The Department of Defense and the National Spectrum Consortium have asked industry and academia for insights, ideas and other feedback through a call for whitepapers as part of efforts to speed up the development, production and testing of 5G Open Radio Access Network technologies in the U.S.
Virtualization and open architecture development has been one of the DOD’s key lines of effort under its 5G Strategy Implementation Plan and the department said Friday that it expects more companies to advance innovation in 5G networks and security by making RAN architectures open.
The Pentagon said the effort also intends to identify challenges facing emerging companies in pursuing the commercialization of Open RAN platforms in the country.
The National Security Council and the office of the under secretary for research and engineering at DOD plan to hold an Industry Day in July to talk about the concepts and other feedback submitted through the call for whitepapers.
DOD said it also works with the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on a prize competition called 5G Challenge, which seeks to expedite the adoption of multivendor platforms, interoperable components and open interfaces to develop an open 5G ecosystem and build up a domestic industrial base of wireless companies.
