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The industry is making inexorable progress toward an open, interoperable ecosystem for 5G Open RAN, and among the latest examples of this progress is the work being done by Picocom and Radisys. The companies have recently validated an Open RAN platform based on Picocom’s PC802 small-cell SoC and Radisys’s Connect RAN 5G software. In this video, three of the companies' executives discuss the need for collaborative efforts in building the Open RAN ecosystem:
- Peter Claydon, president of Picocom
- Oliver Davies, Picocom’s Vice President of marketing
- Munish Chhabra, head of Mobility Software and Services at Radisys
Picocom's and Radisys's PC802-based interoperability milestone is based on the O-RAN split 7.2 architecture. It includes the Radisys Connect RAN 5G software (Layer 2 and Layer 3) running on an x86-based server, interfacing to the Picocom Layer 1 (L1) with the Small Cell Forum FAPI interface.
The PC802 is a purpose-designed PHY SoC for 5G NR/LTE small-cell disaggregated and integrated Open RAN architectures that includes support for 4G. The SoC supports industry-leading Open RAN specifications and interfaces with a Layer 2/3 stack via the SCF FAPI interface over PCIe.Together, Picocom and Radisys are preparing an integrated small-cell solution based on PC802, with the RAN software running on a small-form-factor, Arm-based network processor.
The interface between L2 and L1 is compliant with the standard Small Cell Forum FAPI protocol. The same FAPI stream is used not just to control L1 processing on PC802, but directly controls OFH Control-Plane and User-Plane processing, transparently marrying together the FAPI and OFH protocols.
The joint Open RAN split 7.2 configuration uses Radisys RAN protocol software CU (L3) and DU (L2) running on an Intel x86 COTS server. L1 and Open Fronthaul (OFH) run on a Picocom PC802 SoC on an inline accelerator card.
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