RAN (Radio Access Network) is the main telecommunication network component that is located between the core network and users’ equipment (such as a mobile phone). RAN is constituted of a Radio Unit (RU), which is the antenna visible on top of a cell tower, and a Baseband Unit (BBU), a set of devices linking the […]

3GPP defined a new RAN architectural in Release 15, where the gNB (Site Name for 5G) is logically split into three entities denoted as: CU: Centralized Unit. DU: Distributed Unit. RRU: Remote Radio Unit. The RAN functions that correspond to each of the three entities are determined by the so-called split points. After a thorough […]

The architecture of eNB or gNB with O-DU and O-RUs has some important definitions here: O-DU: O-RAN Distributed Unit: a logical node hosting RLC/MAC/High-PHY layers based on a lower layer functional split. O-RU: O-RAN Radio Unit: a logical node hosting the Low-PHY layer and RF processing based on a lower layer functional split. LLS: Lower […]

What is PTP? Precision Time Protocol (PTP), defined in the IEEE1588-2008 standard, is a protocol that uses a master-slave hierarchy to synchronize clocks on network devices. PTP uses hardware time stamping to achieve submicrosecond synchronization. PTP defines how real-time clocks in a network synchronize with each other. A network where PTP operates is called a […]

The RAN intelligent Controller (RIC) is cloud-native, and a central component of an open and virtualized RAN network. The RIC aligns with 3GPP release 15 and beyond. It is foundational to enabling network programmability, intelligence, and disaggregation in a modern network. It is an essential component of the Open RAN architecture. The RIC architecture includes […]

First, We need to know that the most important functional components introduced by O-RAN are the non-real-time (non-RT) radio intelligent controller (RIC) and the near-RT RIC. While the former is hosted by the service management and orchestration (SMO) framework of the system (e.g., integrated within ONAP), the latter may be co-located with 3GPP gNB functions, […]

Virtualized radio access networks (vRANs) are a way for telecommunications operators to run their baseband functions as software. One of the primary benefits of virtualizing radio access networks (RANs) is that RAN functions no longer require special proprietary hardware to run, and can instead be run on standard servers. This is achieved by applying the […]

OpenRAN based on legacy compute architectures utilizes an excessively high number of CPU cores and energy to support 5G Layer 1 (L1) and other data-centric processing, like security, networking, and storage virtualization, and this leaves very few hosts to compute resources available for the tasks the Server was originally designed to support. Why 5G Physical […]

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 […]

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 […]