The Small Cell Forum (SCF) announced the publication of documents focused on stimulating a competitive ecosystem for vendors of 5G-era small cell hardware, software and equipment. The expanded set of specifications contained in these documents are:
- SCF222 - 5G FAPI: PHY API Specification
- SCF223 - 5G FAPI: RF and Digital Frontend Control API
- SCF224 - 5G FAPI: Network Monitor Mode API
Expanding upon the 5G Physical Layer API specification, published in July 2019, the new specifications enable small cells to be constructed piece-by-piece using components from different vendors, in order to address the diverse mixture of 5G use cases relatively easily, a common goal to all of the specifications made by Small Cell Forum.
The new release also includes two completely new specifications, SCF223: 5G NR FAPI P19 FrontEnd Interface Specification and SCF224: Network Monitor Mode API for Small Cells.
According to Dr. Prabhakar Chitrapu, Chair of SCF, “FAPI helps Equipment Vendors to mix PHY & MAC Software from different suppliers via this open FAPI interface. So, FAPI is an 'internal' interface.”
“5G-nFAPI (network FAPI) is a 'network' interface and is between a Distributed Unit and Centralised Unit of a Split RAN/Small Cell network solution. An open specification of this interface (nFAPI) will help network architects by allowing them to mix distributed and central units from different vendors.”
SCF nFAPI is enabling Open RAN ecosystem in its own way by allowing any small cell CU/DU (S-CU / S-DU) to connect to any small cell radio unit (S-RU)
Here is a video playlist from SCF that explains the new API's
Related Posts:
- Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Small Cell Forum Releases 5G FAPI API Specifications
- The 3G4G Blog: A quick tutorial on Open RAN, vRAN & White Box RAN
- Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: SuperMicro's 5G Pole-Mounted DU Server Solution
No comments:
Post a Comment