A new report from analyst firm Counterpoint highlights the scale of lock-in that is already built into the fledgling open radio access network (RAN) market and — by extension — the virtualized RAN (vRAN) as a whole.
Analyst Gareth Owen wrote: “The transition of the Radio Access Network (RAN) from a standalone, integrated network into a disaggregated, virtualized solution is well underway. However, all open RAN deployments to date rely on Intel’s x86-based COTS servers, with most deployments also using Intel’s proprietary FlexRAN software architecture.”
The same could also be said of the vRAN market as a whole. As Silverlinings has already pointed out, the entire market is largely dominated by Intel.
That may be starting to change because of multiple other chip designers recently introducing vRAN acceleration cards.
“Recently, various silicon vendors have announced that they are developing alternatives to Intel’s x86 platform based on ASICs, GPUs as well RISC-V architectures,” Owen said. “Several of these vendors are currently testing their new PCIe-based Layer-1 accelerator cards with CSPs, and commercial versions of these products are expected to become widely available during the next three years.”
Owen named the silicon contenders as AMD, Dell, Intel, Leapfrog Semiconductor, Marvell, Nvidia, Picocom and Qualcomm among others. Silverlinings has already covered many of these companies.
Openness, diversity and lock-in
“The launch of new L1 accelerator cards from various vendors, large and small, should be welcomed by [mobile operators] calling for diversity and will go some way to quell criticism that the open RAN market is too Intel-based,” the analyst noted. This move to multiple suppliers could also bring its own problems as well, he said.
“They must now face the difficult challenge of testing and comparing multiple accelerator cards, inevitably involving complicated technical and commercial trade-offs,” Owen added.
A multi-vendor life — it appears — can be just as tricky as old-school telco vendor lock-in.
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