EchoStar unveils open RAN test lab

EchoStar opened its Open RAN Centre for Integration and Deployment (ORCID), a facility set to be used for the test and validation of components from various vendors on its 5G cloud-native network.

While open RAN purports to eliminate vendor lock-in from large companies by enabling operators to create an ecosystem of vendors, the movement has been slow to gain widespread adoption due to ongoing issues in areas such as interfaces.

EchoStar stated ORCID will help drive the open RAN ecosystem from the lab to commercial deployments through collaboration with partners such as Fujitsu, Mavenir and VMware, the same vendors used in its greenfield 5G network.

Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman of EchoStar, said ORCID represents “a significant milestone in both EchoStar and the US’s journey to drive and lead the adoption of open and interoperable radio access networks”.

The test facility is located in EchoStar’s data centre in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

In January EchoStar subsidiary Dish Wireless won a $50 million grant from the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to help establish the centre.

One of the NTIA’s current goals is to prove the viability of open RAN through interoperability testing and validation.

Last year, NTIA director for the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund Amanda Toman told Mobile World Live the organisation is also developing methodologies to prove to operators open RAN has performance parity with existing RAN and potentially cost parity as well.