Evolving Open RAN Interoperability: A Large-Scale Definition

Open RAN technology has tremendous potential to spur innovation, increase competition and flexibility, and reduce the cost of cellular systems. Today, the interoperability of the Open RAN ecosystem is one of the most significant challenges facing this technology. It is potentially keeping it from being accepted by cellular providers and businesses. This paper intends to redefine Open RAN interoperability scientifically and comprehensively. The foundations of this new definition are laid out here. This new definition of interoperability aims to help consolidate the numerous definitions that exist today and lay the groundwork for new measurement methods that can be used to quantify the interoperability of hardware and software. We leverage pieces of definitions from existing Open RAN sources and then expand the definition to promote large-scale testing. The current definition of interoperability using Plugfest may be a first step, but it is not enough to widely accept Open RAN devices in the cellular community. The definition presented here will reduce the misunderstanding among Open RAN commercial entities, standards bodies, and researchers and provide a foundation for new measurement methods.