SKT continues its cooperation with domestic small and medium-sized manufacturers to provide a stable communication environment through the construction of a 5G Open RAN demonstration network.

SKT announced on the 22nd that it has established a 5G Open RAN (Open Radio Access Network) in-building demonstration network for Open RAN technology cooperation with domestic small and medium-sized enterprises within its Bundang office building and confirmed stable service interoperability quality.

Open RAN is a technology that enables equipment from different manufacturers to interoperate by separating the hardware and software of mobile communication equipment, such as base stations, and standardizing the interface between the equipment.

This time, SKT and domestic SMEs jointly tested the performance of Open RAN equipment in an indoor office space and integrated actual services to allow for a tangible experience.

As the first demonstration case of an in-building demonstration network, SKT installed a cloud-based 5G Open RAN base station together with HFR, a domestic mid-sized company, and confirmed the stable quality and performance of 5G in-building services.

In this demonstration, network performance such as transmission speed and latency was measured, and a real-time service (wearable 360° CCTV) was demonstrated, and the demonstration was also conducted from the perspective of service quality.

SKT stated that the 5G Open RAN base station demonstrated this time reduced power consumption and improved capacity compared to existing Open RAN equipment, and the equipment size In addition, it was reported that it has been miniaturized from existing medium-to-large servers to the level of actual base stations.

Meanwhile, in addition to this demonstration, SKT participated as a host in the 'PlugFest' event hosted by the O-RAN Alliance last year. It has presented various demonstration results regarding base station equipment compliant with OpenRAN standards, and earlier this year, together with Nokia, it installed the first cloud-based OpenRAN virtualized base station in Korea on a commercial network and confirmed stable 5G service speeds and coverage performance through field testing.

SKT plans to continue growing the domestic Open RAN ecosystem through pilot activities with domestic small and medium-sized manufacturers.

“By successfully demonstrating a 5G Open RAN base station in an indoor environment, we have taken another step closer to the commercialization of Open RAN,” said Ryu Tak-ki, Head of Infrastructure Technology at SKT. “Open RAN is an essential technology for the advancement of 5G as well as the upcoming 6G era, and SKT will continue its efforts to develop Open RAN technology and revitalize the domestic ecosystem.”