Open RAN
Yes, it’s a key part of 5G. The reasoning is: being able to run at least the Core Network entities, and also the protocol and upper layers of what used to be known as the RAN, on general purpose hardware makes it much cheaper than buying special purpose hardware from what was basically a triopoly: Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei. Most of the network is now being virtualised. From the operator point-of-view, this network architecture change is going to be what drives cost-savings over the next decade, and is the important part of 5G, while the use of 60GHz radio is really a sideshow.
By the way, it’s not the really specialist radio processing algorithms being accelerated, those are still in specialist hardware on the NodeB.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
