Driving openness for ecosystem innovation
Ericsson is a key driver of openness in mobile networks. We have seen the value of openness through all mobile generations. With 4G, openness paved the way for the arrival of disruptive internet companies and the emergence of a new app ecosystem. With 5G, we expect the impact to be even greater, moving technology boundaries to create the biggest innovation platform ever.
What is an open 5G platform for innovation?
Driving openness in 5G and beyond to foster both new application development and business, is critically important. With 5G we have created a powerful innovation platform that can be used to meet the communication needs of virtually any sector of industry or society. It has been specified with open APIs and network slicing, allowing new services and applications to be developed for a range of new use cases and business opportunities.
The Ericsson Intelligent Automation Platform exemplifies our continued drive to bring openness and innovation to the industry. It delivers service management and orchestration functionalities in line with the Open RAN principles, taking automation forward with support for diverse vendors and multiple radio access network technologies.
The platform goes beyond with an easy-to-use, open software development kit (SDK) that empowers developers with all the capabilities needed to build new rApps, bringing more innovation and choice to CSP’s.
An ecosystem of standards
Central to the openness in 5G networks is its horizontal architecture that uses cloud and virtualization technologies, allowing for a separation of hardware and software based on open industry standards and open source. Driven by Ericsson from the inception of 5G, the architecture has gained widespread industry support from telecom and cloud players, forming the basis for the evolution of both 5G core and 5G radio networks.
Our approach to openness involves coordinated efforts across standardization bodies, open-source projects, alliances, and partnerships. On top of our work with 5G in 3GPP, we are an active contributing member of the IEEE, IETF, ONAP, O-RAN Alliance, and more – all of which aim to achieve global scale with a strong ecosystem, boost innovation, and help customers differentiate.
The role of the 3GPP
3GPP is a large, open, and established ecosystem with standardized interfaces; anyone can enter on fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
Today, 3GPP has specified more than 100 interfaces. Much of the work carried out within 3GPP is designed to ensure these interfaces align with the latest technology developments in an open contribution-driven process. As a result, there is a great diversity of companies, providing a range of products for every area of the network – from user devices to RAN, to core, transport, and applications. The incredible success of the 3GPP vision is evident every time we use our devices - to make video calls, check the weather, map out our driving routes, and so on.
In combination with 3GPP, we are actively contributing to O-RAN and all its specifications, focusing our efforts on open multi-domain orchestration and virtualization as a foundation for openness.
Over time, we believe that the performance-cost ratio of the O-RAN specification and off-the-shelf hardware could improve to make O-RAN, including low-layer split (LLS), an attractive complement to the existing high-performing, energy-efficient networks, thereby stimulating further innovation.
We are committed and working with all relevant parties across the industry to innovate on a global scale for the benefit of the entire industry.
Discover a world of new possibilities
Key components
Industrial collaboration
Accelerating and proofing innovation on top of the 5G network platform, co-creating across the eco-system.
5G-connected innovation centers including D-15 lab in Silicon Valley and industry 4.0 center of excellence in Europe, where we push the boundaries of innovation by co-creating, designing, and testing consumer and industry solutions in a real 5G environment.
