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The world of telecommunications is fast-paced, and so the need for agile, innovative, and efficient solutions is crucial. Open Radio Access Networks (open RAN) are at the forefront of this transformation, enabling service providers to break free from traditional, monolithic infrastructures. What's the secret ingredient for faster adoption and development of open RAN? A robust, collaborative ecosystem.

VIAVI's VALOR Lab: A hub for open RAN innovation

Testing, evaluation, and certification are key to the widespread deployment of open RAN. As outlined in a recent announcement, VIAVI's VALOR Lab embodies the essence of ecosystem-driven progress in open RAN. Acting as a central hub, VALOR Lab provides access to enhanced testing capabilities that would be cost prohibitive to some service providers due to hardware and software investment. Technologies from other key players including network operators, hardware manufacturers, and software developers are also available to collaborate on addressing integration challenges, enhancing interoperability, and accelerating solution deployment.

This lab provides a space for co-creation and leverages collective expertise to foster trust and innovation. It's where ideas are tested, refined, and scaled in real-time, shortening development cycles and ensuring effective and adaptable solutions. The VALOR lab aims to both help with product development as well as close the gap in terms of testing and evaluation, offering over 500 test cases that are compliant with numerous Open RAN Alliance (O-RAN) working groups and other standards bodies including the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

An open source foundation

Red Hat's approach echoes the importance of a collaborative ecosystem by delivering the O-Cloud software infrastructure for the VALOR Lab. Delivering a high performing, scalable, secure, and cost efficient RAN requires a cloud-native software-defined solution. Red Hat's commitment to open source platforms provides the flexibility and scalability that service providers demand. A tuned and optimized carrier-grade platform that has built-in security is necessary to run deterministic RAN workloads. This is achieved by leveraging open hybrid cloud technologies like Red Hat OpenShift .

Red Hat reduces dependency on single-vendor solutions by collaborating extensively with open source communities to cultivate the latest innovations, and with a broad ecosystem of hardware and software partners, paving the way for modular, customizable network architectures. Red Hat also offers pre-integrated reference architectures that address many of the challenges service providers face when deploying and operating open RAN networks.

Open source innovation helps ensure that components across the RAN landscape remain secure, reliable, and adaptable to various deployment needs. This foundation empowers service providers, giving them the confidence to build resilient networks that seamlessly integrate hardware and software solutions, putting them in control of their network architecture.

Operationalizing the RAN

Deploying and operating an open RAN at scale requires inherent automation capabilities to

reduce time-to-market and improve efficiency. A key aspect of Red Hat’s automation solution is zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) that uses a declarative approach to define a desired state, which eliminates inefficiencies tied to manual configuration and intervention. Red Hat collaborates with service providers to build a holistic automation strategy and automation-first culture that delivers business value faster.

Simplifying complexity for increased efficiency and productivity

Streamlining operations with automation and cloud-native methodologies drive increased efficiency and productivity within service provider teams. This is predicated with the use of a cloud-native application platform that provides a consistent experience. Red Hat OpenShift provides an array of capabilities that service providers need to build a programmable and automated platform for their open RAN, and which can be used for other parts of their network.

Why ecosystem collaboration matters

The combined efforts of initiatives like VIAVI's VALOR Lab and Red Hat's open source strategies create a powerful synergy. This ecosystem-driven approach results in:

  • Accelerated time to market: Collaborative testing and co-development reduce the time it takes to bring new solutions from concept to deployment
  • Enhanced adaptability: Flexible frameworks tailored to meet regional and market-specific requirements
  • Continuous improvement: A shared community focus drives iterative advancements, ensuring solutions remain cutting-edge and responsive to evolving needs

The complexity of deploying open RAN is reducing, as technical and ecosystem challenges are being addressed within the industry. For service providers, investing in collaborative ecosystems is not just beneficial—it's essential. The future of open RAN is brighter and more promising when companies work together, leveraging their collective strengths and embracing a shared vision of open, efficient, and sustainable network solutions.

The attractiveness of open RAN is that disaggregation of network functions increases competition and drives costs out. An open RAN architecture promises greater cost efficiencies compared to traditional RAN architecture, representing a major incentive for service providers that are trying to mitigate cost pressures amid the inexorable rise in data traffic on their networks.

As open RAN continues to reshape the industry landscape, the path forward will be marked by partnerships that merge technological innovation with strategic collaboration. The journey is ongoing, but with initiatives like those from VIAVI and Red Hat, service providers are moving confidently toward a more connected and adaptable future. 


About the authors

Mark Longwell is the Director, Telco and Edge Alliances in the Hybrid Platforms Business unit, with a focus on Telco partners. Mark joined Red Hat in 2016. At Red Hat, Mark focuses on leveraging his extensive Linux partnering experience to work with Red Hat's Global Telco and Edge partners on various go-to-market activities, CNF and VNF Certifications on Red Hat technologies, and technical and sales enablement activities. In his spare time, Mark likes to hike and follow Liverpool Football Club. Mark lives in Boston, MA.

Specialty areas: CNF/VNF Certification, Telco Partnering and Onboarding, global alliances, RAN, ORAN and 5G Core in the Telco market space, and all things alliances and business development related in the Telco space.

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Hanen Garcia is Global Telco Solutions Manager at Red Hat, with more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry building network solutions and value-added services for large telecom operators. In his current role, he is driving solutions to support telecommunications service providers during their network transformation journey. Prior to joining Red Hat, he worked at Ericsson as an innovation specialist designing cutting-edge solutions for mobile networks. Garcia holds an M. Eng. in innovation management from the ÉTS in Canada and an M.Eng. in telecommunications from Polytech in France.

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Rob McManus is a Principal Product Marketing Manager at Red Hat. McManus is an adept member of complex matrix-style teams tasked to define and position telecommunication service provider and partner solutions with a focus on network transformation that includes 5G, vRAN and the evolution to cloud-native network functions (CNFs).

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