One Giant Leap for Mobility: Recapping the 2023 5G Challenge

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is working to foster the development of an open 5G wireless ecosystem to help the private sector bring new life and innovation to a marketplace held back by few vendors and little competition. NTIA's 5G lab at the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, partnered with the Department of Defense for the 2023 5G Challenge. The 2023 5G Challenge tested whether an open 5G ecosystem can work in real world scenarios. Flexibility is a necessity for Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) technology but caused difficulties for the 2022 5G Challenge contestants. While their subsystems complied with different sets of standards and specifications, contestant subsystems did not have a standard set of optional features, which caused inconsistencies. As a result, in 2023 the host lab facilitated pre-integration coordination. Overall, this enabled multi-vendor integration and resulted in an increase in successful end-to-end multi-vendor integrations from one in 2022 to four in 2023. The 5G Challenge has identified a need for a clear baseline for industry Open RAN integration specifications and lab venues for vetting these specifications. The winners of the challenge have set a new benchmark for industry collaboration to bring innovation and competition to the mobile equip.