Open RAN (O-RAN) Workshop Course by MCNS

Customer Tailored

We can tailor the included topics,tech level,and duration of this course right to your team’s technical requirements and needs. - MCNS offers courses to companies, institutions, departments etc and not to individuals as per open courses.

Aimed At

Open RAN (O-RAN) Workshop is aimed at both RAN and Core engineers who are interested in Virtualized RAN and subsequent Open RAN (O-RAN) technology, fusing together cloud architecture and RAN slicing. It might be also useful for students, researchers and technical consultants working into various mobile technology fields, filling the gap between their expertise (IT technology machine learning and software engineers etc) and the 5G/6G technology.

Prerequisites: In order for the attendant to better understand the content of this topic and to gain a further insight, prior knowledge of 5G RAN and 5GC and cloud overview knowledge is recommended.

Course Review

This 5G / 6G training course will introduce audience into O-RAN Concept and how it could be implemented in 5G and the latest and promising 6G technology. This workshop is an introductory but thorough training course for both cloud technology beginners and specialized RAN and core engineers, providing information related to the virtualization and Openness of O-RAN.

A good introduction and reference to O-RAN specifications, the O-RAN interfaces and functional entities, the slicing deployment and the cloud NFV infrastructure will be discussed in this course. After this course participants will have a solid understanding of the O-RAN for 5G and 6G network necessity, new services and network topology and architectures with all functional modules in both O-RAN and core domain.

Course Benefits for individuals (Professionals)

Evaluate implementation options for O-RAN
Build knowledge of a comprehensive set of Cloud and Open RAN technology / deployment
Identifying the use cases with slicing and virtualization
Learn how to deploy O-RAN services and use cases.
Confidence to set expectation for O-RAN technology and to better evaluate solutions in terms of commercially viability, reliability, risk and strategy.

Course Benefits for your Organization

Equip organization engineers with the necessary knowledge of O-RAN and virtualization
Develop technology solutions and roadmaps that are better aligned with the expected O-RAN industry direction
Learn about latest O-RAN and cloud virtualization technology developments and initiatives
A solid foundation on which to build organizational competency development plans to ensure opportunities arising from O-RAN architectures.
Keep ahead of competitors in preparing your network for O-RAN deployment.
Prepare for future network expansions and quality performance optimization

You will learn

The key points you will learn through this course

Open RAN (O-RAN) Overview

O-RAN Deployment

O-RAN 5GC/6GC

Course Outline

A short brief of your program details & schedule

O-RAN Ecosystem

What is Open RAN (O-RAN)
O-RAN Alliance
O-RAN players
O-RAN ecosystem
O-RAN trials

O-RAN Specifications Review

O-RAN WG1
O-RAN architecture specs
O-RAN use cases
O-RAN slicing architecture
O-RAN WG2 A1 interface
O-RAN WG3 E1/E2 interface
O-RAN WG4 F1-C/F1-U interface
O-RAN WG5 CUS plane fronthaul

5G/6G Deployments

Classic RAN Deployment
Distributed RAN (D-RAN)
Centralized RAN (C-RAN)
RAN hardware (BBU, RRU)
Virtualized RAN (V-RAN)
V-RAN vs. O-RAN
V-RAN to O-RAN smooth migration

O-RAN Architecture

O-RAN architecture
Service Management and Orchestration Framework (SMO)
O-RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC)
O-RAN real time Controller
O-RAN non-real time Controller
O-RAN CU-CP
O-RAN CU-UP
O-RAN DU
O-RAN RU

O-RAN splitting

Why RAN splitting?
O-RAN split options 1-8
O-RAN split options pros and cons
How to select the proper O-RAN split option

5G/6G core functional description

5G core Functions
AMF Functionalities
UPF Functionalities
SMF Functionalities
AUSF Functionalities
5G Core Interfaces

Training Format

Instructor-Led Training

On-Site Classroom: 2 days

Web delivered (Virtual): 2 days

Excellent and descriptive course material (pdf file) will be provided

FAQ's

What is O-RAN and why is it important?

Open RAN is a new trend and a movement in wireless telecommunications to disaggregate hardware and software, to free up operators from vendors exclusive dependence and to open interfaces and reduce costs. With Open RAN and the “virtualization” it brings, operators are enabled to run software-based network functions on standard commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. With non-proprietary, open interfaces MNOs can use one supplier’s radios with another’s processors — something previously not possible. O-RAN is important because networks have to be agile, flexible, and easily scalable on both hardware and software conditions. Hardware-centric, proprietary networks are not suitable for growing network demands and changing consumption patterns. Vendor specific legacy networks often pose challenges for operators to expand and scale for coverage or capacity needs and they are often difficult and costly to set up. In O-RAN software exists at the center of the network and delivers elasticity and scalability across all network components from radio access through the transport towards the cloud core. A software-enabled approach provides unprecedented opportunities to bring down complexity, enhance operational efficiency and reduce costs.

What are the benefits of O-RAN and the challenges to the MNO’s and end users?

The benefits of Open RAN for MNOs include a more flexible and broader, best-of-breed ecosystem of hardware and software vendors, enabling flexibility with support of backwards compatibility and increased competition, leading to lower total costs of ownership (TCO) and innovation in the telecommunications industry. For end-users and service subscribers, Open RAN enables a consistent high quality user experience above any prior performance expectations, enabling robust applications even during high peak hours and network congestion. Regarding the challenges the major issues to overcome are the network deployment, maintenance and optimization to scale up for the future requirements in order to result in high Capital Expenses (CAPEX) and Operating Expenses (OPEX). Since there are many legacy networks around the world deployed with older equipment and proprietary interfaces backwards compatibility should be always supported and provided. Those challenges can be addressed ONLY with a proper O-RAN software defined cloud-native network architecture deployments utilizing firmware capabilities.

What are the advantages of O-RAN networks?

Open RAN architecture provides scalable solutions that speed time to market for new services and features, reduces network management costs and prepares networks for the future. The synergy with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will help optimizing network performance with data surveillance and collection (data analytics and big data algorithms).

What is V-RAN and what is the major difference between Open RAN and V-RAN?

Typical mobile network architectures and deployments are using mostly vendor specific hardware to deploy networks using the traditional Distributed RAN (D-RAN) or Centralized RAN (C-RAN) approaches. vRAN on the other hand is a virtualized radio access network and has been a step forward in the evolution of cellular networks, helping to evolve previously hardware-driven functions by making them virtualized or software-based. However, V-RAN (or vRAN) can still create vendor lock-in proprietary solutions as it is not completely open and still contains proprietary interfaces and purpose-built hardware. In such approach O-RAN is the overall movement to disaggregate hardware and software and to create open interfaces between them while Virtual RAN (V-RAN or vRAN) refers to software-based network functions instead of hardware-based. As a conclusion we can say that V-RAN is not necessarily O-RAN.

How is O-RAN implemented and what are its components (functional elements)?

O-RAN architecture integrates a modular base station software stack on commercial off-the-shelf server hardware which allows baseband and radio unit components from discrete suppliers to operate seamlessly together. In a general sense we can say that Open RAN disaggregates the network into separate software or firmware modules i.e. the Radio Unit (RU), Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralized Unit (CU). The RU is related to the active antenna hardware module where the radio frequency signals are transmitted, received, amplified, and digitized including also massive MIMO beamforming functions. The DU and CU are software defined modules implementing the computational parts of the base station, sending digital radio signals into the network. With Open RAN architecture, the interfaces or protocols between these building blocks and the software are open and vendor non-proprietary giving flexibility and freedom to MNOs to build the network on their own implementation, deployment and cost.

Open RAN (O-RAN) Workshop