Implement Time-Bound Roadmap With Security By Design Approach For O-RAN: Govt

The telecom industry should create a time-bound roadmap at the earliest and ensure that security by design in the various components of open radio access network (O-RAN) is implemented to avoid repeating the mistakes made in the past, a top Government of India official said in a virtual summit organised by ASSOCHAM along with Open RAN Policy Coalition, US Chamber of Commerce, Keidanren-Japan Business Federation and BSA-The Software Alliance.

“As far as the Indian government's stand is concerned, we welcome the proposal of the Open RAN forum as it is in keeping with the commitment made in the first Quad Leaders’ Virtual Summit to cooperate on critical technologies of the future to ensure that innovation is consistent with a free, open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific,” said Lt Gen Rajesh Pant, National Cybersecurity Coordinator at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Pant said, “Recognising the importance of secure and reliable telecom network infrastructure, we also welcome the opportunity for a discussion between our government and industry on the development of a robust O-RAN ecosystem and the associated benefits it will provide to our economies.” India is now fast-tracking its 5G deployment efforts and is aware of the open technologies and the global initiatives that intend to accelerate the delivery of products that support a common open architecture and standardize interfaces that are viewed as the foundation of next-generation wireless infrastructure while ensuring a broad community of suppliers during innovation and open market competition, he said.

The government of India is absolutely clear that open and virtualized RANs are the future of mobile networks, Pant said, adding, “We are also promoting 'Make in India' and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and have also issued a directive for trusted telecom products from trusted sources to address the Supply Chain issue. Finally in view of our shared attributes, like political democracies, market economies and pluralistic societies, the Quad provides a strong case for cooperation in Open RAN.”

Indian telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio are increasingly looking to expand their telecom gear supplier options beyond the traditional equipment vendors by using the O-RAN technology. This dialogue would further complement initiatives being processed under the Quad critical and emerging technologies working group, he averred.

P Balaji, chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Digital Communications moderated the panel discussion which saw the participation of CP Gurnani, CEO and MD, Tech Mahindra; Takayuki Morita, President & CEO, NEC Corporation; Manish Mangal, Global Business Head-Network Services, Tech Mahindra and Pardeep Kohli, President & CEO, Mavenir.

“The 1st Quad Open RAN Forum supported by Assocham, brought together Governments and industry leaders to discuss Open RAN deployments and how the transition to Open RAN can promote competition and technological neutrality in the global telecoms ecosystem. The Policy coalition will work on creating an enabling business and policy environment to support the development and adoption of ORAN, fostering a vibrant ecosystem of vendors,” said Balaji. There is a lot of excitement now on the Open RAN deployments and invited the members of the illustrious panel to share their experiences and how they've been moving this whole agenda of Open RAN and open network architecture forward.

Gurnani said, “I think the time for Open RAN is now as the investments made by the industry in setting up labs, setting up those systems are definitely challenging the physical RAN, the proprietary systems, the proprietary radios.”

Morita said that NEC is working on various Open RAN related projects and while a lot of commercial initiatives are going on there is a need to resolve some ‘real issues’. “Of course, we have to overcome and solve real issues such as the PCO, open interoperability and throughput issues that will be resolved over a period of time,” he added. There are several concerns about integration issues because of open features, Morita noted.

Kohli shared how to take the cross-industry learnings and scale advantage to benefit the telecom ecosystem as well as the customers. “The telecom industry will be lagging behind unless it adopts the software to run on the same computer platform, which the whole world is running on and the future has to be about adopting all innovation, which is happening beyond just the telecom industry, and bring it to this sector. So that way, it benefits the whole industry,” he said.

Mangal said that the Open RAN is fundamentally shifting the ability for the carriers to bring innovation to the customers at a very faster pace, while at the same time driving the cost of providing the service.