Open RAN Architecture Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentrated at the top. Five assignees hold 61.7% of the 141 records in scope, and the top ten hold 87.2% — a narrow group has staked most of the disclosed ground.
- Filing has already peaked. Activity rose to 49 records in 2022 and has not matched that pace since, with the most recent year understated by publication lag.
- Coupled disciplines, not one field. 89.4% of records sit in H04W wireless networks and 55.3% also touch H04L digital transmission — most filings straddle both classes at once.
What the Open RAN architecture patent record actually shows
Open RAN architecture disaggregates the radio access network into interoperable components — centralized units, distributed units, radio units and a RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) — connected over open fronthaul interfaces. That disaggregation is exactly what the patent record tracks: claims cluster around interface definitions, multi-vendor interoperability, and RIC-based control logic, rather than around a single dominant architecture. The 141 records in scope span 2015 through the 2026 cut-off, with filing activity concentrated in the years after early O-RAN Alliance specifications matured.
Filing is not evenly spread. A small group of network operators and infrastructure vendors account for most of the disclosed work, while a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants files around specific interface or control-plane mechanics. Reading the IPC composition alongside the assignee concentration tells you where the crowded ground is and where a narrower claim might still clear.
Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 141 records: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017–2026
Filings climbed from zero in 2017 to a peak of 49 in 2022, then eased off. The 2026 figure of 2 is a partial year and, per publication lag of roughly 18 months, understates true filing activity for the last one to two years shown.
IPC subclass composition
H04W (wireless communication networks) covers 89.4% of the 141 records and H04L (digital information transmission) covers 55.3% — the two dominant, overlapping classes. Secondary classes such as G06F (9.9%), G06N (8.5%) and H04B (3.5%) mark smaller but distinct pockets of activity, chiefly around data processing and AI-assisted network control. Because records can carry multiple classes, these shares sum to more than 100% of the 141-record total.
Shares are the percentage of the 141 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Open RAN Architecture with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about open ran architecture and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records in the corpus
Real-time RIC architecture for open ran networks (US20240214833A1)
The filing describes a real-time RAN Intelligent Controller (RT RIC) connected to an O-RAN distributed unit (O-DU) over an interface with latency under 10 ms, alongside a centralized unit (O-CU) and radio unit (O-RU) on separate physical nodes. It sets out a concrete latency threshold for the near-real-time control loop rather than a general disaggregation concept.Assignee, filing number and date are shown in the table above; this abstract is quoted from the published application.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20220124543A1 | Graph neural network and reinforcement learning techniques for connection management | 196 |
| 2 | US20210258866A1 | Resource allocation and activation/deactivation configuration of open radio access network (o-ran) network sl… | 165 |
| 3 | WO2020242987A1 | 5g new radio load balancing and mobility robustness | 74 |
| 4 | EP3869847A1 | Multi-access traffic management in open ran (o-ran) | 57 |
| 5 | US20210045193A1 | 5G/4G/3G/2G Cloud-Native OpenRAN Architecture | 55 |
| 6 | US20210204148A1 | Real-time intelligent ran controller to support self-driving open ran | 35 |
| 7 | WO2022165373A1 | Data policy admin function in non-real time (RT) radio access network intelligent controller (RIC) | 15 |
| 8 | US20230083011A1 | Method and apparatus for testing and validating an open ran based fronthaul site without network connectivity | 14 |
| 9 | CN113163414A | 一种信息处理方法和近实时无线接入网控制器 | 12 |
| 10 | CN114095367A | 一种状态反馈方式的配置方法、状态反馈方法及装置 | 9 |
Citation counts inside this searched corpus favour older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations — treat them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial importance.
Patent titles are shown in the language they were filed in, not translated, so that each record stays verifiable against the original filing — a translated title will not match in Eureka or in any national register. Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three findings that shape where new claims can still land in Open RAN architecture.
A narrow group holds most of the disclosed ground
Five assignees account for 61.7% of the 141 records in scope, and the top ten reach 87.2%. New entrants filing broad disaggregation or interoperability claims are filing into ground already covered by a small number of leaders; narrower, mechanism-specific claims are the more realistic path.
Filing has cooled since its 2022 peak
Activity rose steadily to 49 records in 2022 and has not returned to that level since. Recent-year totals for several leading assignees show year-on-year declines, though the most recent one to two years are understated by publication lag rather than necessarily reflecting reduced R&D.
