Everyone following the ORAN discussion is aware of its potential to innovate the industry. A common point of contention is how we test and integrate in a disaggregated network. When things go wrong in the single vendor scenario, the solution is straightforward enough. However, with multiple vendors, operators must first identify the problem, then ensure any subsequent solutions are still fully operable with all other constituent parts.
A recent whitepaper published by TIP stated testing as being one of biggest operational challenges faced by operators when deploying multi-vendor RANs, largely since the knowledge and skills required to do this are lacking in the industry. Continuous testing is thought to be paramount in the success in deploying multi-vendor ORAN networks. Therefore, with such importance, who will be able to do testing? Should this be the responsibility of the system integrator, or something developed in-house?
