"Opened" or "Closed" RAN in 5G

At the Kálmán Kandó Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Óbuda we have been conducting mobile communication research for many years. In the 4G LTE laboratory of the Institute of Telecommunications, we continuously follow the standardization processes and examine the development trends. Nowadays, the 5G mobile standards became mature, therefore education of the fifth generation mobile network structures and components can be taken into engineering training. However, development trends are not crystal clear. Mobile operators try to make radio access networks (RANs) to be open, but the "openness" term has different meanings for different organizations. Additionally, economic interests can significantly influence the direction of development. Can true openness be achieved? Is it possible to operate "white box" hardware components and open source software in the RAN? Can individual components from different vendors be compatible and interchangeable? In this article, we cannot and do not want to answer all of these questions, but we are trying to provide objective technical analysis that go beyond economic interests. [1]