experience, Baicells could provide a wide range of innovative solutions including pRRU, rHub, acceleration card to our ecosystem and help accelerate the maturity of O-RAN eco-system ASAP," said Lixin Sun, CEO of Baicells.

"The Linux Foundation is a strong supporter of Open Source, Open Architectures, and Open Interfaces across networks. LF has enjoyed working with these operators in Open Source initiatives and appreciate their contributions to projects such as the O-RAN Software Community, ONAP, OPNFV, and others. We are excited to see the commitment to open platforms and the initiative to drive interoperability and validation of open RAN architectures and solutions through the OTICs along with Open Source Community O-RAN-SC. This initiative will be a catalyst for a new paradigm to wireless networks," said Arpit Joshipura, General Manager, Networking, Edge & IOT, The Linux Foundation.