TIP Summit 2019 Opens the Floodgates for Democratised Telco Infrastructure

The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) Summit 2019 heralded a sea change in the telecommunications sector, with open radio access network (RAN) and edge-computing small-cell capabilities moving from field trials to wider-scale deployments - and even the creation of a dedicated community ecosystem dubbed the TIP Exchange.

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The TIP CrowdCell initiative, which includes the LimeNET CrowdCell as well as partner products based around the same edge-computing and software-defined-radio technologies, enjoyed considerable attention at the event. A presentation from Lime Microsystems chief executive Ebrahim Bushehri, embedded below, introduced the concept to attendees while live demonstrations with MobiledgeX, Nextcloud, and mimik allowed attendees to get hands-on with the technology themselves.

Vodafone, a partner in the CrowdCell project, announced at the event that it would be looking to put its 100,000-strong European mobile site stable up for tender for a redesign based on open RAN technology. "It is a really significant opportunity for open RAN to scale," Tenorio said during the event, as reported by Light Reading's Iain Morris. "We are willing to swap out sites if we have to. The ambition is to have modern, up-to-date, lower-cost kit in every site. We are not announcing the results today because this just kicked off, but stay tuned because it may be a significant acceleration of the open RAN ecosystem."

The Telecom Infra Project itself, meanwhile, officially launched the TIP Exchange as a community-driven showcase of products and solutions developed under the TIP umbrella - including those from Lime Microsystems. Those participating in the TIP Exchange can qualify for badges which indicate the status of their solutions: badges can be earned for participation in a cross-vendor PlugFest, a Field Trial, creation of a Community Lab, or the release of documents and other materials under the Blueprint badge.

More information on the announcements made during the TIP Summit 2019, including updates from individual working groups, can be found on the official blog.