ATIS Open RAN MVP Update – Still No xApps For North America
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), the North American telecoms standards body, has added a number of key functionalities to its Open RAN Minimum Viable Profile (MVP). The first version of the ATIS MVP, released in September of last year, faced some criticism for not including enough features. The expanded MVP addresses this in part by including new requirements for various Open RAN interfaces. These include Fronthaul Control, User, Synchronization (CUS)-Plane; Fronthaul Management (M)-Plane; and others specified as part of the Open RAN architecture in the initial release of the MVP. It also more fully addresses multi-vendor deployment and interoperability issues by including relevant interoperability test (IOT) profiles.
Commenting on the release, ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller said that “This expanded MVP will further accelerate the commercial deployment of Open RAN solutions and innovations in North America”. Indeed, given the wide range of features and optionality inherent to Open RAN architectures, providing a set of minimum requirements primarily defined by operators, provides equipment manufacturers with a clearer path to market for their products. In that respect, the MVP will assist in the development, integration, and deployment of Open RAN solutions.
Rob Soni, Vice President of Radio Access Network Technology at AT&T and Chairman of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) added that “Expanding common technical requirements for everyone will be a significant enabler of innovation and operational excellence”.
Once again however, the North American market will have to wait before its MVP can deliver Open RAN’s full potential to drive innovation: this updated version still doesn’t provide support for the Near Real Time RIC and the xApps it powers. This is in line with many North American operators’ plans for Open RAN – AT&T for example have already said they don’t plan on deploying a Near Real Time RIC any time soon.
However the news does come just as the NTIA has opened its Third Public Notice Of Funding for Open RAN, which will provide almost $1 Billion worth of grants focused specifically on software solutions for Open RAN. These will include solutions like the RIC and network apps like xApps. Despite this strong show of support from the US government, the lack of industry support for the Real Time RIC will be seen as a setback by its proponents and raises questions around the value xApps can deliver for operators.
A webinar on the MVP will take place Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET, that delves into the MVP and its pivotal role in guiding development of Open RAN solutions and innovations and accelerating their deployments across North America which you can register for here.