Interface and transport claims dominate, control-plane AI is a distinct minority
Wireless network claims (H04W, 89.4%) and digital transmission claims (H04L, 55.3%) dominate and frequently overlap in the same record. AI-based network control (G06N, 8.5%) and general data processing (G06F, 9.9%) are present but far smaller, marking them as less crowded technical branches.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to open ran architecture, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and what still looks open
The ranked list covers 27 companies filing in this space, from network operators building their own stacks to infrastructure vendors and one academic filer.
A single leader sits well ahead of the field
The top-ranked assignee holds 26 of the 141 records, roughly double the fifth-place total of 11. That gap suggests a sustained, multi-year filing programme rather than opportunistic filing.
A tighter cluster forms behind the leader
Between fifth place (11 records) and tenth place (6 records) the field narrows quickly, then extends into a long tail of smaller filers. This is where multi-vendor interoperability and operator-led architecture work is most active outside the single leader.
Co-assignee activity clusters around one filer group
Of the 8 co-assignee pairs identified, the strongest links all involve the same lead filer paired with related entities, pointing to a coordinated multi-entity filing structure rather than broad industry co-development.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Rakuten Mobile, Inc. | 1 | -75% |
| Rakuten Symphony, Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Jio Platforms Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Vodafone Group Services Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Mavenir Systems, Inc. | 0 | — |
| DISH WIRELESS LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Intel Corp. | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or claim drafting.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top ten
With 87.2% of the 141 records held by ten assignees, any new filing in fronthaul interfaces or RIC control logic should be checked against that group's claim scope before drafting.
Explore assignee claim scope in EurekaTrack momentum, not just headcount
Several leading assignees show year-on-year declines in the latest partial year. Watching filing momentum alongside raw counts gives a more current read than the cumulative ranking alone.
Monitor filing momentum in EurekaDraft narrower in the under-claimed branches
Energy-efficiency control loops and AI/ML lifecycle management inside the RIC show thinner coverage than the core interoperability claims. That is where a narrower, mechanism-specific claim has more room to clear.
Search white space in EurekaQuestions practitioners ask about Open RAN architecture patents
Across the 141 records in scope, one assignee leads with 26 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked filer at 11. The top five combined hold 61.7% of all records, and the top ten hold 87.2%, so the field is concentrated among a small group of network operators and infrastructure vendors rather than spread evenly across the 27 ranked companies. Anyone assessing competitive position should look at both the leader's total and the gap to the rest of the ranking, since that gap is wide.
No, filing activity peaked at 49 records in 2022 and has not returned to that level since. The most recent year shows only 2 records, but that figure is a partial year and, given publication lag of roughly 18 months, understates actual recent filing activity. Several individual assignees also show year-on-year declines in the latest tracked year, suggesting the field has moved past its fastest growth phase rather than accelerating further.
Wireless communication network claims (IPC class H04W) appear in 89.4% of the 141 records, and digital transmission claims (H04L) appear in 55.3%, with substantial overlap between the two. Smaller but distinct pockets exist in general data processing (G06F, 9.9%) and AI-based network control (G06N, 8.5%). Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these percentages add up to more than 100% of the record total, which is expected and reflects how disaggregated RAN filings often combine interface, transport and control-plane claims in one document.
Based on the IPC composition, secondary classes like H04B (transmission generally, 3.5%), G01J and G01N (radiation and material measurement, 1.4% each) and G05D (non-electric variable control, 1.4%) are far thinner than the dominant H04W and H04L classes. Practically, that points toward areas such as energy-efficiency control loops for radio unit sleep states, multi-vendor fronthaul conformance testing, and AI/ML model lifecycle management inside the RAN Intelligent Controller as comparatively under-claimed. A narrower claim targeting one of these specific mechanisms is more likely to clear existing art than a broad interoperability or disaggregation claim.
The United States leads with 44 filings, followed by the European Patent Office at 32 and WIPO PCT filings at 30, then India at 15, the United Kingdom at 8, and China at 6. This spread indicates that applicants are pursuing broad multi-jurisdiction protection through PCT alongside direct filings in the US and Europe, with India representing a notable share tied to operator-led filing activity in that market.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.