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• O-RAN Alliance announces its Release 002, new specifications and 2022 global PlugFests
  in 5G
  By Chris Coughlan

  The O-RAN Alliance announces Release 002 of its minimum viable plan, with it new specifications and details of the 2022 global PlugFests.

  

  In 2021, O-RAN Alliance introduced a new initiative describing how its specifications combine to form the first Release of O-RAN Minimum Viable Plan. This plan delivers the specifications needed by the open RAN ecosystem to create products that meet the highest priority needs of operators.

  O-RAN Release 001 focused on creating Open Interfaces that include Open Fronthaul, transport, hardware and cloud.

  The new O-RAN Release 002 focuses on enabling Open Intelligence. Features in Release 002 include specifications for Traffic Steering, Quality of Service and Quality of Experience Optimisation, RAN Slicing, and Service Management and Orchestration.

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  O-RAN Alliance says it has released another set of technical specifications for open and intelligent RAN. The four new specification titles comprise:

  • O-RAN R1 interface: General Aspects and Principles v1.0
  • O-RAN A1 interface: Test Specification v1.0
  • O-RAN Acceleration Abstraction Layer High-PHY Profiles v1.0
  • O-RAN Security Tests Specifications v1.0

  Another 36 technical documents have been updated with extensions and new features. To learn more about the new and updated specifications, go here. To access the O-RAN specifications, go to their website here.

  Building on the successful O-RAN Global PlugFest 2021, the O-RAN Alliance plans to organise two global PlugFests in 2022 for its member companies and institutions. Offering two PlugFests will better accommodate the expanding work on integration and commercialisation of the O-RAN solutions, the Alliance says.

  Throughout 2021, the O-RAN Alliance says it extended its interactions with other industry bodies and standards development organisations. As one example, first O-RAN specification – the O-RAN Fronthaul Control, User and Synchronisation Plane Specification – has been submitted for potential adoption by the ETSI Technical Committee Mobile Standards Group through the ETSI PAS process. Additional O-RAN specifications are being planned for future submissions to the ETSI PAS process, the Alliance advised.
• Nokia readies O-RAN fronthaul with NTT DOCOMO for multi-vendor 5G operation
  in 5G
  By Chris Coughlan

  Nokia announced that it is ready to supply its O-RAN fronthaul multi-vendor solution to NTT DOCOMO's 5G network following successful testing. The move will enable the Japanese operator to further select independent combinations of hardware and software to optimise its network in the future.

  It follows the work of the O-RAN Alliance in creating a common specification enabling interoperability between different vendors. It is the latest milestone demonstrating it's commitment to O-RAN and open networks, Nokia says.

  During the trial at DOCOMO’s Lab in Yokosuka, Nokia said it's 5G O-RAN AirScale baseband was successfully integrated and tested with third-party O-RUs (radio units). Nokia’s O-RAN capabilities are built on top of its AirScale software and provide the same high level of performance, functionality, and security as Nokia's radio products. Nokia is helping to prepare for the network architecture of the future by building open interfaces on top of its existing solutions, offering CSPs a choice to pursue O-RAN.

  Nokia says it has already made significant investments in O-RAN by leading the early deployment of the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and the open fronthaul.

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  The O-RAN Alliance was formed in 2018 to define common interfaces between systems to reduce complexity and accelerate the deployment of multi-vendor RANs. It specified an eCPRI-based 7-2x open interface between the Radio Unit (O-RU) and Distributed Unit (O-DU). This is a standardised fronthaul interface that enables multi-vendor interoperability while optimising the cost of fronthaul transmission and maximising radio-frequency performance, Nokia says.

  NTT DOCOMO general manager radio access network development Sadayuki Abeta commented, “NTT DOCOMO has been actively driving open RAN standardisation and commercialisation, being the world’s first operator to deploy multi-vendor O-RAN solutions for the 5G network.

  "Successful testing with Nokia is an important step in further accelerating open RAN commercialisation and its global expansion.”

  Nokia president of mobile networks Tommi Uitto said, “This project with NTT DOCOMO is further evidence of our commitment to leading the open mobile future by investing in Open RAN solutions. Open RAN technology will enrich the mobile ecosystem with new solutions and business models and support an expanded multi-vendor ecosystem.

