KT Acquires 'Open RAN Interworking Specification International Standard' at Global Open RAN Standards Meeting

Coexisting with Small and Medium Equipment Manufacturers through Technology Sharing

The scene from the Open RAN Alliance standards meeting held in the United States from June 14 to 16.

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] KT announced on the 10th that the Open RAN interoperability specification it proposed at the international Open RAN standardization organization ‘O-RAN Alliance’ meeting was approved as a standard on the 29th of last month.

KT proposed the standardization of the Open RAN interoperability specification at the Open RAN standard meeting held on June 14 in Santa Rosa, California, USA, and after review by the O-RAN Alliance, it received standard approval. Open RAN is an open radio access network technology that allows base station equipment from various manufacturers to interoperate.

The Open RAN interoperability specification proposed by KT is a specification necessary to operate the distributed unit (DU) and radio unit (RU) of 5G base stations developed by different manufacturers as a single 5G base station. Until now, the open interface between DU and RU defined by the O-RAN Alliance was difficult to apply directly to domestic 5G radio networks.

Accordingly, KT reflected actual configuration values and methods used in the domestic 5G radio network environment in the Open RAN interoperability specification, including ▲ uplink/downlink time slot configuration ratio ▲ data compression rate for supporting 10Gbps optical lines. The uplink/downlink time slot configuration ratio is the time ratio that separates transmission and reception channels to prevent interference between transmission and reception in the domestic 5G radio network. Data compression is a technology that compresses the capacity of wireless data transmitted over the fronthaul, which connects the DU and RU of the base station.

With the standardization of the Open RAN interoperability specification, DUs and RUs from different manufacturers can interoperate at a commercial level without separate testing. This is expected to reduce network investment costs when replacing aging base station equipment or installing new equipment in new locations.

In addition, KT has secured technologies to flexibly build Open RAN networks, such as ▲ virtualized base stations ▲ integrated fronthaul and backhaul architecture ▲ intelligent radio access network controller (RIC).

Jongsik Lee, Senior Executive Director of the Infrastructure DX Research Lab at KT Convergence Technology Institute, said, "The technological goal of Open RAN is to build an open ecosystem where various communication equipment manufacturers can participate," adding, "We will cooperate to share the Open RAN technology and know-how secured by KT for mutual growth with the domestic Open RAN ecosystem."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.