Sparring Partners | Open RAN: The path to 6G

We are still in the 5G and 5G Advanced phase, but it is good to take a peek at where 6G may take us in the evolution towards an open RAN – and possibly beyond what we now call Open RAN.

In this Sparring Partner, I talked with Ravi Sinha at O-RAN ALLIANCE about multiple RAN evolution paths from 5G/5G-A to 6G that will open the RAN beyond the fronthaul interface:

• 01:15 Introduction: upcoming open RAN report, future development of Open RAN
• 03:45 Ravi introduces himself
• 04:38 Open RAN and 6G
• 05:30 O-RAN Alliance, distributed architecture, CU/DU, RIC, service-based architecture
• 10:31 How 6G will change open RAN
• 11:59 The Next Generation Research Group-6G (nGRG) at O-RAN ALLIANCE, spectrum allocations
• 19:02 Terahertz, mmWave, 6 GHz and sub-6GHz
• 23:25 Splits, RIC, AI
• 24:17 Open RAN and non-terrestrial, satellite networks
• 28:24 Support for multiple air-interfaces, beyond 4G, 5G and 6G
• 30:48 RIS
• 33:30 Energy efficiency, AI
• 38:36 RIC, RAN management and optimization
• 40:59 Non-real-time, near-real-time and real-time RIC
• 44:35 xApps, rApps; greenfield vs brownfield
• 46:25 Flexibility in Open RAN, RIC
• 48:19 Chipsets, accelerators, dedicated or optimized hardware
• 52:49 Multivendor RAN
• 54:54 Use case for open RAN in 6G
• 59:29 Is open RAN going to become the default RAN of the future?

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