Fully Open Edge Cloud

Hyper Open O-RAN Roadmap

Rapid.Space Roadmap towards open source RRH and O-RAN
  • Last Update:2020-05-15
  • Version:002
  • Language:en

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We introduce in this presentation the roadmap of Rapid.Space with O-RAN. Rapid.Space is a Hyper Open Edge Cloud platform which provides full reversibility to its customers.

This presentation is available online. By scanning the QR code, you can access it on your smartphone.

Agenda

  • Rapid.Space
  • Current State
  • Towards O-RAN
  • Conclusion

This presentation has four parts.

First, we introduce Rapid.Space, its founders and goals.

Second, we introduce the current state of Rapid.Space in terms of open source coverage (software, hardware and management).

We then explain how we are going to introduce O-RAN in our stack and how it can contribute to a wider adoption of O-RAN.

We conclude on the type of partnerships we are looking for.

Some icons in this presentation are made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com.

Big News

  • A global open source edge cloud is growing
  • An open source O-RAN RRH is born

Two big news will be announced during the presentation.

First news: Rapid.Space, a fully open source edge cloud platform, is growing fast and is now available on 2 continents. There is no need with Rapid.Space to rely on proprietary clouds.

Second news: Rapid.Space is releasing an open source RRH that is designed to support O-RAN through 7.2 protocol. There is no need to wait anylonger for traditional RRH vendors.

Rapid.Space

Rapid.Space may be a new name for you. We are going to present here who we are and what is our goals.

Founders

Rapid.Space was founded in 2020 by Nexedi, Amarisoft and a few VIPs of the IT and telecom inudustries.

Nexedi brings its open source stack, in particular its billing platform, its edge-cloud platform and its big data platform, all open source.

Amarisoft brings its purely software defined 4G/5G stack which covers all aspects needed for commercial deployment, including SA, NSA, NBIoT, etc.

Goals

  • Provide sovereignty and trust through reversibility
  • Provide a reversible alternative to conventional public clouds
  • Provide a reversible alternative to Palantir platform
  • Provide a reversible Edge platform for I4.0
  • Provide a reversible converged RAN platform (4G/5G)

The goal of Rapid.Space is to provide sovereignty and trust through full reversibility. You may consider this goal as providing the kind of thing that companies such as Huawei, Palantir or AWS are not able to provide due a combination IP and legal policies.

This goal applies to every business which Rapid.Space is targetting.

Rapid.Space already provides a reversible cloud platform that can be used for public or private clouds. All components of this platform are open source, including the hardware, meaning that any customer can "clone" this platform on-premise or have it operated by a third party at no license cost.

Rapid.Space intends to provide a reversible big data platform with a scope simllar to Palantir.  All components of this platform are open source, including the hardware, meaning that any customer can "clone" this platform on-premise or have it operated by a third party  at no license cost.

Rapid.Space intends to provide a reversible Edge computing platform which includes everything needed for Industry 4.0, including PLC, sensors, actuators. Again, all components are open source.

Rapid.Space intends to provide a reversible RAN platform which supports 4G/5G and can be used for both private and public networks. Most components are open source. Some components may be licensed source, meaning that any customer can "clone" this platform on-premise and audit its source code at some license cost.

Reversibility

Everything except VRAN in Rapid.Space is open source: software (SlapOS), hardware (OCP) and business procedures. VRAN is based on a licensed source stack which may eventually become open source at some point.

The Rapid.Space Handbook explains every aspect to build a Rapid.Space node and operate it, either as a public cloud or as a private cloud. This is a major difference with any other cloud provider which usually keep their operating process secret.

Hyper Open

  • Transparent cost structure
  • Contribute your own edge cloud service
  • Contribute your own DC
  • Contribute your own RRH
  • Deploy on-premise
  • Build a private infrastructure
  • Interoperable with 3rd party public or private edge clouds

All costs of Rapid.Space are public and described in "Business Model of a Low Cost Cloud Operator". The price of Rapid.Space is based on electricity, real estate, hardware amortisation, networking, operation management costs (software, human), hardware maintenance, financial costs. A 20% margin is added to cover all other risks related to the operation of a cloud service.

