A Sample 4G/5G Offer for a Telecom Operator

It is possible to deploy a complete 4G/5G network from radio to billing to using only generic open source hardware (Open Compute Project, Edge-Core, MITAC, ITRenew, etc.), 4G/5G software stack (Amarisoft), SDR hardware (BJT, AW2S) and open source operation management software (Nexedi SlapOS).
  • Last Update:2020-04-13
  • Version:001
  • Language:en

It is possible nowadays to create an "all-in-one" 4G/5G network infrastructure based a generic software and generic PC. This document provides an example of an offer that can be  presented as an alternative to Huawei products in the context of cost-conscious telecommunication operators.

Network description

We consider here a telecommunication operator with an existing bakhaul network (radio, wire) and an infrastructure consisting of:

  • 200 big sites (ex. tri-sector antenna);
  • 200 small sites (ex. hotel, factory).

The goal of this offer is to upgrade this infrastructure from 2G/3G to 4G/5G or to extend an existing 4G infrastructure with 4G/5G small cells.

Big Site Infrastructure

A Big Site provides 4G/5G to a city or an area of a city. It is connected through an existing TCP/IP redundant network (fiber, radio) to other sites and to the core network.

Big sites can be operated either autonomously with a local EPC or through a central EPC. Both options can be deployed at the same time.

Big sites can provide 4G and 5G radio. Both radio can be used at the same time thanks to DSS technology. 

Item Purpose Supported standards Provider and Product Quantity CAPEX OPEX
Edge Gateway Switch (ASIC)
Router
eNodeB
gNodeB
Local EPC (option)
SFP+
eCPRI
3GPP (incl. S1)
IETF (incl. OSPF / Babel)
Edge-core Cell Site Gateway 1    
4G / 5G Stack eNodeB SDR
gNodeB SDR
Local EPC (option)
3GPP (incl. S1) Amarisoft Stack 1    
RRH Single sector RRH eCPRI AW2S 2x20W MIMO RRH 3    
Antenae Single sector Antenna     3    
Edge / Cloud OS / OpenAOS Operation Management
HTTP Cache
IoT Buffering
Low latency routing
Switch ASIC management
IETF (incl. OSPF / Babel) Nexedi SlapOS 1    
Total (equipment)         A1 A2
Radio planning Optimise radio parameters 3GPP   1 B1 B2
Site installation and maintenance       1 C1 C2
Total (all)         A1 + B1 + C1 A2 + B2 + C2

Small Site Infrastructure

A small site extends the network in hotels, parkings, factories and VIP locations. It is connected through an existing TCP/IP network (radio, xDSL, fiber, LTE) to a big site or to the core network. 

Small sites can be operated either autonomously with a local EPC or through a central EPC. Both options can be deployed at the same time.

Small sites can provide 4G and 5G radio. Both radio can be used at the same time thanks to DSS technology. 

Item Purpose Supported standards Provider and Product Quantity CAPEX OPEX
Edge Box Switch
Router
eNodeB
gNodeB
Omni Antenna
Local EPC (option)
SFP+
eCPRI
3GPP (incl. S1)
IETF (incl. OSPF / Babel)
BJT 1    
4G / 5G Stack eNodeB SDR
gNodeB SDR
Local EPC (option)
3GPP (incl. S1) Amarisoft Stack 1    
Edge / Cloud OS Operation Management
HTTP Cache
IoT Buffering
Low latency routing
IETF (incl. OSPF / Babel)
W3C

Nexedi SlapOS
1    
Total (equipment)         sA1 sA2
Site installation and maintenance       1 sC1 sC2
Total         sA1+ sC1 sA2 + sC2

Central Cloud

A modern telecommunication operator should be able to provide cloud services. We thus include in our offer a Rapid.Space on-premise cloud that can be used both as public cloud and private cloud. For resiliency, two sites are needed at least. Sites do not need to be tier-3 thanks to built-in resiliency in the operation management software.

