Facebook is demonstrating its open-source cellular base station design at a recent 2017 Telecom Infra Project (TIP) summit at what is said to cost less than $ 1,000. For TIP, the future The question of the year is whether this kind of system can be widely deployed.
To surpass larger rivals such as Amazon and Google, Facebook called for the alliance of telecom operators and technology partners to create software-defined networking (SDN) in early 2016. SDN is a broad Industry initiatives aimed at using proprietary ASICs and protocols to move capabilities to higher-order software to cut costs.
TIP has so far planned a compelling business case, configured different working groups, and produced some interesting prototypes.
If all goes well, several operators are expected to begin on-site testing of open source GSM base stations by April next year and begin testing LTE releases by June. A module released at the TIP Summit will enable The system is connected to battery, solar or utility power.
At the same time, Accton's low-cost, open source core network switches will soon be tested in Africa and Latin America. Cumulus Networks has said it will migrate its Linux-based networking software to the switch .
At this event, TIP launched a new working group to explore open source versions of its x86-based server-based wireless access network (RAN) and apply machine learning to its network planning.With Facebook's 60GHz Terragraph system , A number of projects have been implemented to discuss topics such as edge computing and millimeter-wave design for the last mile of access.
Axel Clauberg, Chairman of TIP, said: 'We continue to see exponential growth in traffic and production costs continue to grow while the average ARPU for the traditional Triple Play or Quad Play service begins Flat or declining. "Axel Clauberg, also vice president of technology innovation at Deutsche Telekom, cited TIP as" the most important transformation program in the industry. "
But change is not easy.He said: 'Many people are still in a wait-and-see mode, and we need more people to invest in.' He called for operators to invest further.
Top executives at BT, Telefonica and Vodaphone recently joined the TIP board and China Unicom has also become a member of TIP. AT & T seems to be a bit lower than in the past, while Verizon and China's The first two telecom operators in this event are more conservative.
Jay Parikh, head of Facebook infrastructure and engineering, helped start the organization, saying: 'It's early, but we hope for a massive deployment.'
To this end, he introduced the group's mission to assist in providing shared fiber-optic cable services to 3 million people in Uganda and another planned to deploy cellular networks in remote areas where Peru's 8 million people live.
In addition, TIP also encourages operators to launch accelerators in Asia and Europe, and has raised over 200 million U.S. dollars. So far, 10 startups have been set up.
One of the start-ups, Amarisoft, a French company, has said it has put into production a self-developed web-based software for performing LTE baseband functions on a quad-core 2.4GHz x86 server, and CEO Franck Spinelli said the code Enables an IQ sample running on a 20MHz channel to deliver 1.5ms round trip latency over 2x2 MIMO FDD networks.
Compile: Susan Hong