IS-Wireless, a provider of 5G mobile network solutions and RAN technologies is advancing in the Radio Intelligent Controller (RIC) area, which is the heart of modern telecommunications networks. The company has secured over $5 million in funding from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) and The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) to develop critical RIC functionalities focused on real- time operation, enhanced security, and multi-service capabilities.

Current RIC solutions typically operate in near-real-time and non-real-time modes. However, real-time operation, the most demanding of control loops, has only recently gained traction in industry standards, as evidenced by the O-RAN Alliance’s inclusion of such mechanisms in their specifications. IS-Wireless has over 2 years of experience implementing its Near-RT RIC but sees a need for systems operating under 1 ms. The new projects will extend its existing RIC to incorporate real-time operating mechanisms. This will unlock a range of benefits, including advanced interference control and significantly more efficient spectrum and energy management. Real-time capabilities are also essential to realizing the full potential of 5G, bringing to life the diverse use cases promised by the IMT-2020 vision but generally unfulfilled to this moment (such as e.g., mMTC, uRLLC).

A common concern with disaggregated systems is their perceived weakness in security compared to traditional networks. Security is of critical importance to customers, as expressed for example in the “EU toolbox for 5G security” by the European Commission or in various reports like the recent Advances in the RAN Intelligent Controller by TelecomTV. That’s the reason why IS-Wireless is developing robust security mechanisms that leverage openness as an advantage in detecting and combating threats.

The addressed RIC innovations will significantly add value to IS-Wireless’ vision of the evolution of contemporary open and disaggregated systems towards Liquid RAN – an advanced set of RAN technologies paving the way in the transition between 5G and 6G. Liquid RAN is designed to optimize the use of existing network resources—spectrum, compute, and energy—to their maximum potential.

Liquid RAN is a revolutionary but proven technology that can be used to deliver Private 5G at a price much lower than the market challengers. This makes it a perfect choice for campus networks, industry 4.0, in-building solutions, and many more. It is also a perfect solution for public networks, where scalability with exponential growth of data traffic is of paramount importance. Finally, Liquid RAN can be treated as a link between 5G and 6G.

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) face a significant challenge in scaling network capacity exponentially using current solutions, including existing Open RAN approaches. IS-Wireless addresses this challenge with an ultra-dense network architecture coupled with the mentioned RIC innovations. Efficient management of spectrum and computing resources allows for unlimited network densification.