Item Purpose Supported standards Provider and Product Quantity CAPEX OPEX
Rapid.Space Node Server (16)
Router
Central EPC
IaaS (VM)
SFP+
eCPRI
3GPP (incl. S1)
IETF (incl. OSPF / Babel)
Edge-core Cell Site Gateway 2    
4G / 5G Stack Central EPC 3GPP (incl. S1) Amarisoft Stack 2    
Edge / Cloud OS Operation Management
CRM
Blling
IaaS
HTTP Cache
IoT Buffering
Low latency routing
IETF (incl. OSPF / Babel)
W3C

Nexedi SlapOS
32    
Total (equipment)         cA1 cA2
Architecture Manage project and remote maintenance 3GPP
IETF
  1 cB1 cB2
Site installation and maintenance       1 cC1 cC2
Total         cA1+ cB1 + cC1 cA2 +bB2 + cC2

4G vs. 5G: both

4G is the best solution to day but 5G is already coming. Thanks to DSS technology, there is no need to decide which investment makes more sense. We support both.

Local EPC vs. Central EPC: both

A central EPC is the best solution to support handover for mobile applications (voice, data) and a large number of customers (> 10.000). It is also the best way to integrate to an existing core network (S1 protocol). However, it is not resilient and is not compatible with low-latency applications or true edge computing.

A local EPC on each site is the best solution for resiliency, performance (caching, buffering), edge computing (low latency, private networks) and fixed applications (voice, data). However, it has limited handover support (10.000 to 100.000 UEs) which requires either to split a national infrastructure into independent regional areas or to ignore handover.

With support both, at the same time, through different operator IDs managed by the same eNodeB or gNodeB.

Possible use of existing EPC

Amarisoft stack provides its own EPC but also supports existing EPC thanks to S1 interface. Some EPC vendors however use tricky provisions in their maintenance contract to close access to third party vendors. If this is the case, it is always possible to deploy a dedicated EPC for 4G/5G and integrate through roaming with the existing one.

Cost comparison

In order to compare the costs of this solution, site installation and maintenance costs should be taken out of the offer and evaluated independently because there is no fundamental difference between the installation of two pieces of 19inch hardware, no matter the supplier. It is also important to compare both OPEX and CAPEX on the same period of time with the same types of features.

Some vendors will try to hide their real cost by either hiding true OPEX cost that later keep on increasing or by hiding the true cost of on-site installation / maintenance of equipment.

Total Cost excl. on site installation and maintenance
Item Quantity CAPEX OPEX
Big Site 200 (A1 + B1) x 200 (A2 + B2) x 200
Small Site 200 sA1 x 200 sA2 x 200
Cloud 1 cA1 + cB1 cA2 + cB2
Total      

Summary

It is possible to deploy a complete 4G/5G network from radio to billing to using only generic open source hardware (Open Compute Project, Edge-Core, MITAC, ITRenew, etc.), 4G/5G software stack (Amarisoft), SDR hardware (BJT, AW2S) and open source operation management software (Nexedi SlapOS). Overall cost is possibly lower than Huawei. Most components, hardware and software, are open source.

Contact

  • Photo Jean-Paul Smets
  • Logo Nexedi
  • Jean-Paul Smets
  • jp (at) rapid (dot) space
  • Jean-Paul Smets is the founder and CEO of Nexedi. After graduating in mathematics and computer science at ENS (Paris), he started his career as a civil servant at the French Ministry of Economy. He then left government to start a small company called “Nexedi” where he developed his first Free Software, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) designed to manage the production of swimsuits in the not-so-warm but friendly north of France. ERP5 was born. In parallel, he led with Hartmut Pilch (FFII) the successful campaign to protect software innovation against the dangers of software patents. The campaign eventually succeeeded by rallying more than 100.000 supporters and thousands of CEOs of European software companies (both open source and proprietary). The Proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions was rejected on 6 July 2005 by the European Parliament by an overwhelming majority of 648 to 14 votes, showing how small companies can together in Europe defeat the powerful lobbying of large corporations. Since then, he has helped Nexedi to grow either organically or by investing in new ventures led by bright entrepreneurs.