Anyone can contribute to Rapid.Space their own service in addition to the 70+ existing ones.

Anyone can contribute servers and datacenter to extend the worldwide coverage of Rapid.Space, as long as Rapid.Space procedures are respected.

Anyone can contribute RRH and base stations to extend the worldwide VRAN coverage of Rapid.Space, as long as Rapid.Space procedures are respected (as well as local legislations on radio frequencies).

Rapid.Space can be deployed on-premise too in a way that is typical of hybrid cloud.

It is also possible for one to operate a completely private infrastructure based, as Teralab does.

It is even possible to deploy Rapid.Space services on third-party public or private clouds (AWS, OVH, Azure, Alicloud, Hertzner, Huawei, VMWare, etc.) and benefit from all Rapid.Space services including its IPv6 backbone, CDN, IaaS, PaaS, etc. 

Basically, there is no blocker, no secret, no anti-competitive practice of any sort in Rapid.Space.

Current State

Most components needed by Rapid.Space to deliver a reversible solution are already available. Some are on the way. Let us review them.

Software

  License Supplier Availability
Operation Management open source Nexedi now
Billing open source Nexedi now
Edge Cloud open source Nexedi now
Big Data / AI open source Nexedi now
Networking OS open source Accton Q2 2020
Low-latency routing open source IRIF now
4G/5G stack (SA, NSA) licensed source Amarisoft now

All software components are available already. The network operating system which derives from Accton's AOS will be released very soon. It has already been deployed in mailand China (Shanxi) and in France.

Hardware

  License Supplier Availability
Servers open source OCP (ITRenew, MITAC) now
Networking open source OCP (Edge-core) now
I4.0 open source OSHWA (Olimex) now
RRH (2x0.5W) open source Free Edowment Fund Q3 2020
RRH (2x20W) proprietary AW2S now

All hardware components related to cloud and networking (incl. BBU) are alread open source. A low-power RRH component will be open sourced in Q3 2020, and will be suitable for indoor and small areas (eg. villages). High-power RRH are not open source yet but may be available possibly as licensed source from some suppliers.

Management

  License Author Availability
Managed Cloud Node open source Rapid.Space now
Managed I4.0 Edge Node open source Rapid.Space Q3 2020
Managed VRAN Edge Node open source Rapid.Space Q4 2020

A first version of the Rapid.Space handbook was published in 2020 with initial procedures to setup a Rapid.Space point of presence (POP). Procedures were used in mainland China to deploy a POP using smartglasses and augmented reality (AR). Future versions will cover Edge and VRAN.

Global Datacenters

Rapid.Space is available in Europe (France, Germany, Sweden, Nertherlands) and in China. It will soon be available in Taiwan and a second DC will open in China.

Global IPv6 Backbone

Rapid.Space IPv6 backbone is based on a hybrid mesh network which relies on hundreds of routers worldwide. Thanks to babel technology (RFC 6126), all sorts of congestions can be avoided. Latency can be minized. 

Global CDN

Rapid.Space provides HTTPS front-ends (HTTP1, HTTP2, HTTP3) in 10 different locations worldwide. In China, Rapid.Space front-ends are places on all major carriers: CT, CU and CM.

Scope and Maturity

  Product MVP POC Idea
Cloud VPS PaaS (85% of AWS)
Big Data (Palantir alternative)
AI for OM  
Edge CDN IoT Hub
4G/5G SDR
Layer-3 Handover  
I4.0 ERP MES PLC  
Converged system Billing OM NMS Hyperscale Testing

Rapid.Space socpe and maturity depends on each service.

The virtual private server (VPS), content delivery network (CDN), Entreprise Resource Planning (ERP) and billing platform have been used for 5 to 15 users by large corporations and deployed thousands of times, with sufficient document for third party to reproduce them.

