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Benetel Joins UK's SONIC program to Accelerate 5G OpenRAN Rollout

March 1, 2021

Benetel will provide SONIC with OpenRAN radio units (O-RUs) to aid in validation of interoperability and integration between various OpenRAN solutions.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

Benetel has lent its participation to the SmartRAN Open Network Interoperability Centre (SONIC), a joint program between Digital Catapult and Ofcom aimed at validation of interoperability and integration between various OpenRAN solutions. SONIC, which goes into operation in May 2021, will combine comprehensive laboratory testing capabilities with small-scale implementation activities.

Benetel will provide SONIC with OpenRAN radio units (O-RUs). These will be integrated with products from other solution providers to fully demonstrate OpenRAN’s multi-vendor capabilities and the open ecosystem that it supports.

“We welcome Benetel’s involvement in SONIC. Our goal is to ensure multi-vendor OpenRAN interoperability and the availability of advanced, deployment-ready OpenRAN solutions to address the UK 5G market,” states Joe Butler, CTO of Digital Catapult.

Benetel works with leading players and open initiatives, such as the O-RAN Alliance, the OpenAirInterface Software Alliance (OSA), the Telecom Infrastructure Project (TIP), Open RAN Policy Coalition, and now SONIC, to provide RUs over fronthaul networks that interwork with virtualized baseband units. This open disaggregated RAN is the backbone of next-generation mobile network infrastructure.

Benetel, www.benetel.com

About the Author

David Maliniak | Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF

I am Executive Editor of Microwaves & RF, an all-digital publication that broadly covers all aspects of wireless communications. More particularly, we're keeping a close eye on technologies in the consumer-oriented 5G, 6G, IoT, M2M, and V2X markets, in which much of the wireless market's growth will occur in this decade and beyond. I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, developers, and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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About me:

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.