A group of European operators including Vodafone Group and Telefonica updated guidelines for open RAN technical priorities, outlining requirements related to Service Management Orchestration (SMO) and RIC alongside providing more detail on security needs.

The document is the result of a collaboration of players which also includes Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Telecom Italia. The quintet signed an MoU outlining an ambition to drive developments in the open RAN ecosystem in 2021, and published the first edition of the Open RAN Technical Priorities guide later that year.

Its initial publication focused on the main scenarios and technical requirements for the building blocks of multi-vendor RAN, while an update in March 2022 zoomed-in on intelligence, orchestration, transport and cloud infrastructure.

Release three, unveiled yesterday (11 April), centres on further requirements in the SMO and RIC. Other areas updated, the group noted, include elements around cloud infrastructure, O-CU/O-DU and O-RU.

In a statement the partners added the new release provided more detail on ā€œsecurity topics and various challenges introduced by the disaggregation promoted by the open RAN architectureā€, with energy efficiency also covered.

Requirements outlined by the operators are designed to act as guidance for RAN suppliers and are an attempt to accelerate deployments in Europe, while also contributing to TIPā€™s work in this area.

In February the groupĀ outlined targets for advancing the open RAN ecosystem this year, highlighting progress made in improving the maturity, security and energy efficiency of the approach.

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