Mavenir Supports Opening of ORCID Open RAN Testing “Living Lab”

*Blog by Sridhar Rajagopal, Ph.D., SVP Access Technologies Mavenir & Advisory Board Member for ORCID

Mavenir was delighted to be part of the ORCID ribbon cutting inauguration on September 18, 2024 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, celebrating the opening of the new state-of-the-art Open RAN (O-RAN) testing and evaluation lab based at EchoStar Corporation’s data center in the US. The event was attended by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Sarah Morris from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) U.S. Department of Commerce, EchoStar Corporation co-founder Charlie Ergen, alongside representatives from Mavenir, Fujitsu, VMware, Dell Technologies, Amazon Web Services (AWS), VIAVI Solutions, and Keysight Technologies.

The new ORCID (Open RAN Center for Integration & Deployment) testing for commercialization lab has been established by EchoStar Corporation – which includes Boost Mobile – and funded by a $50M NTIA Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund Grant from the US government. ORCID offers completely unique facilities for the Open RAN ecosystem to validate their products for interoperability, test for commercial scale, and innovate new use cases.

Mavenir is a key consortium partner in ORCID. We are actively investing in the center with both technology and software with access to our commercially deployed 5G RAN products including our management system and analytics tools, for integration with other O-RAN vendors. We are also providing our in-depth expertise to assist with the testing and validation efforts. In addition, Mavenir is working closely with the ORCID advisory board to promote O-RAN innovation and encourage broader adoption of the technology through the new ORCID lab.

ORCID’s “living laboratory” offers multiple opportunities for O-RAN vendors and innovators to test their products for interoperability and conformance to O-RAN specifications. Participating organizations can partner with test companies offering products to help with emulating parts of the network and validating conformance to O-RAN test specifications. ORCID has directed a significant focus of its efforts on test case automation and testing for commercialization, to enable operators to verify that the O-RAN products can be deployed commercially at scale. ORCID is connected to multiple commercial cell site towers within a few miles of the site dedicated to over-the-air testing and validation (including one tower with coverage directly from the facility itself).

Vendors can also benefit from exclusive access to Open Test & Integration Centers (OTICs) – qualified worldwide by the O-RAN Alliance – to help with plugfests and provide certification and badging services for IoT and E2E testing. ORCID is complementing these resources by leveraging Mavenir’s experience in deploying a commercial multi-vendor Open RAN-based nationwide 5G network in the United States.

A unique capability ORCID offers is access to a commercial grade E2E software stack and availability of its spectrum holdings across a range of frequency bands for over-the-air testing. The ORCID facility is housed in a Tier 3 data center with ample space for future expansion. Located directly opposite the ORCID lab is the huge satellite dish array which EchoStar uses as its satellite broadcast facility, which provokes thoughts to potential future possibilities for Open RAN innovation in the Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) space as we move towards 6G.

During the official opening visit, the ORCID team showcased the full range of the lab’s facilities, including the portal for new vendors to submit their O-RAN software under test, numerous innovative use cases, plus O-RAN test runs that were fully automated with auto-generated test reports. The commitment from the ORCID team has been impressive, making the lab fully functional within 6 months since its inception and with EchoStar investing $25M into ORCID in conjunction with the NTIA investment.

If your organization is looking to develop a commercial-grade innovative O-RAN product, we would strongly encourage you to explore the ORCID website and get in touch with the ORCID team to discuss an application. A key point to note is that the majority of the testing services are available at no cost to O-RAN vendors, thanks to support given by the NTIA Innovation Fund.  

Mavenir is a strong industry champion and supporter of ORCID and we are excited to be part of this initiative. As Mavenir continuously innovates in open RAN technology such as ULPI based mMIMO, NTN, RIC and AI/ML use cases, we plan to use ORCID as a living lab to validate our technologies in a multi-vendor open environment. This significant new facility is set to play a transformational role in driving the adoption of open and interoperable radio access networks and, with landmark support from the US government, vendors now have an unprecedented opportunity to make the O-RAN journey towards commercialization a successful one.