Juniper Networks says it’s going all-in on Open RAN

• It’s claiming a ‘leadership role' in the O-RAN Alliance and prizes its RIC as the equivalent of a RAN operating system
• Sees the Juniper RIC and Intel’s FlexRAN platform as powerful integrated companion technologies for mobile operators

Juniper Networks says it’s deepening its commitment to Open RAN and collaborating with Intel over the development of the technology. The company says it’s adopting a “leadership role” in the technology and points to its exclusive IP licensing agreement with Netsia and its involvement in the O-RAN Alliance. In addition Juniper claims it’s been heavily engaged in building joint customer solutions in Intel’s 5G Lab.

“Juniper has always been committed to open infrastructures, which is why we are excited to support the work that Intel has undertaken with their FlexRAN ecosystem. By collaborating with Intel, we are able to deliver cloud-native routing, automation, intelligence and assurance solutions and services that are optimized for our customers’ needs, speeding time-to-market and enabling them to monetize faster,” said Constantine Polychronopoulos, VP of 5G and Telco Cloud at Juniper Networks.

Juniper claims its  Intel collaborations and Open RAN contributions include:

• The Juniper RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and Intel FlexRAN platform which are pre-integrated and pre-validated to enhance usability of a full O-RAN-compliant Intelligent RAN system
• Collaborative R&D work with Intel Labs for RIC platform-specific apps 
• Joint customer testbeds with Intel to validate performance-improving implementations
• Juniper says it’s an active member of the O-RAN Alliance and is currently contributing to six working groups and serving as chair and co-chair of the slicing and use-case task groups, respectively, as well as being an editor of RIC specifications within the alliance.

“The virtualization of the RAN continues to gain momentum across the industry as operators take advantage of cloud economics and the delivery of new services,” said Caroline Chan, VP Intel Corporation and GM of Network Business Incubator Division.  “This collaboration with Juniper and the validation of FlexRAN and RIC solutions will assist service providers to overcome integration challenges and accelerate time-to-market for future deployments,” she added.