Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) is a specification that allows a single Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) physical device under a single root port to appear as multiple separate physical devices to the hypervisor or the guest operating system. It is an I/O virtualization solution supported by PCIe device hardware and developed by the standardization organization […]

On the road to 4G and 5G, MNO (Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) started to think of vRAN (Virtual RAN) and Open RAN, the main difference between them you can find here.  vRAN and Open RAN architectures help for higher channel capacity and easier deployment of edge-based services and applications. vRAN and Open RAN solutions are […]

The O-RAN Alliance (O-RAN) is a group that is defining specifications for radio access networks. It is a global alliance founded in 2018 and it is now comprised of close to 30 operators and more than 200 vendor companies. The O-RAN Alliance is a relatively new organization that took the 3GPP standards work as its […]

In this article, I’d like to give more focus on a powerful component in the Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) Architecture that will make an amazing shift in the RAN Automation world. Open radio access networks promise to unlock massive innovation, creating new opportunities for service providers to deliver differentiated services to consumers, businesses, […]

In the Open RAN, one of the key aspects of Open RAN is going to be the fact that the intelligence in the RAN can now be supplied by a variety of vendors, as opposed to earlier generations and in the traditional RAN where all the RAN intelligence or most of the RAN intelligence was […]

Open RAN disaggregates the RAN into main 3 components as below: 🧧 Upper Layer Split Central Unit (CU) • Logical node that includes a portion of the eNB/gNB functions as defined by split option 2 (PDCP RLC). • CU can support many O-DUs. 🧧 Lower Layer Split Distributed Unit (DU) • Logical node that includes a […]

Introduction Several time synchronization mechanisms can be used in a network. The most common standards are Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP). NTP, which is the older, well-known protocol, is currently in its fourth version. NTP was primarily developed to achieve accuracy in the submillisecond range and is widely implemented for network […]

O-RAN’s proposed concepts and architectures use a split-RAN concept. There are 8 known ways to functionally split the RAN, and each one proposes splitting the processing so that different parts of the protocol stack process on different hardware. The below Figure summarizes the eight options. O-RAN has specified a version of the 7-2 split. The […]

For the introduction of RAN functions disaggregation and open interfaces in 5G, 3GPP has in Release 15 specified a Higher Layer Split (HLS) option of the gNB, which is also known as the Option 2 NR-PDCP split option. In this option, the gNB may consist of a Central Unit (gNB-CU) and one or more gNB […]

First, We need to understand the most important question, Why do we need to change our RAN from a traditional setup to a more flexible one? The Answer is: Heavy Data Growth Each new mobile technology generation has delivered greater data rates to mobile devices, and mobile users have moved more and more of their […]

O-RAN’s proposed concepts and architectures use a split-RAN concept. There are eight known ways to functionally split the RAN, and each one proposes splitting the processing so that different parts of the protocol stack process on different hardware. The below figure summarizes the eight options: O-RAN proposes using option 7-2 which splits the physical layer […]