Open RAN Small Cells Will Rise at a CAGR Of 146% in 2021-27

According to the market report from Small Cell Forum (SCF), a CAGR for small cells of 15% for the global market will result in cumulative deployments of almost 36 million radios by 2027; deployment of O-RAN small cells will rise at a CAGR of 146% in 2021-27 and a rollout rate of 2.7 million radio units in enterprise and private environments. The report also indicates that manufacturing, utilities and energy, retail, and transportation industries will be the biggest deployers of small cells in the period 2020-27. 

Since growth is expected and many applications are rooted in industrial environments, supporting the characteristics of 5G, Open RAN infrastructure, private networks, and industrial applications have become new requirements for Open RAN small cell solutions. However, the market lacks appropriate products to fulfill these demands. For this, GENEViSiO has been developing the Open Fronthaul Small Cell NPN-110 for years, and now is officially rolling out the solution with software partners. 

Designs for 5G Private Networks in Industrial Environments

NPN-110 is a 5G Open Fronthaul small cell with a fan-less design, and several competitive features. First, based on the discrete structure, the feature of Open Fronthaul provides RU connectivity to the small cell to fulfill different radio technology and radio bands from sub 6 to mmWave. Simultaneously, NPN-110 can be applied to multiple scenarios, including a small cell combining a centralized unit (CU) and a DU, or a DU only, applications that offer solution integrators flexibility and simplify 5G deployments’ complexity.

Fan-Less Design With Wide Operating Temperatures and Power Efficiency, Multiple Accuracy Time Sync Supported

Additionally, the fan-less design adapts to a wide range of temperatures from -20ºC to 65ºC, and well fits in most industrial environments, such as mining or utilities and energy. It can fundamentally diminish the possible risks on stability. Moreover, NPN-110’s power consumption is below 85W, contributing to the applications’ efficiency significantly and saving users’ OpEx while electricity costs are generally growing.

With multiple accuracy time synchronizations, NPN-110 provides a 5ns accuracy multi-band GNSS receiver and Primary Reference Time Clock (PRTC); time sync functions such as SyncE and IEEE-1588, whose performance is beyond the Class-C Boundary of IEEE 1588 G.8273.2; and various interfaces like 1pps in/out, 10Mhz in/out, and ToD in/out, establishing reliable networks for private 5G networks. 

Reliable Software Features from Astella and Synergy

For the software features, Astella 5G software solution is a commercial software for the open fronthaul small cell products. Loaded on GENEViSiO NPN-110 hardware, the open fronthaul small cell supports over 6Gbps throughput over four component carriers, 100MHz bandwidth, and 4T4R configurations. The Astella 5G software solution has full compatibility with the 3GPP cellular standards and can be interoperable with different telecom networks and terminals, and is scalable to construct different sizes of networks including micro-cells, pico-cells, and small-cells networks.

On the other hand, Synergy’s 5G Smart RAN solution is a highly scalable software solution which can support integrated cell and O-RAN O-RU, O-DU architectures, offer one-stop-shop software solutions, and support telecom operators, system integrators, RAN vendors and ecosystem partners to build and accomplish their Open RAN network.

Collaborating with partners in Open Networks, Byron Lin, CEO of GENEViSiO, said “GENEViSiO is excited about working together with Astella and Synergy to provide complete End to End O-RAN solutions. With Astella’s rich experience in wireless communication software and Synergy’s great performance in small cell solutions, we look forward to contributing more to the market.” 

Eric Tsang, CEO of Astella, said, “Astella is pleased to work with GENEViSiO to offer commercial grade 5G fronthaul small cell products based on GENEViSiO NPN-110 platforms. Our joint solutions have been widely used in both public and private networks and accelerate our partners to have quick time to market 5G solutions.” 

Paul Li, President at Synergy, said, “We are pleased to see Synergy’s 5G smart RAN solution has fully integrated with GENEViSiO NPN-110 5G OFH Small Cell which can configure as an O-CU plus O-DU integrated box or a single O-DU box. We believe this is a very compatible solution to Open RAN ecosystems.” 

Pioneer to Open RAN DU and CU Solutions 

As a pioneer in Open Networks, GENEViSiO is dedicated to performing innovative solutions. Through strategic cooperation with software partners Astella and Synergy, GENEViSiO believes that the Open RAN Small Cell NPN-110 provides a perfect solution that will open a new chapter in private 5G networks.