Aarna Networks Solutions

O-RAN SMO

Manage disaggregated, multi-vendor RAN environments and choose best-of-breed network functions for validation and interoperability testing with AMCOP — the number one open source, vendor neutral SMO.

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Open RAN

Today’s 5G networks provide high-speed connectivity and low latency that have opened up new possibilities for businesses and industries, including manufacturing, warehousing, smart cities, retail, and many others. A critical component of the 5G network is the Radio Access Network (RAN). In recent years, RAN internal interfaces have been standardized in an open manner by the O-RAN Alliance. Open standards and interoperable components promise greater flexibility, lower costs, and better performance in a wide range of use cases. While most practitioners associate O-RAN with public 5G networks, a report published by Analysys Mason provides compelling reasons why Open RAN is attractive for private network operators as well.

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Case Studies & Key Initiatives

Orchestrating and Managing Disaggregated RAN Environments

Explore the O-RAN Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) component for managing multi-vendor RAN environments, with AMCOP — a cloud native application containing the number  orchestrating O-RAN network functions.

O-RAN SMO 

As defined by the O-RAN Alliance, O-RAN Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) is a component that addresses the orchestration, management, and automation aspects of O-RAN and is critical for supporting and managing disaggregated, multi-vendor RAN environments. The O-RAN SMO is becoming a reality through standards, open source, and interoperability testing. It performs the following five official functions and three unofficial functions:

Official Functionality:

  • Federated Open Cloud Orchestration & Management (FOCOM): This involves provisioning of a RAN site O-Cloud, configuring it, and then ongoing management of the O-Cloud.
  • Network Function Orchestration (NFO): This includes initial deployment of software components of O-RAN such as O-DU, O-CU, Near-RT RIC, and potentially xApps and rApps. Orchestration includes day 0 configurations of the above components and any additional items such as the O-RU or transport.
  • OA&M (Operations, Administration and Management): This module includes configuration, fault and performance management of the above components along with lifecycle management actions such as upgrades, health checks, scale-out, and more.
  • Non-Real-Time Radio Intelligent Controller: This function includes automated optimization of RAN components or the O-Cloud. The NonRT RIC typically needs rApps that are dedicated applications for these purposes.
  • RAN Slicing: Network slicing for the RAN domain.

Value-added Functionality:

  • Edge Computing Application Orchestration & Management: If the O-RAN implementation is in an edge or cloud environment, then it may be multi-tenant. This means non-RAN workloads such as AI/ML could run during periods of low traffic instead of RAN functions (see Aarna’s RAN-in-the-Cloud blog for more details). This requires the SMO to handle orchestration and management of edge computing applications as well.
  • Management of other domains: The official standards only require orchestration and management of the above listed domains. However, in reality, the SMO may have to manage transport elements, a precision clock, environmental IoT monitoring, and more. In fact, even O-RAN implementations may not expose standard interfaces, and might require the SMO to interact with a proprietary Element Management System (EMS).
  • Automated service assurance: The RAN elements may require automated service assurance using techniques such as real-time closed loop monitoring
The third party O-RAN SMO is becoming a reality through standards, open source, and interoperability testing.

Open Communities

A number of community-based efforts – standards, open source development, and interoperability testing – are driving the evolution of O-RAN today. Aarna Networks is an open source company and is an active contributor to, and a downstream consumer of, a number of leading industry groups  around the O-RAN SMO.

  • O-RAN Alliance is a worldwide community of telcos, vendors, government, research, and academic organizations creating an open specification for the radio area network (RAN). The specification defines a component called Service Management and Orchestration or SMO that addresses the orchestration, management, and automation aspects of O-RAN. Three Aarna O-RAN Demos are available in the O-RAN Virtual Exhibition:
  • O-RAN Software Community (O-RAN SC) is an open source community under the Linux Foundation, the O-RAN SC is sponsored by the O-RAN Alliance. Its focus is on aligning software development efforts with the O-RAN Alliance's open architecture and specifications to achieve a solution that can be utilized for industry deployment. Within the O-RAN SC, the O-RAN SMO project is building an open source O-RAN SMO for the industry. The Aarna Networks team is an active contributor to the project and has leveraged project artifacts to build the industry’s leading O-RAN SMO product offering.
  • Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations working together to accelerate the development and deployment of open, disaggregated, and standards-based technology solutions. Within TIP, OpenRAN’s mission is to accelerate innovation and commercialization in the RAN domain with multi-vendor interoperable products and solutions that are easy to integrate in the operator’s network and are verified for different deployment scenarios. In a recent plugfest, the Aarna Networks’ O-RAN SMO was connected to Capgemini’s O-DU and O-CU via the O1 interface and tested end-to-end against TIP OpenRAN ROMA 2.0 requirements using emulators from VIAVI.
  • i14y Lab is an open lab for interoperability testing of disaggregated telco systems, such as Open RAN. The lab is operated by a consortium of strong academic and industry partners led by Deutsche Telekom and supported with funding from the German Ministry of Digital and Transport (BMDV). The lab supports O-RAN development and testing initiatives, including the O-RAN Global PlugFests focused on accelerating the maturity of products and solutions based on O-RAN specifications and verifying and validating multi-vendor interoperability and conformity to O-RAN specifications. 

AMCOP O-RAN SMO

Aarna Network's AMCOP is the industry’s number one open source SMO — a cloud native application for orchestrating and managing O-RAN network functions that allows network operators and vendors to manage multi-vendor RAN environments and choose best-of-breed network functions for validation and interoperability testing. AMCOP supports advanced functionality such as O-Cloud management, NonRT RIC, and network slicing as well. It can be used for O-RAN as well as vRAN environments (Stand alone  and Non-Stand Alone). Learn the importance of an open source, vendor neutral SMO. 

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