PR93565

LONDON, Dec. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/--

Future RAN: Diversifying the 5G Supply Chain to unlock the full potential of

Open RAN

The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport chooses to fund CoMP-O-RAN

Dense Air Limited, along with a consortium of industry and academic partners,

has been successful in securing funding from the 'Future RAN competition -

Diversifying the 5G Supply Chain' run by the Department of Digital, Culture,

Media and Sport (DCMS).

The project, named 'Coordinated Multipoint Open Radio Access Network', or

'CoMP-O-RAN' for short, will revolutionise the performance and cost of

densified 5G NR outdoor small cell networks aimed at delivering pervasive 5G

coverage across the UK. 5G deployment and mass delivery of gigabit services by

mobile network operators is critical to the economic development of the UK.

CoMP-O-RAN provides a densification solution that can enable both public and

private network operators to extend 5G coverage and capacity to areas that are

un or under-served because of poor economics using either fully licensed or

shared access spectrum.

Julia Lopez, Digital Infrastructure Minister

"Our mobile networks play an increasingly crucial part in our lives and

businesses, which is why we're investing £36 million in cutting-edge projects

to ensure our networks are safe and secure for decades to come. I'm pleased to

see such an outstanding range of innovators are now on board with FRANC as we

push ahead to build a more competitive and resilient telecoms supply chain."

Successful projects from the DCMS competition for the future of Open-RAN were

announced on Wednesday 8th December 2021 and receive allocations from the £36

million of 5G R&D funding supporting the advancement of UK based 5G technology

developments. The competition directly supports the UK Government's 5G Supply

Chain Diversification Strategy.

Paul Senior, CEO Dense Air

"On behalf of Dense Air and our consortium partners, we are delighted that the

UK Government, through its DCMS 5G Future RAN competition, has chosen our

CoMP-O-RAN project. The technology this project will develop will fundamentally

change the deployment economics and "cost per Gbit" of Open RAN solutions in

the UK and other international markets."

In partnership with Airspan Communications Limited, Blu Wireless UK Limited,

Radisys UK Limited and the University of Glasgow, a consortium led by Dense Air

Limited will develop an economically deployable 5G NR O-RAN Distributed

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) – CoMP-O-RAN. For the first time this

technology will give both private and public Mobile Network Operators (MNOs)

the ability to leverage the eco-system of 5G vendors in a cost effective way

that makes 5G Supply Chain Diversification a reality.

Eric Stonestrom, President and CEO of Airspan Communications Limited

"We are excited to be a member of this consortium. We look forward to working

with this prestigious group of leaders including DCMS officials, to accelerate

5G and Open RAN innovation, as Airspan develops new features in our radios

through split 6 virtualization and embedded mmWave fronthaul transport

solutions. We believe this technology will play a key role in future 5G

solutions."

Alan Jones, CEO Blu Wireless

"As 5G networks begin to scale and densify, innovative ways of maintaining

performance and bandwidth will be needed.  Using Blu Wireless' low latency

mmWave technology to enable CoMP-O-RAN will have a significant impact on the

future economics of 5G NR deployment models across both public and private

networks."

CoMP-O-RAN will enable future 5G small cell networks to benefit from radio

processing techniques that are already utilised in Massive MIMO macro-cells.

Importantly, CoMP-O-RAN will improve the operation of small cells in

interference limited scenarios such as spectrum sharing in licensed and lightly

licensed allocations in UK Shared Access spectrum at 3.8-4.2 GHz and US CBRS in

the 3.55-3.7 GHz band.

Professor Muhammad Imran of the University of Glasgow's James Watt School of

Engineering

"This project is a great opportunity for algorithms and techniques developed by

our Sensing and Imaging group to be implemented in a very promising real-world

system. We expect that end users will benefit from improved experience and

reduced costs of digital connectivity. We're looking forward to working with

our partners to develop the CoMP algorithm"

With the support from DCMS the consortium will focus on improving the economics

for 5G network densification, enabling better use of vertical roadside and

indoor infrastructure to deliver lower cost, faster speeds, improved capacity

and a better service experience for end users in urban centers, suburban

neighborhoods and even rural locations. However, it is not just about increased

capacities and faster speeds - CoMP will enhance service reliability and

availability which is critical in many private networking use cases such as

Industry 4.0, Healthcare, Critical Communications and future connected and

autonomous transportation corridors. Real-world test and validation will be

undertaken primarily at UTAC's Millbrook Proving Ground, home of the successful

DCMS 5G AutoAir Testbed project.

Peter Stoker Chief Engineer - Connected Autonomous Vehicles, UTAC, Millbrook

Proving Ground, Bedfordshire

"We are delighted to be supporting the CoMP-O-RAN Consortium. The facilities

here at UTAC are uniquely suitable for this type of testing as our proving

ground in the UK is already being used for validating connectivity technologies

and infrastructure."

CoMP-O-RAN provides a network hierarchy where software and hardware components

are distributed through the network, driving further innovation from specialist

vendors which will generate additional employment across both software and

hardware industries. This will subsequently lead to additional manufacturing

and supply chain developments in the UK and elsewhere. Where possible the

consortium will look to source components in areas of regional inequality,

building on the UK Governments 'Levelling Up' agenda and industry 4.0 strategy

to promote digital skills.

Arun Bhikshesvaran CEO, Radisys UK Limited

"We're excited to be part of this consortium focused on delivering a CoMP-O-RAN

solution that integrates our award-winning, standards-based ConnectRAN

portfolio of software for disaggregated O-RAN architecture. We are committed to

working with our ecosystem partners to create advanced solutions in the

commercialisation of 5G O-RAN and bring high performance products to the UK

market."

SOURCE: Dense Air Limited