The Open Networking Foundation’s (ONF) SD-RAN project was launched in April 2020 and has published its first software release.
The SD-RAN project designed as the foundation of an Open RAN stack to complement O-RAN Alliance’s architecture.
It was formed to develop the elements needed for open, disaggregated RAN deployments not well enough supported by commercial vendors. They include the Near Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (nRT-RIC).
Caroline Gabriel of Rethink Research, commented in recent exclusive column for Mobile Europe, “Fears that O-RAN is already falling into the grip of large, incumbent vendors, rather than an innovative crowd of independents, were highlighted recently when the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) launching its [software-defined] SD-RAN project, which could steal much of O-RAN’s thunder.”
Source: ONF
SD-RAN v1.0 includes a nRT-RIC, a white-box based radio unit, distributed unit and centralised unit (RU/DU/CU) solution, interfaces to Samsung Android smartphones and mobile core platforms.
It also contains and the start of an application software development kit (SDK) designed for the creation of apps that are portable across different nRT-RIC platforms.”