https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/12/oran-biden-china-huawei-technology/

Quote:

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Congress has allocated half a billion dollars to the State Department to spend on advancing the development and adoption of Open RAN and secure-semiconductor technologies over five years, while NTIA has a $1.5 billion fund to invest in research, testing and promotion of Open RAN technologies over a decade. Other agencies like USTDA have also carved out parts of their budgets to advocate for the technology.
Open RAN technology originated as an internationalized concept with no special U.S. ties in the late 2010s, with companies like AT&T and China Mobile working together on it. Then the Trump administration began promoting the nascent technology, considering it advantageous for smaller U.S. players, in what some scholars have described as a "geopolitical hijacking." The Biden administration has intensified the Open RAN push as the technology has become more ready for the market.

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And will it screw with Huawei?

ELI5

I don't think it is necessarily a Biden admin, or even Trump admin, push as much as NSA and signal intelligence pushing hard. On the surface they use language around "open source" and "interoperability" to sway opinion, but I think those reasons are only drivers for AT&T/Verizon .... government money is coming in for other reasons some good, but also some bad.

https://www.nokia.com/networks/radio-access-networks/open-ran/open-ran-explained/

RANs are what your phone talks to. The Core network is what cell providers use to actually handle calls. The manufacturers for RAN and Core hardware specialize all their stuff to make it do stuff really well together like Apple, but you get stuck with one provider for both. Open RAN is like everyone using USB chargers instead of the specialized plugs everyone used to have for early phones, so stuff works better between manufacturers.

As for, "Will it screw with Huawei?" the answer is maybe. They have a lot of things cell companies like, but it's basically a Honeypot. Great products at low prices to get in Trojan horses. This would potentially break that up by disrupting how they integrate into cell networks and basically require a full Huawei network if you want to use any of their products because of interoperability issues with other companies.

Yep. Most of the carrier-grade gear that runs the cellular networks is made by companies like Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, etc. OpenRAN is a set of standards aimed toward making equipment from different vendors compatible with each other, reducing potential for vendor lock.

We fixed the keg said:

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I don't think it is necessarily a Biden admin, or even Trump admin, push as much as NSA and signal intelligence pushing hard. On the surface they use language around "open source" and "interoperability" to sway opinion, but I think those reasons are only drivers for AT&T/Verizon .... government money is coming in for other reasons some good, but also some bad.

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If NSA is pushing it, then that just tells me this makes it easier to spy on us. But I'm not educated on this topic. That's just me assuming our government are bad actors like they almost always are.

Yeah, it's basically more hardware and network standardization so the competition is on the software side amongst network vendors.

As far as screwing over Huawei, what does it matter if it's open or proprietary? They can make equipment for either and get into the supply chain.

Either way, it's about controlling the supply chain.

Sounds vaguely familiar.

Does this have any link to the work of Freescale Semiconductor engineers who were onboard MH 370?

Logos Stick said:

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As far as screwing over Huawei, what does it matter if it's open or proprietary? They can make equipment for either and get into the supply chain.

Either way, it's about controlling the supply chain.

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If it helps us control the supply chain, I'm good with it.

Open RAN will foster innovation and competition by breaking down and opening interfaces of RAN subsystems. In that way it screws with all the big infrastructure providers including Huawei and likely frustrates their ability to control and surveillance. The USTDA is exerting direct influence and funds to take China out of some critical networks in critical locations. This is money well spent but the technology does complicate security since some of these systems are cloud based.

YouBet said:

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We fixed the keg said:

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I don't think it is necessarily a Biden admin, or even Trump admin, push as much as NSA and signal intelligence pushing hard. On the surface they use language around "open source" and "interoperability" to sway opinion, but I think those reasons are only drivers for AT&T/Verizon .... government money is coming in for other reasons some good, but also some bad.

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If NSA is pushing it, then that just tells me this makes it easier to spy on us. But I'm not educated on this topic. That's just me assuming our government are bad actors like they almost always are.

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This is the tough part. US companies have fallen behind Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei. Open RAN gives an opening for the US to become a bigger player in the space and this is a good thing. There are still challenges around security and interoperability, but capital investment and development should overcome most of these.

From a signal intelligence perspective, having China/Huawei as a leader in the space is a security threat no matter how much they swear they are not allowing access. It is in our best interest, for security, to have an alternative, but we all have seen what the Patriot Act has unleashed. So far, I am in the "the good outweighs the bad" boat.

We fixed the keg said:

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YouBet said:

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We fixed the keg said:

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I don't think it is necessarily a Biden admin, or even Trump admin, push as much as NSA and signal intelligence pushing hard. On the surface they use language around "open source" and "interoperability" to sway opinion, but I think those reasons are only drivers for AT&T/Verizon .... government money is coming in for other reasons some good, but also some bad.

---

If NSA is pushing it, then that just tells me this makes it easier to spy on us. But I'm not educated on this topic. That's just me assuming our government are bad actors like they almost always are.

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This is the tough part. US companies have fallen behind Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei. Open RAN gives an opening for the US to become a bigger player in the space and this is a good thing. There are still challenges around security and interoperability, but capital investment and development should overcome most of these.

From a signal intelligence perspective, having China/Huawei as a leader in the space is a security threat no matter how much they swear they are not allowing access. It is in our best interest, for security, to have an alternative, but we all have seen what the Patriot Act has unleashed. So far, I am in the "the good outweighs the bad" boat.

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Hope this is the case!