Verizon spins up multi-vendor Open RAN DAS systems

The deployments took place at the University of Texas Moody Center and the Austin Convention Center, and Verizon says they are the first DAS systems commercially deployed in its network using Open RAN interfaces between the various components of the cellular Radio Access Network from different vendors, as opposed to using one supplier.

Both systems plugged in a Samsung vDU with an Open RAN interface to a Commscope DAS, which the operator says illustrates how Open RAN standards “can bring together best-in-class products from the ecosystem to create a highly efficient solution and provide Verizon’s high-performing 5G Ultra Wideband service throughout the venues.”

Verizon is pitching this as a step towards larger-scale, multi-vendor Open RAN deployments, that it ‘materially impacts’ the cost of power, space and cooling by eliminating ‘unnecessary’ RF equipment, and that it improves reliability within the venues.

“The massive evolution of our network over the past few years including our move to a cloud-based architecture, widespread virtualization and our aggressive adoption of O-RAN standards and capabilities has enabled us to show O-RAN interoperability success in a commercial environment,” said Adam Koeppe, Senior Vice President of Technology Planning at Verizon.

Providing a few verses from the Open RAN hymn sheet, Verizon says the approach to building networks in general should introduce new competition and innovation into the RAN ecosystem, and that it has the potential to bring benefits in terms of deployment flexibility and greater service options.

Vodafone had a similar breakthrough earlier this year, working with i2CAT Foundation to develop an automated multi-vendor management system for Open RAN. The firm said this will ultimately provide it with a unified multi-vendor dashboard to respond to and control Open RAN events.

Getting components from an array of different suppliers all working together in harmony rather seemed the point of Open RAN when it was initially hyped, however a recent report from Dell'Oro predicted that while Open RAN will account for more than 25% of the total RAN market by 2028, it expects multi-vendor to account for less than 10%.

Meanwhile Mobile Experts put out an Open RAN forecast in October predicting an 83% slump in 2024, which it described as ‘the most bizarre market growth profile ever seen in the wireless market.’