Telecom Infra Project targets disaggregated cell site gateways

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP), through its Open Optical & Packet Transport group, is working to develop disaggregated cell site gateways (DCSGs). The effort is led by four operators, and a pair of vendors have already begun work on one such platform, dubbed Odyssey-DCSG.

Vodafone launched the DCSG effort earlier this year, according to TIP. Orange, Telefonica, and TIM Brazil have since backed the project, which aims to promote the use of open, disaggregated, interoperable, and vendor-neutral platforms as operators evolve their mobile infrastructures to 5G. TIP says some of these operators have released requests for information (RFIs) seeking supplier input on hardware, network operating system, protocol support, dynamic configurability, and manageability.

ADVA and Edgecore Networks likely will be among the first to respond, as the two companies have released information on their joint Odyssey-DCSG work this week. ADVA says they plan to offer both the Odyssey-DSCG hardware (which it says it is collaborating with Edgecore to design and build) as well as a suite of installation, commissioning, and monitoring services. The company says it should be able to make the package generally available in the second half of next year. For its part, Edgecore says it will have hardware ready for evaluation in the first quarter of 2019 with a target of general availability in the third quarter of next year. The platform will have four Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) RJ45 ports and eight 10/25GbE SFP28 ports for backhaul uplinks. The 1RU box, which operators will be able to deploy in the outside plant or a cabinet, will support of IEEE 1588 timing and GPS functions as well.

“The next generation of mobile networks need disaggregated open infrastructures that offer choice, innovation, and cost efficiencies,” said Luis MartinGarcia, co-lead, Disaggregated Cell Site Gateways project group, TIP, and network technologies manager at Facebook. “Leading network operators have worked with the DCSG group to define the specific requirements for cell site gateways to enable this infrastructure. We are pleased with Edgecore’s contributions to that work, and their commitment to develop and deliver the DCSG gateway to the market as a fully open network product.”

Edgecore has announced as well a similar open, disaggregated platform for cell sites based on AT&T specifications contributed to TIP’s parent group, the Open Compute Project (see “AT&T submits white box cell site gateway router specs to Open Compute Project”).

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