VMware pegged as a leader in nascent RIC market

According to a new report from research and consulting firm Omdia, VMware is emerging as a company to watch in the developing market for RAN intelligent controllers (RICs).

The firm's findings are in part based on the number of network-application developers that have announced support for VMware's RIC platform. When Omdia conducted its survey earlier this year, that figure stood at 14. Now, according to Omdia analyst Joe Hoffman, the number is around 20.

Further, VMware has stated that – by the beginning of next year – it expects 50 network-application developers to support its RIC. That could put it far ahead of its nearest rivals, including Ericsson and Mavenir.

"At this point in the development of the open RAN ecosystem, VMware shows a commanding lead among the RIC platform vendors," the firm wrote in a new report. Omdia is owned by Informa, which also owns Light Reading.

Network applications can support all kinds of services, ranging from energy savings to artificial intelligence-powered traffic steering.

A platform for network apps

Just like iOS and Android serve as platforms for smartphone apps, so too are RICs intended as an open hosting platform for software that can control a 5G radio access network (RAN). xApps are applications designed for near-real-time RAN intelligent controllers (Near-RT RIC). rApps are intended for non-real-time RAN intelligent controllers (Non-RT RIC).

Today, there is growing momentum around rApps and Non-RT RICs. But xApps and Near-RT RICs – which can control operations at each individual cell site rather than centralized functions – promise to eventually create even more opportunities for developers.

RICs, xApps and rApps all stem from the O-RAN Alliance's open RAN specifications. Although open RAN technologies have gained some traction among both new and established vendors, the technology is currently applicable to a very small percentage of the overall global 5G industry.

Nonetheless, Omdia believes there is a possibility for growth in the sector. Overall, the firm forecasts the RIC and apps market to grow from $16 million in 2022 to more than $750 million by 2028, a compound annual growth rate of 90%.

Broadly, players in the open RAN sector hope to eventually develop seamless interoperability among their products and services. But now, as the market develops, that interoperability today requires a significant amount of tweaking and testing. Thus, xApp and rApp developers currently must choose which RIC platform they want to support.

VMware in the market

With its RIC platform, VMware is running up against some heavyweights in the space. For example, Mavenir is hoping to sell its RIC alongside other open RAN products and services, including radios, thereby breaking into a market dominated by the likes of Ericsson and Nokia. Ericsson, meanwhile, is increasingly promising support for open RAN technologies, likely as a way to ensure its dominant position as a RAN hardware vendor.

Still other vendors are hoping to make RIC inroads. Juniper Networks, for example, is now offering its RIC for free through Rakuten Symphony.

But VMware boasts some impressive customers. Chief among those is likely Dish Network, which recently managed to cover 70% of the US population with its new open RAN-powered 5G network.

And starting in the third quarter, Dish will start to work more heavily on developing the RIC it's using from VMware. Marc Rouanne, the man in charge of Dish's network strategy, said recently at the Big 5G Event that the operator hopes to ultimately make major strides in lowering its energy usage while concurrently improving its spectrum efficiency.

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— Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading | @mikeddano