The platform as a service (PaaS), Big Data platform, multi-protocol IoT Hub, manufacturing execution system and operation management (OM) system have been deployed a few times and require further documentation for third party to reproduce them.

The AI model for OM automation, layer-3 handover, software defined PLC and network management system have been deployed in the lab.

The idea of a platform to simulate and test a complete platform before upgrade... is still an idea.

Towards O-RAN

Let us now review how Rapid.Space will introduce O-RAN in its architecture. 

Step 1: Monolithic ✅

The current reference deployment of Edge and VRAN is monolithic. Everything is deployed in the same enclosure: RRH, eNodeB, EPC, edge services (CDN, IoT buffering). A centralised EPC can be used in addition (voice handover, interoperability). All edge nodes are autonosmously operating using the SLAP protocol. Low latency IPv6 networking relies on re6st hybrid mesh and babel protocol.

Step 2: Modular ✅

This architecture has been modularised so that a single EPC can be shared by different eNodeB/gNodeB in a private network. SlapOS is then deployed on an Accton switch (Celeron level CPU) running OpenAOS operating system.

Step 3: Disaggregated

The next step is disaggregation. The switch is replaced with a more powerful cell site gateway (Xeon D CPU).

In a first step, PHY layer of Amarisoft stack is entirely running on the cell site gateway and communicates with each RRH using 8.0 protocol. It is then possible to implement interference management at the cell site gateway level.

In a second step, part of PHY layer of Amarisoft stack is moved to the RRH.  Cell site gateway communicates with each RRH using 7.2 protocol. Bandwidth to the RRH is reduced. More RRH can be connected to the cell site gateway.

Step 4: Interoperable

The next step is to reproduce the same architecture with a powerful RRH. AW2S product line includes some Ethernet RRH which include a powerful CPU. They could be used to implement Low PHY using Amarisoft stack. We also hope that traditional vendors will soon provide O-RAN compatible RRH (it is not the case yet).

Global Picture

The global picture combines all previously illustrated aspects and an existing cloud infrastructure powered by OCP gears. With recent AMD CPUs, this infrastructure is extremely dense (64 cores per OU, 300 TB per OU). Everything in this architecture is open source except Amarisoft stack (licensed source).

One should observe the existence of two core networks in this architecture: local and central. The local core network is ideal of I4.0 application which require low latency but is not suitable for voice handover. The central core network is ideal of voice handover. Both can be combined. 

Conclusion

We hope that this roadmap of Rapid.Space towards O-RAN demonstrated that deployment of a fully reversible RAN using open source hardware and software is achievable.

We welcome...

  • Operators (see Offer)
  • Industry 4.0
  • Investors
  • Research

Rapid.Space is therefore looking for telecommunication operators interested in deploying this architecture beyond a POC. We have already offered this solution to a small operator. Overal cost is competitive. Features such as DSS (4G and 5G) and dual core network (local and remote) provide a level of flexibility that has no equivalent.

Rapid.Space is also looking for industrial deployments in factories. Our solution is close to be ready for the market and does not require any complex frequency licensing (except in China). It is ideal for any industry which needs 4G or 5G and can not wait for a solution backed by a telecommunication operator. It is also useful for  telecommunication operators to fill the gaps in their current architecture.

Rapid.Space is looking for investors. We can show you our deck. Rapid.Space is looking for an additional 15M€ capital by the end of 2021.

Rapid.Space also loves to partner with research laboratories; We had a great experience with teams such as scikit-learn (INRIA, France), babel (IRIF, France). We believe that open source is the best way for European research to cooperate. This is why we support the Free Edowment Fund, a non profit organisation that can sponsor open source R&D and education through tax exemptions (60% or more).  

Thank You

  • Rapid.Space International
  • Paris
  • +33629024425 - jp@rapid.space

For more information, please contact Jean-Paul, CEO of Rapid.Space (+33 629 02 44 25 or jp@rapid.space).