Sparring Partners | Will Open RAN increase power efficiency in the RAN?

Can operators achieve higher power efficiency if they move to Open RAN? Will a disaggregated, multivendor RAN deliver energy savings to operators? As sustainability is one of the hottest topics, this is a key consideration for operators deciding whether – or how – to transition to Open RAN.

In this Sparring Partners, Alex Choi and Gorden Witzel shared the approach from a mobile operator’s (Deutsche Telekom) perspective and from the industry ecosystem (O-RAN Alliance), coupled with their experience in both wireless technologies and power management.

We talked about the impact of virtualization, chipsets, centralization, RIC, disaggregation and use cases that will impact Open RAN (and more generally RAN) energy efficiency. Open RAN offers a toolbox for operators to be more power efficient, not a guarantee. And with time, as multivendor deployments take hold, Open RAN can accelerate innovation through competition and flexibility.

During the Sparring Partners, we asked our audience what they thought about Open RAN versus traditional RAN power efficiency at the beginning and the end. The results are below.