  "We have ​the scale and capabilities to address the increased customer demand for this technology, underpinned by the world-class network performance and security that only Nokia can deliver."

  This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 9 December 2021.
• Bad actors can be expected to adopt new strategies for the next few quarters: Virsec
  in Guest Opinion
  By Satya Gupta, Virsec

  GUEST OPINION: According to Virsec Cofounder and CTO Satya Gupta, bad actors can be expected to adopt the following new strategies over the next few quarters.

  1. Since bad actors have become cash-rich from the ransom they’ve collected from successful attacks, we can expect them to conduct their business (of writing sophisticated exploits for RCE vulnerabilities) earlier and faster by leveraging even more skilled exploit writers instead of depending on publicly disclosed exploits.

  2. Attackers will increasingly infiltrate more COTS applications and Open Source Software and bury backdoors directly in source code. Many small/medium business who don’t have dedicated IT to test code before they deploy will end up suffering more from breaches than larger end-users who practice better cyber hygiene.

  3. Most cyber-attacks go from infiltration to the ransom-demand stage over days, during which time-sensitive data is exfiltrated slowly so as to not trigger AI/ML attention. Given international tension and not profit being the motivation, we can expect attacks to target widescale disruption (such as taking critical infrastructure systems offline).

  4. Given that more and more enterprise software is being delivered from third parties and over the cloud, sophisticated bad actors will target such cloud providers. We therefore expect to hear of many more breach disclosures in popular SaaS services in the coming times.
• Austrian open source firm offers replacement for Microsoft Exchange
  in Business Software
  By Sam Varghese

  Austrian open source software development company grommunio has announced that its groupware, of the same name, can be used to replace Microsoft Exchange.

  The company said grommunio, which runs on Linux, would provide independent management of email, contacts, calendar, chat, video conferencing and file sharing in real time.

  The announcement comes at a time when Microsoft Exchange Server has been under attack from numerous actors, due to vulnerabilities known as ProxyShell and ProxyLogon.

  Different packages are offered to both individuals and companies as subscriptions, along with support.

  {loadposition sam08}The company's website says it works with existing clients such as Windows Mail, Outlook, Android, Apple Mail, iOS, Thunderbird and others.

  grommunio was formerly known as gramm and is released under a licence known as AGPLv3. It is developed in line with open standards and supports both the older RPC over HTTP protocol and the Outlook standard protocol MAPI over HTTP.

  The package also includes Exchange ActiveSync for mobile devices and various standard protocols like CalDAV (calendar), CardDAV (address book), IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and LDAP, as well as Active Directory (for syncing of user accounts).

  grommunio also supports database sharing and the storage backend is flexible to allow expansion of a setup.

  A community edition is free for use by up to five users.
• New specifications from the O-RAN Alliance
  in 5G
  By Chris Coughlan

  O-RAN Alliance announced new specifications, its 3rd global plugfest and new demonstrations of O-RAN technology to be held at the LA MWC.

  O-RAN Alliance has released another set of technical specifications for open RAN published since July 2021. Initial versions of nine technical specifications comprise:

  • O-RAN Non-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) Architecture
  • Near-Real-Time RIC and E2 Interface: Use Cases and Requirements v1.0
  • O-RAN E2 Service Model: RAN Control (E2SM-RC) v1.0
  • O-RAN O1 Interface specification for O-CU-UP and O-CU-CP towards the Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) framework
  • O-RAN Acceleration Abstraction Layer FEC Profiles
  • Infrastructure management services of the O2 interface
  • O-Cloud Notification API Specification for Event Consumers
  • O-RAN Xhaul Transport Testing Specification
  • O-RAN Security Requirements Specifications

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  O-RAN Alliance says another 39 technical documents bring extensions and new features to the existing specifications. All new specifications will soon be available on its website. To learn more, please read the O-RAN Alliance blog post.

  O-RAN Alliance's says its 3rd global plugfest has been in progress since June 2021. 77 companies perform testing, integration or proofs of concept in 7 venues around the world. Technical work is planned to continue till the end of November 2021, with subsequent presentations of the results in its Plugfest Virtual Showcase.

  O-RAN Alliance mentioned that 18 demos of O-RAN technology have been prepared for MWC Los Angeles 2021 or the O-RAN Virtual Exhibition.

  This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 25 October 2021.